THE NEW HOUSEKEEPER
55
boss spoke once, he ,:>poke twice. He said sorry, she was fired.
She fired back,
"l
ain't a horse. Think you can keep me with
hay and cider like those 3 rubes?"
The boss flushed. "That ain't the point. We got to eat."
"I got to eat too."
She wouldn't leave until the boss paid her full month's
wages. She locked herself in the room ready for a long siege.
The boss had to pay her up to get rid of her.
Ramheaded Steve, his face twitching always as if the world
were a ewe, stuttered, "Now there was a clean one for you. I
says Marne Smith, she's out of work. The boss had his tushes
in her before he got married, got himself widowed. Now he's
forgotten. There's human nature for you."
Old Murf explained it differently. He had once owned
the village blacksmith shop, the gear box of all that happened
in the countryside, the smoky nest of the political hawks. And
there he had become as skillful handling the world's difficulties
as shoeing the heaviest work stallion. He said, "It's this de–
pression that's making people act so fouled against each other.
We had a whole regiment of women already, each one a regular
pisscutter. Wait, we're only in the general hall of it. It's this
depression."
"Depression, hell," said foreman Mule. "It's always been
the same. The best of them's cut out like the worst. Getting
into tantrums, making us cut and cover when we could afinished
plowing weeks ago. I'll get a man cook."
Mule had in mind the young fellow working in the village
lunchwagon. The young fellow said, "Who's crazy now? I was
born on a farm and ain't recovered yet. Why don't you get a
girl? Ain't the justice of the peace a good judge of hide no
more?"
Mule spat in disgust. "The boss ain't justice of peace no
more."
Murf took on the job of cooking. The farmhouse stunk
like a stall. He made biscuits so hard you could play horse–
shoes with them. Mule was satisfied so long as the field work
went on. But his brother swore he'd eat cowfeed first.
The boss had to go look for a new housekeeper himself.
They didn't hear from him for
2
days. He must be waiting to
knock down a girl cheapest or have one pay him for being hired,
said Murf. When the Ford did lurch into the yard, the runty
boss hopped out. He looked more than ever shaggy as a wild
