Corn-Farm Boy (13 page)

Wilma stopped talking at last to have her bath and eat supper.

The next night when she returned, Wilma felt better.

“I'm getting stronger every day,” she cried, showing her arm muscle.

“And your nose is getting redder,” said Dick.

“But a lot of girls got sick today,” she went on. “Nobody wanted any lunch. Those who tried to eat brought up their dinners. Ernie gave them a bawling out and said they drank too much water. But gee! It sure was hot. When Ernie saw some lying inside the truck and others on the ground underneath, he took one look and said, ‘I've seen battlefields that looked better than this!' He made all the kids laugh.”

“I bet they were just playing sick,” said Dick.

“No, they weren't,” said Wilma. “We don't get paid for the time we're sick, so that don't get you anywhere. We get sixty cents an hour on weekdays and a dollar an hour on Sundays. And if we work through to the end, we'll get an extra bonus of fifteen cents per hour for the whole time.”

“Why do you work Sundays?” asked Dad.

“That's what we asked Ernie,” said Wilma. “He said the corn grows on Sundays just the same as on weekdays. But the tassel season will be over in three weeks, thank goodness. By August, I'll be ready for vacation.”

“Vacation? Where are we going?” asked Dick.

Everybody looked at Dad. “We'll take our vacation at home this year. Unless somebody wants to go in town and visit Uncle Henry.”

The children groaned and Mom and Dad laughed.

On Saturday, at the end of her first week, Wilma came home jubilant. She had her first pay check in hand. She waved it in all their faces. Supper was over and everybody was dressed up, ready to go to town.

“Going to spend it in town tonight?” asked Dad.

At first Wilma was eager to go. But by the time she got a meal ready for herself, and had her bath, she was too tired. She climbed the stairs wearily, threw off her clothes and dropped into bed. Before she knew it, she was sound asleep.

One morning during Wilma's second week, Dad drove her to town at the usual time. After he returned, he and Raymond went to the Heiters' to help shell corn. Mom and Dick and Margy were left at home alone. After Dick's ducking in the creek, he had spent several days in bed and been told to get plenty of rest. He was just beginning to be active again. He didn't mind his crutches any more.

Mom went to the garden to gather cucumbers. “I'm going to make pickles,” she said.

About ten o'clock, Mrs. Hass drove in. She had her three small children with her—Susan and Peggy and Robert. Mom and Mrs. Hass began to compare pickle recipes. Dick went out to the henhouse and the children followed. The door had been closed all night to keep varmints away. When Dick opened it, a large fat goose came waddling out. It stumbled over the board across the sill and came down on its stomach
ker plunk!

“That's Mother Goosey,” said Dick. “She never will learn anything. She stumbles over that board every morning.”

The children laughed. A large white rooster with a red head and long tail feathers jumped out. Other geese and hens followed.

“That's Peaches!” said Dick, pointing to the rooster.

“How did he get that name?” asked Robert.

“When he was little, he always kept saying
purch, purch, purch
,” said Dick, “so I named him Peaches.”

Peaches started to peck Mother Goosey to make her go back in.

“Watch!” said Dick. “Mother Goosey don't like Peaches.”

Another goose got behind Peaches and started pulling his tail feathers out. All the geese began to peck him. By this time Peaches had had enough. He ran back in the corner of the henhouse and hid himself.

“They fight him every morning,” said Margy. “Poor Peaches!”

Now the geese were stretching. Across the barnyard they went, flapping their wings and honking loudly.

“See?” laughed Dick. “Mother Goosey is still boss of the barnyard!”

The children liked Dick and his stories. “Tell us some more,” they begged.

“Tell them how the hens talk, Dick,” said Margy.

Dick sat down in the henhouse doorway. Mother Goosey came back and he took her on his lap and stroked her neck. The children crouched near by to listen. Dick made the sounds of a hen's clucking.

