The Pilgrim Song, page 8
“Why would it be different with you?” Clint asked in a puzzled tone.
“Because Jenny wants more than I do.”
Clint came over and stood beside her, studying her face. “What do you want, Hannah?”
Hannah was flustered. She had grown to admire Clint Longstreet. She had so few friends and usually did not make them easily, but for some reason she felt comfortable with him. She had been disturbed when she had heard of his violent treatment of Earl Crane, but at least she had been glad it was for a good cause. “Oh, I don’t know. I just want the family to be all right.”
“That’s a good thing.”
“Do you have a family, Clint?”
“Not much anymore. My dad died, and my mom remarried. He’s done pretty well. I’ve got two sisters and a brother. They’re all married and kind of scattered about the country.”
“What are you going to do now that your job here is over?”
“Oh, I’ll find something.”
“Aren’t you worried about it?”
“No, not really.”
Hannah felt relieved. Here was at least one person who was not worried sick about the troubled times. “I’ll miss you,” she said suddenly.
Clint grinned at her. “I’ll miss you too, and Kat most of all.”
Somehow Hannah was embarrassed at speaking so personally to a man she had known such a short time. Clint noticed her discomfiture and did not press her but began to speak of other things.
Finally the family gathered, and Hannah insisted that Clint sit down and join them. Lewis looked at the food and then at Hannah. “The others are all gone, the servants?”
“Yes, they are, Father.”
“Then I guess you cooked this.”
“Clint and Kat helped. Could I ask the blessing, Father?” Lewis shot her a quick glance. They used to pray before every meal, but somewhere along the line they had gotten out of the habit. He bowed his head, and Hannah prayed, “God, we thank you for this food and for all you’ve given us. Help us to be grateful for everything. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
As they ate, the others were silent as Kat carried on a long conversation with Clint about hunting coons back in the South. Finally Lewis, who had eaten little, put his fork down and said, “What in God’s name are we going to do?” Panic tinged his voice, and his mouth moved as if he were in pain.
“I think you said it right, Father,” Hannah said quietly. “In God’s name we’ll find a way.”
“That’s right. God’s going to send somebody,” Kat piped up. “Maybe an angel.”
Joshua rolled his eyes at her and shook his head but said nothing. Jenny’s face was pale, and she finally asked, “When will we have to leave?”
“In less than a week,” Hannah said when Lewis did not respond. “We need to start packing those things that we’re able to take with us.”
“What difference does it make?” Lewis muttered. “We don’t have any place to take it to.”
“We will have,” Kat insisted. “He’s going to send an angel, isn’t He, Clint?”
“If you say so,” Clint murmured. He felt out of place as the family discussed their difficult situation, but his eyes met Hannah’s, and she reassured him with a smile.
****
“Why don’t you come stay with my family, Jenny? We’ve got plenty of room.”
Arlen Banks had offered to store anything that the Winslows wanted stored, and Hannah had seized on the opportunity at once. She was now busily directing the men who were carrying the boxes to the truck. They had packed all of their personal effects that were not covered by the Bankruptcy Act.
Arlen moved closer to Jenny. The two were standing beside the window as the men moved the boxes outside.
Jenny turned to stare at Arlen, and her face seemed almost paralyzed. “How is it going to be all right? I can’t come and live with you.”
“Why not?”
“It wouldn’t be proper. Besides, I can’t leave my family.”
Arlen shifted his feet. “You know, Jenny, you’re too young for me now, but I always thought we might make a match of it.”
“Not anymore, Arlen. Your family survived and mine didn’t.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Arlen said sharply. “It’s been hard on you, I know, but it’ll come out all right. You’ll see.”
Clint was helping load the truck, and then when it moved off, he saw Arlen get into his car. He had watched him speaking earnestly to Jenny and wondered what that was all about. He watched as Jenny turned, then spotted him and came over. “Thanks for staying around to help, Clint. You may as well leave. I guess it’s all over now.”
