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Show Mule Track Money By ELSIE WILLIAMS McClure Newspaper Syndicate. WNU Featurei. fE? FARM? You're crazier i1 than you look, Hamp!" Banty McCann spat contemptuously and hitched up his overall pants. He glared up at Hamp Anderson. "I ain't no farmer. Who wants to mess with a truck crop when the mast is as good as it Is this year? Hogs -will be fat as butterballs by Thanksgiving. Farm? Phooey!" Hamp Anderson placed a foot carefully on the porch step, cut a chew of tobacco just as carefully and tucked it into a corner of his mouth before he spoke. "No patriotism, patri-otism, I see," he said quietly. "Here the Gov'mint is hollerin' for vegetables vegeta-bles and you want to traipse the woods. Look: Them hogs'U fatten theirselves. While they're doin' that you can work a acre of cukes." A stout, round-faced woman came out and eased her bulk into a specially spe-cially reinforced rocker. Hamp Anderson raised a hand to his wide-brimmed wide-brimmed hat. "Howdy, Aunt Mat. How are you?" "Fair to middlin', I reckon, Hamp. You-all talkin' cukes? Tom always did like to raise 'em, but he never could eat 'em." Tender hearted Aunt Mat raised a corner of her checked apron to her eyes when she mentioned her late husband. Hamp cocked an eye upward and peered judiciously at the sky. "Likely "Like-ly be a dry fall . . . how about it, Banty? Want to try a little easy money?" "Sure wish you would, son," said Aunt Mat. "Ain't had a crop since "Want to try a little easy moneyt" since Tom passed away." Aunt Mat sniffed heavily. "Well " said Banty again, "I reckon I will. Bring on your seed and your fertilizer, Hamp. Doggone! Dog-gone! Me a farmer!" Easy money! Everybody said cukes was easy money! Banty thought savagely as he finished bedding out his last piece of land in the rich pond bottom. He wai anxious to get back into the woods and see about his hogs. Screw worms might kill a hog if he didn't find it in time. 'Gators might be catching the shotes. Snakes might have pizened one. Cucumber seed comes up fast, especially in the fall, and Banty had no 'time for hog hunting. Then came the rains hurricane season! sea-son! The torrential downpour filled all the middles and flooded the ditches Banty hadn't taken time to loir r,,t WnH. 1 1 i ,. . , noici uacA-ea up m nis low field. Banty took off his shoes, rolled up the legs of his pants and waded In. with hoe and shovel. Hamp Anderson An-derson rode up to th fence on his big bay mare. "Looks pretty damp," Hamp admitted. "Damp you say?" Hamp's deliberate delib-erate understatement angered Banty. Ban-ty. "Woods is full o' water, too. Ought to see 'bout my hogs. This whole cuke patch ain't worth a shote!" "Oh, we'll make out fine," Hamp said easily. "Reckon you'll save two-thirds this field." When the ground began to dry out, the plants grew unbelievably fast. "Be pickin' less'n 45 days from plantin' seed!" exulted Aunt Mat. "Bet you make money, Lon-nie." Lon-nie." Banty patted hw fat shoulder awkwardly. "Don't get but half, Aunt Mat. Hamp's furnishin' me," he reminded her. "Well, I'm goin' In the woods today and see 'bout my hogs." The herd was on the creek bank. One sow had farrowed and lost all but one measly pig. Two shotes had screw worms in their ears, and one had nearly lost his tail. A fourth hobbled on three legs. "Cukes!" he said aloud. "For blamed cukes!" He turned and walked away. Banty rode to market with the first load of cucumbers. Hamp was unusually silent. He's keepin' somethin' back from me, puz-lied puz-lied Banty, looking at the glum man. Wonder what? He soon discovered tha reason for Hamp's gloom. Posted bulletins and angry truck farmers had one theme: "Government regulation. October ceiling price on cucum-bers cucum-bers $2.10 per tub." Banty McCann clenched his fists He flung a stream of abusive words at the market, at farmer, and at cukes in particular. "Easy money mwe track money I Phooey!" |