Way Down Deep

 

ALSO by RUTH WHITE

 

The Search for Belle Prater
Buttermilk Hill
Tadpole
Memories of Summer
Belle Prater's Boy
Weeping Willow
Sweet Creek Holler

Way
Down
Deep

RUTH WHITE

FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX
NEW YORK

 

Copyright © 2007 by Ruth White
Map copyright © 2007 by Susy Pilgrim Waters
for Lilla Rogers Studio
All rights reserved
Distributed in Canada by Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Barbara Grzeslo
First edition, 2007
1  3  5  7  9  10  8  6  4  2

 

“That's How Much I Love You” by Eddy Arnold, Wally Fowler, Graydon J. Hall
© 1946, copyright renewed by Vogue Music. All rights administered by Universal
—Songs of PolyGram International, Inc. / BMI. Used By Permission.
All Rights Reserved.
“The Push Cart Serenade” by Sydney Lippmann and Sylvia Dee © 1948,
renewed. Aria Music. Permission secured. All rights reserved.
“Laura” Words by Johnny Mercer, Music by David Raksin © 1945 (Renewed)
by Twentieth Century Music Corporation. All rights controlled by EMI
Robbins Catalog Inc. (Publishing) and Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. (Print).
All rights reserved. Used by Permission.

 

www.fsgkidsbooks.com

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

White, Ruth, date.

  Way Down Deep / Ruth White.— 1st ed.

      p. cm.

Summary: In the West Virginia town of Way Down Deep in the 1950s, a foundling called Ruby June is happily living with Miss Arbutus at the local boardinghouse when suddenly, after the arrival of a family of outsiders, the mystery of Ruby's past begins to unravel.

ISBN-13: 978-0-374-38251-3

ISBN-10: 0-374-38251-4

[1. Foundlings—Fiction. 2. Community Life—Fiction. 3. Identity—Fiction. 4. Orphans—Fiction. 5. West Virginia—History—1951– —Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.W58446 Way 2007

[Fic]—dc22

2006046324

Dedicated to Dee & Dory, William & Wally

Way
Down
Deep

 

 

 

CAST
of
CHARACTERS

 

A
RISTOTLE
: a very old and very wise owl

B
EVINS
, M
R
.: the town barber and owner of Bevins's Barber Shop

B
EVINS
, M
RS
.: Mr. Bevins's wife, a very fashionable dresser

B
EVINS
, L
ANTHA
: the Bevinses' teenage daughter

B
UTLER
, G
RANNY
: an old albino woman who keeps bees Way Up That-a-Way

C
HAMBERS
, M
R
.: mayor of Way Down Deep and owner of the A&P Grocery Store

C
HAMBERS
, W
ALLY
: son of the mayor

C
HAMBERS
, S
HELBY
: the bank teller, and wife of Wally

C
OMBS
, G
OLDIE
: an old woman who lives on Yonder Mountain

C
OMBS
, C
HRISTIAN
: Goldie's son

C
OMBS
, M
AXINE
: Christian's wife

C
OMBS
, J
EFF
, S
AM
, AND S
IDNEY
: Christian's sons

C
RAWFORD
, A. H.: a boarder at The Roost, who is writing a book about the town

D
ALES
, M
R
.: president of Way Down Bank

D
EEL
, E
LBERT
: a circuit-riding judge

E
LKINS
, M
RS
. T
HORNTON
: a permanent resident at The Roost

F
ARMER
, M
R
.: the town drunk

F
ARMER
, M
RS
.: his wife, the postmistress

F
ULLER
, C
ONNIE
L
YNN
, S
UNNY
G
AYE, AND
B
ONNIE
C
LARE
: the Fuller triplets, who preach the Gospel in the streets

G
ENTRY
, M
R
.: a boarder at the Roost, the high school band director

H
OLLAND
, M
R
.: a detective from Virginia

H
ORTON
, L
ESTER
: a traveler with a baby goat

H
URLEY
, J
OLENE
C
OMBS
: Goldie Combs's deceased daughter

H
URLEY
, C
LAYTON
: husband to Jolene

J
ETHRO
: Ruby's pet goat

J
UNE
, R
UBY
: redheaded toddler abandoned in Way Down

J
USTUS
, D
R
.: the town physician, called Mr. Doctor

J
USTUS
, D
R
.: the town dentist, called Mrs. Doctor

M
ORGAN
, M
R. AND
M
RS
.: owners of Morgan's Drugs

M
ORGAN
, J
UANITA
, J
UDE
, E
DNA, AND
S
LIM
: the Morgan children

M
ULLINS
, M
R
. & M
RS
.: owners of the Pure Gas Station and The Boxcar Grill

M
ULLINS
, R
EESE
, M
ARY
N
ELL
, S
USIE
, P
AULINE
, J
UNIOR
, C
LARENCE, AND
G
ERRY
J
OY
: the Mullins children, who help their parents at the gas station and the grill