“The mother hen says, ‘Danger! Hawk's coming!' or maybe she says, ‘Dog or man around.' At night she purrs to put the chicks to sleep. She keeps saying, ‘Go to sleep, go to sleep, don't wake up till morning.'” He imitated all the sounds with henlike clucks.

“Tell what she says when a chick gets lost,” said Margy.

“The chick says, ‘Hey, Mom, I'm lost.' And the mother hen answers, ‘Here I am, here I am, come right over here where I am.'”

“You sound just like an old hen clucking, Dick,” said Robert.

“Sure,” said Dick, “I'm first cousin to the hens and the geese. Now I've got to water the hogs.”

The children jumped up and Susan Hass said, “Let's play hide-and-seek.” Margy and the others agreed. They ran over by the barn and the corncrib where there were plenty of places to hide. The eighty-acre cornfield was just over the fence behind the hog-house. Robert started the game by being
it
. He began to count to one hundred by fives.

Margy knew all the best hiding places. She tried the corncrib first. She climbed in the crib with the ear corn. She stepped up on the pile and stumbled. The whole mass of piled-up corn above her began to move. It frightened her for a minute. She slipped and lost her footing again. The pile began to tumble. Heavy ears came down and hit her on head and shoulders.

“Wow! Dog-gone-it!” she said, jumping up. “I'm going to get out. They'll see me in here anyhow. They can see right through the cracks.”

She climbed out the small window where Dick scooped corn to feed the hogs. Over the fence like a little squirrel she went. Across the hog lot, over another fence and into the cornfield.

“Robert will never find me now,” she said.

She ducked in between the rows. The stalks of corn were so huge and the leaves were so large now, it was like a dense forest. Even when the sun was highest at midday, the lower leaves were still damp and cool. It was like being in the shade of a great big tree, of many, many trees. It was much shadier than the grove. It was a good place to cool off. Margy looked back. She was sure no one could see her now.

“
Eighty-five, ninety, ninety-five, ONE HUNDRED!
”

Margy heard Robert's triumphant shout. She heard the dogs barking. She smiled. Robert had probably caught Susan and Peggy already, and they were all hunting for her, looking everywhere. She was supposed to stay in one place now. She stopped running and caught her breath. She waited.

She waited a while and they did not come. She smiled to herself. They would never find her this time. They would never even think of the cornfield. She remembered the day when Mom and the whole family came out to pull cockleburrs. She remembered how she made up a game of “going through doors.” She began to walk again. She went down the shady row until she came to an open place where a hill of corn was missing. She stepped through the door into the next room. She walked down that row. She forgot about hide-and-seek. She played she was in a great big house with many rooms and windows and doors. It was fun going in and out of doors. She kept on walking.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Mrs. Hass was calling, “Robert! Susan! Peggy!”

“What do you want, Mom?” answered Robert.

“It's time to go now,” said Mrs. Hass.

The Hass children ran to their mother and they all climbed in their car. Mrs. Hass and Mom talked a while. Then Mrs. Hass turned on the starter.

“Where's Margy, Susan?” asked Mom.

“Oh,” laughed Susan, “we never found her. We were playing hide-and-seek. She's still hiding.”

Mom looked at Dick. “Did you see her, Dick?”

“No,” said Dick. “She's pretty good at finding new places to hide.”

The Hasses drove down the lane and out the road. Mom and Dick went back in the house. Dick found a piece of cake to eat. Mom called out the back door, “
Mar-gy! Mar-gy!
”

Buster came running up and Dick fed him. He whistled for Popcorn but the little dog did not come.

“Go look in the barn and the corncrib,” said Mom. “See what she is up to. Tell her the Hass children have gone. She can come in now.”

Dick looked in all the buildings. He called Margy by name. But he saw nothing of his little sister. Buster sniffed in every corner. She wasn't there. Dick hated to go back in and tell Mom. But it was very strange for Margy to disappear like this.

