316
PARTISAN REVIEW
"Oh. That's tough. Would have been nice
if
you could stay
longer; couldn't you?" asked George.
" 'Fraid not," said Mr. Hall.
"What's there doing around here?" George asked Bette.
"Not too mucli," she said. "Until you came up, there weren't
any people- any people of our age, at all. The Bartons-those people
in the boat over there-have two baby children, and they're kind
of old themselves, of course. There's the old woman and her son,
Ben, but he's thirty-five or fifty; and there's three families that are
here in couples with children, but we don't know them too well."
Mr. Hall cast his fishing-line. Mrs. Hall smiled at me and I
smiled back; but I was pleased that she did not talk to me. Bette
licked her lips with a white tongue.
"We went down to the village-to Martinsville, but there's only
a picture and a soda place there. Mr. Jennings-the man who owns
the place-says there might be some dancing there to-night in the
hotel; you can get into the hotel, even if you don't live there."
"I'm shoving off," said Mr. Hall. "No fish here."
"Why don't you get in with me, Bette?" George said.
"All right. Can I, Father?"
"I guess so. Except that-say, George, can she catch anything
from your brother? What's wrong with him?"
"fie can't do nothing," said George; "he's not sick any more.
He's only crippled. You don't have to worry about that, Mr. Hall.
Jerry's not sick; are you, Jerry?"
I gazed at a worm.
"Jerry, speak to them! They think you're crazy or something.
Go ahead and talk. You always shut up at the wrong time. Just say,
'I'm fine,' or 'How are you?'-or something. Don't act like a baby.
They think you're a baby.
If
you don't talk, I'll row you back. I
swear I will!"
"He's bashful," said Mrs. Hall. "Don't bother him. And, AI,
why do you have to ask so many silly questions? Do you suppose
his parents would let him go around with George
if
he was conta–
gious--do you?"
Bette clambered through and sat with George.
"See you later," she said.
"Be careful," Mrs. Hall warned George.
He laughed, and we fled through a dense garden of fronds.
A playful breeze had begun to stir. I saw a number of tiny fish,
