5

Alabama 5
get out every Saturday night, and we used to peep through the key hole, and
that would make her mad." All the time he was talking, his voice was mellow
and slow and plodding, moving carefully forward, stopping to chuckle richly, to
take a puff from the pipe that was rarely six inches from his lips. His face
was red, round, and covered with a moonlike pleasantness.

"In them days there was two terms, six months each." He puffed and puffed
the minutes away. He did not give a picture of the life there; for he didn't
try. He did tell in a loose way of putting toe nails in a boy's pockets, mention-
ed sitting in a room and watching doctors work before students. He did not
attempt a vivid portrait of his school years, but behind his face, one knew
that the words he said produced a vividness of portraiture that delighted him.
In the long pauses, the silent smoking, he was enjoying the memories.

"When I came back in here I had fifty dollars and a horse. I roomed
with Miss Florence Barnes' people. The little room I stayed in is still out
there on the back of the house."

Dr. Waldrep married, but his wife died, and a year or two later he
married once more. He doctored up and down the country. He had interest
in the Waldrep and Epps store. He moved his office into the store. His
practice extended, and money began to come in.
680