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on sorry women. She told 'em that I'd allus been mean to her—that I'd beat her when they was little—an' all them sort of lies. How, Iinever laid a hand on her in my life, hut I should a done it. When she first started carryin' on I should a got a stick to her.
"I never will fergit th' day when I's laid off at the mine. I'd been pokin' about far a long spell. My heart was bad, an' I's coughing purty awful. I guess that coal dust gits in a man's throat an' makes him cough that way. Anyway, I's past doin' my part of work, an' when Mister John come up to me one mornin', I knowed what it was all about. He was mighty nice, but he told me how things was. He said th' company was go'nter give me a month's pay, 'sides what I had comin' to me, an' that I could stay on in th' house till I got myself settled ag'in.
"No, sir, I don't think he could a done me no better. A laborin' man is jes' like a horse—when he gits wore out an' so old that he gits in th' way, they ought'er take him out an' shoot him. I'd been drawin' my paycheck thar better'n 35 year, an' some of th' checks was mighty good. No, sir, it ain't Mister John's fault that I'm whar I am today. It ain't nobody's fault but Ora's an 01' Man Mitchum's.
"If I could a kept my $3,000 to go on, I'd be all right. I'd still have my family, I guess, fer long as th' money was flowin', Ora stuck aroun'.
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She wasn't go'nter leave no good thing, but soon as I was broke, she got out'n here fast as her legs'd carry her. Our girl was already workin' in Sylacaugy, so Ora went up thar an' housed up with her. The boy is stayin' with 'em an' doin' odd jobs aroun' in garages an' things like that. No, sir, they didn't git much schoolin'; They done like I did—fell out 'fore they was finished. Ain't neither one of 'em married, an' I don't guess they will long as Ora lives. I guess they's seen so much hell in bein' married that they think ever'body is like that
"You know, a man's a goddamn fool. I know that, fer I helped Ora stack up a good case ag'in me. Now, like I told you, I ain't never had nothin' to do with sorry women—I Jes' don't like 'em, an' I never would have no part of 'em. But I've hit th' likker bottle pretty hard, an' when a man is seen full a coupla times, people's ready to b'lieve anything that's said 'bout him. Children ain't no diff'runt from other folks, so it was easy fer Ora to make 'em b'lieve that I was bad in a lot of other ways.
"I wouldn't tell you this, but I jes' want to show you how she could make a thing look awful. Th' children wasn't here when it come up, but they's seen other things like it. I was fishin' down on Cedar, an' Jess Eatris come by with a jug of syrup likker. We hit it up a little, an' you know how that kind of stuff gits you. Weren't no time 'fore we was pretty full.
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"Well, sir, I come in quiet-like that night. It was right atter I got out of prison, and I didn't want to git no 'tention. I was in my right headI wasn't even staggerin' much—an' I figgered I'd git in th' house an' lie down awhile.
"I might a knowed better. I ought'er 've jes' stayed on with Jess till I was cold sober, fer I hadn't no mor'n hit th' door when Ora started carryin' on. She yelled as bad as if I's beatin' her, an' maybe I rose my voice a little; but they wasn't nothin' callin' fer so much noise. She run out on th' porch, takin' on an' wringin' her han's, so ever'body in hearin' distance knowed 'bout it. She wanted 'em to know.
"Ever'thing would a been all right if it hadn't a been like that. But first thing I knowed, that damned preacher that lives over thar crost th' road was here, an' he took a han' in it. He didn't even try to fin' out what was causin' it, but he come bouncin' up to me, yellin', 'You better be on yo'r knees beggin' fergiv'ness 'stid of sittin' thar in that cheer'. Well, that runned all over me, an' I told him to git th' hell out; that it wasn't none of his damned business.
"They might as well of called out th' fire wagon at th' Springs to make it a good show. It wasn't no time 'fore that ragged-tailed p'liceman from over thar come runnin' up with a sqqirrel gun. He asked Ora what I'd been doin',
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an' she says I was cuttin' up so bad she was skeered to stay 'round me. Now mind you, I was purty sober by that time, hut he wanted to ac' smart. He took me into th' Springs an' locked me up in th' callaboose.
"Nex' mornin' in that little two-by-four mayor's court over thar Ol' Man McKinnon fined me $5 an' give me a good talkin' to, while ever'body in town packed in to lis'en. When I come home, Or'd done gone, an' she's been gone ever since. They sent a truck down here ' bout a month ago an' took nearly ever'thing I had in th' house—Ora said th' stuff b'longed to her, though I paid fer it. I didn't raise my hand ag'in 'em, fer a ol' man like me don't need nothin' but a bed to sleep on.
"I reckon all th' folks 'round here blame me fer none of my family livin' with me, but it's got to whar I don't care. I don't have nothin' to do with nobody, an' it ain't go'nter be long 'fore th' Ol' Man is comin' atter me. I'm ' bout ready to go, too, but I'd like to git things fixed up so's they'd bury me good.
"One of th' things I wish fer mos' is a chanct to git even with that goddamned p'liceman. I'd like to give him a bellyful of hot lead, but I can't 'ford to do that. He thinks he's smart as hell goin' aroun' puttin' people in th' callaboose; but he'd run like a black snake if you ever jumped at him in th' dark.
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"I had a chanct a few days ago at 01' Carden, that preacher over thar crost th' road. I was sittin1' right whar I an now, an' he was out on his porch tryin' to read. Well, they was a little ol' dog over thar too, an' he was sick or sump'un, fer he kept howlin' an' wailin'. The more he went on like that, th' madder Ol' Carden got. His face turned so red that I could see it shinin' from over here.
"Well, sir, he slapped at th' dog a coupla times, but that didn't do no good. It jes' kept up its howlin'. Then all at onct, 01' Carden got a hammer from some'rs there on the porch, an' he went over an' beat th' dog to death. He didn't kill it at th' first lick, so he jes' kept chasin' it an'hittin' it ag'in, an' he was ragin' mad.
"Atter it was all over an' he'd sot down again, I jes' went out in my yard an' yelled at him. I says, 'Don't you git on yo'r knees an' ask fergiv' ness when you kill a po'r little dog like that?' He started out'n his cheer like he was go'nter do sump'un big, but he ain't done it yet. He knowed he'd done a worse thing than take a few drinks of likker, an' I hope he roasts in hell fer it.
"I'm sorry 'bout you havin' to go, fer I don't reckon I'll live to see you ag'in, 'thout you come back mighty quick. Doc Grimes says I'm liable to go out any time 'less I stop hittin' my bottle, an' I'm too ol' to be
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