60
PARTISAN REVIEW
room. The younger man hunched up listening. He tiptoed up
and nosed the keyhole.
Next morning the boss said, "Mule, she says you fellows
want her."
Mule jerked his head from the plate. The other two
stopped chewing.
Elsa took up the coffee pot without the dishcloth and
ground it against her belly.
Mule's beg jaw quivered. "Hell, who?"
Her broad face twisted into a knot hacked with fear and
hate. .
He stared at the calendar. He switched his eyes to the
window thru which one could see the fields heavily shouldering
timothy and clover. He said slowly, "Swapping cooks now'll
kind of stall us. Come winter'll be different."
The boss stared at him and then at the girl as if matching
them. "Well." He chewed his pork. "You're boss, man.
We'll let this blow over till damn harvest's done."
When the men tramped out, she stood in the corner breath·
ing uneasily, greasing her burnt fingers with pork fat.
Elsa served as many as
15
men at the table thru harvest.
She limped around, a sweat rag jammed into her waist. Once
Steve saw something like a bloody little cottontail on the kitchen
porch, looked as if the dogs had brought it in. Murf said it had
dropped from her, hurrying the devil out of herself. Once
bringing in more bread, she keeled over on the floor. Young
Bill Fluellan, who sorted the apples, threw a glass of cider into
her face. She shivered up. "Tastes good," she laughed. On!)
once did she complain. That was to the three bunched around
the ash tree. "Still treating me like poison with a skirt on?''
Steve twitched and looked at Mule. Mule stalked off to
the machine shed. The old man scratched his head.
That night Murf helped with wiping the dishes. He said
later, "I ain't planning to get corns, horns, splinters sleeping
with her. Jesus H. knows I'm old enough to be her father.
My
porker's always in the bush. Time it could root it had the ring
in its snoot. After all, she's a hard trying girl. This is the first
girl after Sarah I'm taking a shine too."
Mule growled, "Hell with you all." But said nothing
about swapping cooks.
Fall went. The boss was so busy with the mill he even
slept there. Wild geese had all flown south, woodchucks buried