R
EEDER
, B
OB
: Robber Bob, a would-be bank robber

R
EEDER
, B
IRD
: Robber Bob's senile father

R
EEDER
, P
ETER
, C
EDAR
, J
EETER
, S
KEETER, AND
R
ITA
: the Reeder kids

R
EYNOLDS
, S
HERIFF
: sheriff of Way Down

R
IFE
, M
RS
.: the ninety-year-old owner of Rife's Five and Dime

R
IFE
, W
ALTER
: son of Mrs. Rife; runs the five-and-dime store

R
IPPLE
: a red fox

S
HORTT
, M
RS
.: the owner of Shortt's Hardware Store

S
TACEY
, M
R
.: the milkman

W
ARD
, A
RCHIBALD
: the founder of the town of Way Down Deep

W
ARD
, M
ISS
A
RBUTUS
: a direct descendant of Archibald, and proprietor of a boardinghouse called The Roost

W
ORLY
, M
ISS
: a boarder at the Roost, and the town librarian

T
O UNDERSTAND THE NAME
W
AY
D
OWN
D
EEP, ONE MUST
go back to the eighteenth century and the days of adventurers and pioneers. For it was then that an Englishman by the name of Archibald Ward, while exploring the wild Appalachians, stumbled upon a deep hollow cradled between the hills in a place that later became known as West Virginia.

“This is perfect,” Archibald said to himself. “I shall bring my loved ones here and start a settlement.”

When he returned to civilization back east for the purpose of retrieving his family, people questioned Archibald about his findings, with the idea of perhaps following him to this wilderness.

“What kind of place is it?” they asked him.

“The timber is pale, the sod black, and a stream runs through it,” Archibald told them. “And it is naturally sheltered like a nest way down deep in a narrow valley.”

People did follow Archibald Ward and started a town in the way-down-deep hollow between the hills. The
name caught on, but over the years was often shortened to Way Down. The stream became Way Down Deep Creek, but that being too much of a mouthful, was abridged to Deep Creek. Strictly speaking, however, the stream was not deep, nor was it a creek. It was a puny river.

In the 1840s the fourth Archibald Ward built a boardinghouse in Way Down, which he called The Roost. It remained in the same family one hundred years later, when Miss Arbutus Ward took possession of it at the death of her father. She was an only child and the last Ward left in town. Miss Arbutus had been helping out at The Roost since she was barely big enough to peep over the rim of the giant oak eating table. She knew no other life.

Miss Arbutus was—sad to say—plain and dull. Everybody said so. And there was no telling how old she was—somewhere over thirty. The townsfolk called her an old maid, but they would never use that distasteful term in her presence. She had been outside of Way Down only a few times in her girlhood, and never in her adult life. She preferred The Roost to any other place on earth, and felt most comfortable when she was there.

For a meager amount of money, a weary traveler could eat a wholesome supper at The Roost, sleep between clean sheets, and wake up to a hearty breakfast. The midday meal, which was locally called dinner, was not offered to guests.

Many boarders were total strangers who appeared out of nowhere and went back to nowhere after a day or two, and were never seen again. But some returning guests
showed up periodically. The most common were traveling salesmen who came hawking everything from encyclopedias to vacuum cleaners to insurance. The Bible peddler was also a regular. He was a circuit-riding evangelist who, when he got wound up good, preached a right decent sermon to the folks living far back in the hollers. Another regular was Judge Elbert Deel, who was responsible for holding court in three counties.

As for the permanent residents of The Roost, there was an elegant lady who lived on the second floor and insisted on being called by her late husband's whole name.

“Mrs. Thornton Elkins,” she would say in her thin, melodious voice. “That's who I am and always will be.”

Mr. and Mrs. Thornton Elkins had been married for less than a year when Mr. Elkins was killed in a sawmill accident where he worked near Way Down. Mrs. Thornton Elkins came to The Roost to recuperate for a few weeks, then a few months, then a few years. When she ran out of money, she stayed on. The Wards knew that she had nowhere else to go. So what was a body to do? You certainly could not turn her out in the street, now could you?

Townspeople who knew Mrs. Thornton Elkins's situation sometimes dropped off bolts of dress material for her at The Roost, which she accepted without comment. She borrowed Miss Arbutus's sewing machine to make simple but stylish dresses for herself. Others donated various items known to be necessary to a refined lady of the day, and she got by.

There were less generous souls who were of the opinion that perhaps Mrs. Thornton Elkins should earn her keep by assisting Miss Arbutus in the kitchen, or in the laundry room, or in the garden. But they were not bold enough to broach the subject to that cultured lady, and such an idea would never enter Mrs. Thornton Elkins's head on its own, nor Miss Arbutus's either, for that matter.

There were three other tenants who made The Roost their home. One was Miss Worly, the town librarian. She also lived on the second floor, next to Mrs. Thornton Elkins. Miss Worly referred to her room as her “spacious pastel boudoir.”

Because Miss Worly delighted in peppering her sentences with fancy words like
whereby
,
heretofore
,
notwithstanding
,
inasmuch
,
moreover
, and even
albeit
and
i.e.
on occasion, the kids in town called her Miss Wordy, but she didn't mind.