Clint studied her, thinking how the spirit had been drained out of her. She had always been one of the liveliest young women he had ever known. Now she looked beaten down and so forlorn. She hadn’t even been able to keep the horse that she had so recently received for her birthday, since it was purchased on credit. “Hannah’s praying for a miracle,” he offered. “She says God’s going to do something. Kat says God’s going to send an angel. I thought I’d stick around. Always wanted to see a miracle.”
“Well, that’s exactly what it’s going to take!” Jenny’s words were bitter, and she pressed her hands to her temples as if she could drive the thoughts away. She dropped her hands abruptly. “I’m afraid of being poor.”
“Sure you are. You’ve never been poor, and we’re always afraid of things we don’t know or have never done. It’s no fun, but it won’t kill you.” She did not speak, so he continued. “Don’t you believe in God like Hannah does?”
Jenny looked at him as if he had said something particularly stupid. “No!” she said sharply, her mouth a white line, then turned and walked away, her back stiff.
****
Two days after Arlen Banks had come to store the Winslows’ personal effects, Hannah burst in on her father in his study. “Father,” she exclaimed breathlessly, “look what I’ve found!”
Lewis looked up to see Hannah holding some papers in her hand. Even though her eyes were bright with excitement, he could not rouse himself. “What is it, Hannah?” he asked wearily.
“I was cleaning out those papers in the filing cabinet, and I found this document. It’s a deed. I had forgotten all about it.”
Lewis took the paper and ran his eyes over it. He straightened up. “Why, it’s the deed to your mother’s old place in Georgia. I’d forgotten about it.”
“Yes, Mom talked so much about it, but I thought it was sold.”
“No, she wanted to keep it, so we did.” A light flickered in Lewis Winslow’s eyes as he read over the deed. “She didn’t want to sell the place, Hannah. She grew up there, you know. We leased it out for a while, but the renters moved out a couple years ago. I never did anything about rerenting it. It slipped my mind.”
“Does it still belong to us?”
Lewis stood up, a flicker of hope in his eyes. “I think it does. The bankruptcy wouldn’t touch this. It’s in your mother’s name. It would be easy enough to have it transferred to mine. Maybe we can sell it and get enough money out of it to rent at least an apartment.”
“What’s it like, Father?”
“I’m not sure; I’ve never been there. I know it’s a farm, about a hundred twenty acres, I think, and the house looked rather nice in the pictures your mother had.”
“Father, we’ve got to go there!”
“Go there! What are you talking about, Hannah?”
“This must be from God! We can’t sell it. Nobody would buy it with this depression on. The papers all say that. They can’t even sell mansions for a hundredth of what they’re worth, so you can imagine that nothing is selling down in rural Georgia. We don’t know what shape the house is in, but we can go there. At least we’ll have a place to stay. We’ll find some way to make ends meet.”
“Hmm. This certainly puts a new twist on things. Go get the others. We’ll have to talk about this.”
****
Clint was sitting on the front stoop of Jamie’s empty cottage, wondering if the old man was all right. He had grown to like the gardener a great deal in the short time they had worked together. It’s a good thing Jamie made up with his daughter when he did, or he wouldn’t have had anywhere to go. His thoughts were interrupted when Kat came flying down the walk. Her eyes were big with excitement, and she talked loudly as always.
“Clint, guess what’s happened!”
“I don’t know. Tell me.”
“We’ve got a place to go!” Kat said, dancing around Clint with excitement. “It’s in Georgia, and it’s a farm! Hannah wants to go there. Josh and Jenny don’t, but I think we’re going to have to. We’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“Why, that’s great. You’ll like it on a farm, Kat.”
“I will, won’t I? But Daddy says there’s no way for us to get there,” Kat said, growing sober. “We have enough money to go on the train, but if we used all the money for the train, we wouldn’t have any money for food once we got there.”
Kat kicked at stones as she paced in front of Clint, deep in thought. Suddenly her eyes started to glow, and he knew that she had one of her ideas.
“I know, Clint—you can take us in your truck!”