“She's not out there,” Dick announced flatly. “I can't find her.”

“Oh, she's hiding somewhere,” said Mom cheerfully. “She's trying to play a joke on us. We'll just wait till she decides to come in.”

Mom went ahead with her pickles. She measured out the salt to make the brine. She got out her jars and sterilized them. She turned on the radio and listened to her favorite program as she filled the jars.

But Dick was not satisfied. He went the rounds of the buildings again. This time he included the henhouse, the hayloft, the cattle lean-to, the granary and the tool house. They were all empty with a silence that was ominous. Soon Mom came out to join him. She had a worried look on her face.

“I can't see where that child has gone,” she said. “She's five—old enough to know better.”

Mom went into the cattle lot and looked in the stock tank. Nothing there but a couple of Dick's goldfish swimming around. She looked in the cattle shed, in the stall where the new bull calf was penned. She looked in the pen where Goldie and her calf were lying down. But Margy was not there. Mom's and Dick's shouts echoed back and forth.

“Run, Dick, look through the grove,” Mom said. “Maybe she's hiding in some of that broken-down machinery.”

Soon Dick came back. “She's not there, Mom.”

“Did you look up in the trees, Dick?”

“What would she be doing up in a tree?” laughed Dick.

“She might have found a bird's nest,” said Mom. “Or she might just be hiding—to keep us looking for her.”

But Margy was not in any of the trees.

“I'm worried,” said Mom at last. “You take the tractor, Dick, and drive over to Bill Heiter's and tell Dad we can't find her. Tell him and Raymond to come home right away. I'll call up Loretta Hass and see if the children know anything more.”

Mom went to the telephone, cranked the handle and called the number. It was a party line and a busy one. All the neighbor women heard Mrs. Hoffman say that Margy was lost. Mrs. Hass questioned her children. They repeated that Margy ran off to hide and must still be hiding. They did not know where.

Dick should have been glad to drive the new tractor. It was the first time he had been allowed on it since cultivating time in June. But now he hardly thought about it. He started the engine and began to drive automatically. All his former pleasure in the machine was gone. He wished with all his heart he could solve the puzzle of where Margy had gone. She must be just fooling them. But she was so smart, she might keep on fooling them for a long time before she showed up.

Mrs. Hass was the first one to come. She brought her three children and came right back again. She offered to drive to the Heiters' to bring the men, but Dick had already gone. Soon other neighbors began to drop in—the Rudens, the Sanders, the Ludwigs and Shutes. By the time Dick got back with Dad and Raymond and Mr. Heiter, the lane and barnyard were full of neighbors' cars and trucks. It was noon now, time for midday dinner. Some of the women had brought food along. They put it on the table but no one thought of eating.

Mrs. Hass and Mom and Dad and several men talked things over.

“It boils down, then, to the creek, the weeds by the road and the cornfield,” Mark Hoffman told the men.

The men divided into teams and spread out over the farm. Half of them entered the cornfield—the big eighty. Dick started in with them, but Mom called him back.

“One lost child is enough,” said Mom. “I don't want two.”

“But, Mom, I'm eleven—not five,” protested Dick. “I can find my way. Last year I drug and disced this whole eighty. This year I cultivated it. I know all the twists and turns in the corn rows. I know right where they come out on the other side.”

But Mom would not listen. She had been crying, but now had dried her tears. There was a fierce look in her face, a look that showed she would never give up. Everywhere she went, she kept calling aloud in a voice of pain: “
Mar-gy! Where are you, Mar-gy
?” Those who heard her cry of anguish knew they would never forget it.

Mrs. Hass took Mom back in the house to try to comfort her. Mrs. Ruden and the other women searched the ditches and uncut weeds by the road. Mom phoned Aunt Etta in town. Uncle Henry hurried out after he finished his day's work. He brought Aunt Etta and three men from the factory with him. He sent the men down to the creek to drag the water hole.