“Skeeter caught ’em in the swamp whiles you were gittin’ the wood,” said Ma. “Now come on and finish yore dinner and stop actin’ like an idiot.”
Everyone had to hold their breath for a minute to keep from laughing at Pa.
“Well, if’n hit weren’t for the fact that I could eat six barrels of that gumbo you make, Ma, I would whale the daylights out uv Skeeter right here and now. Ain’t no use in scarin’ the livin’ out’n a feller like that.”
Skeeter got up and caught the crawfish, put them back into the bucket, got a pan and covered the top of the bucket so that they could not escape again, and the meal was finished in peace.
When the last person got up from the table, there was not a crumb of the dinner left. Theresa stacked the dishes on the stand, and she and Ma went to the other room to lie down and rest a few minutes before washing them and cleaning the kitchen. Pa and Jeff lay down on the front porch, and Skeeter went down to the bayou to lie in the grass and look up at the clouds. The sun sent pleasant waves of simmering heat into the Corey clearing, and the breeze brought cool air from the bayou. In a few minutes the entire family was fast asleep.
It was mid afternoon when the blast from the steamboat whistle awakened Pa Corey from his deep sleep. He grumbled something about where he wished the steamboats would go, and rose slowly to his feet. Ma and Theresa were cleaning up the kitchen. Jeff was still asleep on the porch. Pa walked into the kitchen, took the gourd dipper from the shelf, dipped it in the bucket, and took a long draught of the cool water. He walked back to the front porch and shook Jeff. “You better git up, Son,” he said. “We got to string them fish afore hit gits dark.”
Pa went into the kitchen and took the long fish string from a nail on the wall. On one end of the string was a slim copper spike, and on the other a copper circle. He went down the back steps and to the landing. Skeeter was not there, and the skiff was gone. Pa found a small round stick about a foot long, pulled a loop of the line through the copper circle and pushed the stick through the loop. Then he pulled tight on the string, and the stick was tied fast against the circle. In a few minutes Jeff came down to the landing, and they pulled the fish box out of the water. Pa took a fish out of the box, ran the spike through its gills and out its mouth, and then let it slide down against the stick. He handed the spike to Jeff, and as he would take the fish out of the box, Jeff would string them. When they had finished, they put the fish back into the box, closed the lid, tied the end of the string to a bush on the bank, and shoved the box back into the water. Jeff took his knife and started cleaning one of the large buffalo he had left out for their supper, and Pa went back into the house.
Jeff was washing the fish in the bayou, when he saw Skeeter coming toward him in the skiff. When he pushed in at the landing, Jeff saw three large water moccasins lying in the bottom. Their heads had been neatly popped from their bodies. Skeeter threw the snakes on the bank and got out of the skiff.
“I’ll give you one of these skins to trade in town tomorrow if’n you’ll help me clean ’em,” he said.
“I’ll shore do hit,” said Jeff, “’cause I need somethin’ of my own fer to trade. Whut you reckon them folks do with these here skins, Skeeter?”
“I heard that they makes belts and purses out of ’em.”
“Well, I shore wouldn’t want no snakeskin hangin’ aroun’ my belly or in my pocket,” said Jeff.
Jeff put the cleaned fish on the grass and grasped the tail of one of the snakes. Skeeter took the other end and ran the sharp blade of his knife down the underside of the snake. When they had split the snake in half, they trimmed the meat and bones from the skin. Then Skeeter washed it in the water. When they finished cleaning all three of the snakes, they hung the skins over a limb of a tree to dry, and went into the house. Ma was giving Pa instructions as to what to bring from town the next day. Jeff took the bar of yellow soap from the shelf and went up the bayou to take a bath, and Skeeter stood at the door looking after him.
“Why air hit that Jeff’s been takin’ a bath afore we go to town the last few times?” asked Skeeter. “I can’t see no use in him gettin’ all that fancy.”
“I’ve heard that he’s sparkin’ some gal in town,” said Pa.
“Yeh, and he better stop that sparkin’ aroun’ them town girls afore he gits us all in trouble,” said Ma. “You know dern well whut them folks thinks of the likes of Jeff, and they ain’t no use askin’ fer yore head to be chopped off.”
“Whut’s sparkin’ mean, Ma?” asked Theresa.
“Hit’s jest as well you don’t know and don’t never find out. They ain’t no end to a woman’s troubles after a man comes sniffin’ around her like she were a bitch dog in heat.”
“Now, I wouldn’t go so fer as to say that,” said Pa. “You ain’t did too bad fer yoreself.”
“You call livin’ in this swamp and bein’ treated like a nigger by all the other white folks ain’t so bad? Sometimes I think we would uv been better off if’n we would have stayed in the fields. Hit’s been nigh on a year now since me and Theresa has seen ary other white folks, excusin’ you and the boys.”
Skeeter and Theresa couldn’t understand what it was their folks were arguing about. They had seen these little spats before, and they always felt sorry for Pa, but they couldn’t understand why Ma didn’t love living on the river as they did. Skeeter couldn’t stand the thought of not being around the swamp, and he liked not having other folks around them all the time.
“Jest the same,” said Ma, “you better tell the boy to watch himself while he’s messin’ aroun’ in that town.”
“Leave the boy be,” said Pa, as he walked to the front porch and sat down. Ma and Theresa started cooking the supper. After a while Jeff came in, and they all sat at the table and ate in silence. When they had finished, Pa and the boys sat on the front porch, while Ma and Theresa washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. When the work was finished, the family went to bed, for they all knew that they had to be up long before daybreak to start preparations for the trip to town.
A few hours after dark Pa was awakened by a loud splashing coming from the bayou. Jeff and Skeeter had heard the disturbance also and were pulling on their clothes. They went to the kitchen and lighted a torch and all three went down to the landing. They could hear the splashing continuing up the bayou. The fish box had been knocked from the water and was lying several feet up on the bank. They put it back into the water and stood for a few minutes in silence and could hear the noises continue past the end of the bayou and into the swamp.
“Whut in the world do you reckon that were?” asked Pa.
“Hit beats me,” said Jeff. “I never heard of a critter pullin’ a stunt like that there.”
Skeeter didn’t say a word because he thought he knew what had caused the disturbance and knocked the box out of the water.
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