6

Jack Hodge 6
That hill land wasn't no good for nothing; or it would have been cleared
long time ago."

When he spoke again, I knew why he didn't wear a serge suit anymore,
instead of overalls. "I reckon there ain't no use. I won't never git my
wife back nohow. Naw, it wouldn't be right for her to come and me with no
money or nothing....I wrote her when I had the land, but she didn't come.
You couldn't 'spect... A feller needs him an ol' lady..!

He choked romantic, and I ambled down to the postoffice to get the
afternoon mail. People greeted him, but Hodge said nothing, but I felt
it was because of his embarrassment. The peculiar swing of his shoulders
and the jog of his jug-head on his shoulders reminded me of a timid child
walking down a class room aisle to make his first recitation.

In the postoffice, he walked with reticence to the general delivery
window, and stood awkwardly waiting for the postmaster to look for something
that wasn't there. Hodge told me, in a tone of self-justification:

"She used to write but now..." He shook his head. Then he reached
into his pocket for the proof. He took a folded letter from the bib of his
overalls. "She wrote me this." He carefully put the letter back, giving
me time to see a red two-cent stamp, a dirty envelope, and tattered edges.

- - - - - -

7/14/1939
S.J.
782