Clint grinned. “That’d be something to see. The Winslows heading south in a beat-up old truck.”
“We don’t have any other way to get there, Clint. Can’t you see what a great idea this is?”
Clint tried to reason with Kat, but she was carried away with her idea. She took his hand and pulled at him, urging him to agree. “Please, Clint, you’ve got to help us! There’s nobody else.”
“I would really like to help you out; you know I would. But that truck has never been farther than around this neighborhood. I don’t even know if she could make it to the state line. And besides, there’s not enough room for your whole family and their belongings.”
Suddenly Clint saw tears in Kat’s eyes. He had never seen her cry, and it went right to his heart. She was such a happy child, and he hated to see her sad. “Don’t cry, Kat,” he said quietly. He held her small hands in both of his large ones and said, “You know I would help you if I could.”
“There’s nobody else, Clint. I’ve prayed for an angel, and he hasn’t come. Maybe God sent you here to help us.”
Kat’s simple reasoning amused Clint. “Well . . . I’m no angel.”
“Please, Clint, you’ve got to do it. We can’t get to our farm any other way.”
“It just wouldn’t work. I’m sorry, Kat.”
Kat pulled her hand back and gave Clint a reproachful look. She wiped the tears from her face, and the sadness that showed there was as deep as the joy she had shown when she had received her inspiration. She said in a small voice, “All right, Clint, I just thought . . .”
Clint watched as she left and shook his head. “Poor kid,” he muttered, “it’s too much for her.” He grew angry that such things could happen. He had seen bad things happen to people before, but for Kat to be trapped in this mess was upsetting, and he wanted to strike out at something.
****
“Come on in, Clint,” Lewis said. “We’ll eat up the food that’s left before we get thrown out.”
Clint entered and saw that Hannah and Jenny had fixed soup and sandwiches. The table in the kitchen where the servants usually ate was set, and he took his seat. He bowed his head while Hannah asked the blessing, and they began to eat. He was aware that Joshua had been drinking, although that had become the norm. As they ate Hannah was trying to encourage them, saying how God would help them.
Josh looked up, his handsome face in a sneer. “Don’t tell me about God!” he snapped.
“The world’s not over, Josh,” Clint encouraged.
“It is for us.”
“Somebody took your toys away and now you’re mad,” Clint returned. “You’re gonna have to live like a man now, and you can’t take it. Is that it?”
“Shut up, Clint!” Josh said bitterly.
“Listen, I know you’ve never had to fight your way in life, but I have. I don’t claim to be a Christian myself, but Hannah’s right. God’s real.”
“Will you help us, Clint?” Kat pleaded.
Jenny passed a confused look to Kat. “Be still, Kat. How could he help us?”
“He could take us to Georgia—to our new home.” Everyone stared at Kat, and she blurted out, “He could take us in his truck, couldn’t you, Clint?”
Clint felt trapped. “Well, I’m not so sure—”
“Could you really do that, Clint?” Hannah said with hope glimmering in her eyes. “We have such little money, barely enough for railroad fare. Could you really get us there in that truck?”
“I just don’t know if the truck is all that reliable! I’ve never taken it farther than the other side of Central Park.”
“Have you had any problems with it when you’ve taken it around the neighborhood?”
“I guess not, but—”
“Don’t even think about it!” Jenny fired. “It’s out of the question!”
“Why?” Kat demanded. “We need to get there, and Clint can take us.”
Joshua laughed roughly. “That’s all we need—to go like a bunch of hobos in a beat-up old truck.”
“Be quiet, Joshua!” Lewis said, and he sat up straighter in his chair. His face was wan, the lines of strain obvious. He did not speak for a moment, but then he turned to Clint. “What do you think, Clint, would you be willing to give it a try?”
Clint was shocked with the turn things had taken. He saw that Hannah and Lewis were deadly earnest about this, and of course, Kat was dying to make the trip. Jenny and Joshua were not so happy, but he was not concerned about them. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try. If the truck breaks down, I’ll just have to figure something out on the road.”
Lewis turned to Hannah. “What do you think, Hannah?”
“I think God may have brought Clint into this household for this very reason. This is the answer to our prayers.”
“We couldn’t all fit into that truck, not with all of our things,” Jenny protested.
“There’s an old trailer and hitch in the garage,” Clint said. “I could put them on the truck, and we could put all the gear you have into the trailer, and we could make beds in the truck to sleep on the way. Wouldn’t have to pay any lodging bills that way.”
This idea intrigued Kat. “We could camp out on the way,” she said excitedly, “and cook outdoors. It would be fun!”
“There wouldn’t be room for much,” Clint put in. “Just maybe a suitcase apiece.”
“Why, I couldn’t get by with that! What would I do with the rest of my clothes?” Jenny wailed.
“Sell ’em to a used clothing store,” Clint said almost harshly. “Take the money with you. You’ll need it when you get there. It was rough enough in the South before this thing broke. It’s going to be even harder now.”
“Why, I couldn’t go sell my clothes at a store!” Jenny said and lifted her chin. “I just couldn’t.”
Clint laughed. “I could. You’d go with me, wouldn’t you, Kat?”
“Yes, and we’d make ’em pay good for us too!”
Clint pushed his chair away from the table and said, “I’m going to go outside and let you folks talk about this. This is family business. I don’t think you realize just how difficult it would be to live on a farm in Georgia. You don’t know what shape that house is in, you don’t have much money, and things are going to be tight. But if you want me to, I’ll take you back to Georgia even if it snows ink!” He got up and left, and as soon as he stepped outside, he took a deep breath. I sure hope I’m not going to get this family into a bigger mess than they’re already in.
****
Clint pulled the truck up the circular driveway to the front door of the Winslow estate. He got out on the driver’s side, and Kat got out on the other side. The girl ran to meet Hannah, waving a bunch of bills. “We sold them all, Hannah! Look at all the money we got.”
Clint walked over and saw Hannah counting the bills. “Didn’t get too much, Miss Hannah, but it’s better than throwing those nice clothes away.”
Hannah hugged Kat and then smiled warmly at Clint. “You did fine, Clint, you and Kat. Do you have any ideas about what we ought to take?”
“You’ll have to have blankets—all you’ve got. We’ll be sleeping outside, and when we get there, there probably won’t be any blankets at the house. We’ll have to have pots and pans and dishes too, both for when we get there and for on the road. I’m going to take all the tools I can lay my hands on around here. You’ll need tools to make that farm work.”
“What would we do without you, Clint?” Hannah said sweetly.
He smiled at her. “You may like it now, but by the time we get to Georgia, you’ll want to shoot me for dragging you into this.”
“You’re not dragging us,” Kat protested. “God sent you.”
Clint laughed and tugged her pigtail. “You just keep on thinking like that, sweetheart. I’ll need all the supporters I can get before we even get to Georgia!”
****
After a final breakfast at the big table in the kitchen, the family had worked together to pack the trailer until it was dangerously overloaded. Clint had included as many tools as he could, and Hannah had seen to it that they brought all the remaining food. Clint said with a grin, “At least we won’t starve to death on the road.”
Now that the moment had actually come, Jenny felt weak and fearful. She stood on the front step for the last time and looked at the truck suspiciously. It was so old she couldn’t imagine getting very far in it. The trailer hitched to the back was piled high and covered with a tarpaulin. She wanted to run away, but there was no place to run, so she walked over to the truck.
Hannah gave her a motherly hug and said, “You and Kat and I will squeeze in the front seat with Clint.”
“Maybe I could let you drive, Kat.” Clint grinned and winked at her. He saw the look on Jenny’s face and knew better than to prolong the moment. “All right, everybody in. We’ve got a full tank of gas and a long way to go.”
Lewis and Josh crawled up in the back of the truck and tried to get comfortable on the blankets that would serve as bedding. Clint had already informed the women that he had brought a tent for the three of them.
