Read Courting Miss Hattie for Free Online

pone is easier, so we never have no biscuits."
    "It's really easy," Hattie said. "I'm sure both of you will be able to do it. Why don't you just wash your hands at the sink?"
    Cyl turned hers over and looked at them critically. "Mine ain't hardly dirty, ma'am. Papa made us all take a bath last night. Mary Nell like to had a fit about it, saying it weren't necessary."
    Hattie was horrified, but she reminded herself that these poor motherless children probably had little direction at all. "I always wash my hands before I touch the food," she said quietly. "If you're clean, then the food you cook is also clean, and cleaner is healthier on a farm."
    Cyl shrugged in genial acceptance, and with Hattie's help both girls had soon washed their hands at the kitchen pump.
    As Hattie directed them in the rolling and cutting of the biscuits, she hacked the chickens apart and put them to frying in the big iron skillet. With pleasure she listened as Cyl talked a blue streak. The youngster seemed to have something to say about pretty near everything, and Hattie found her delightful and entertaining.
    Little Ada was allowed to have the last bit of biscuit dough to play with, and the child was positively gleeful.
    "She don't talk much," Cyl explained. "But she's real pleased with that dough. She don't got much toys, only her paper dolls."
    "Do you collect paper dolls, Ada ?" Hattie asked, hoping to draw the pretty child out. Ada only smiled and nodded.
    "I cuts them myself, from the Sears and Roebuck for her," Cyl said. "She must have near a hundred that she keeps in an old cigar box under the bed."
    "How nice for you," Hattie said to Ada . "I would love to see your collection sometime. Would you show me?"
    The little girl's eyes gleamed with pleasure as she nodded vigorously, her white-blond curls bouncing.
    The biscuits were a perfect golden brown when the Drayton family found their places around Hattie's dinner table. Cyl bragged about how she and Ada had made the biscuits, and Mary Nell kept her nose in the air, not about to speak to anyone.
    Ancil's boys had to be prompted to wash their hands, and Ancil followed them with an apologetic smile for Hattie. She smiled back, hoping to convey that she understood how difficult it was for him raising seven children on his own.
    Mary Nell obstinately ignored the direction to wash, and Hattie just let it go. If the girl was willing to eat with dirty hands in the hopes of causing trouble, Hattie thought, she was just going to have to be disappointed.
    The four boys had the look of hard-worked farm children. Ancil , Jr., "A.J.," was the oldest, only ten months younger than Mary Nell. Luke was ten but was already taller than his older brother and had the look of Ancil more than any of the other children. Fred was seven. Most of his front teeth were missing, and that brought him a good deal of teasing all around. Buddy was barely two. His little blond curls and bright brown eyes captivated Hattie. This child would never remember his natural mother, she mused. More than any of the others, she could become the little boy's mother.
    Quickly putting a stop to such errant thoughts, she glanced up at Ancil , grateful that he couldn't read her mind.
    "Fried chicken is my absolute favorite," he said, surveying the spread. Along with chicken, there were mountains of mashed potatoes, candied carrots, field peas, turnip greens, and a big bowl of pickled beets.
    "In another month I should have something fresh from the garden," Hattie said, a note of apology in her voice. "This late in the year, we just have to take pretty much what's left."
    "That's what Mary Nell tells us," Cyl said. "We've been eating nothing but corn bread and black-eyed peas for nigh onto a month."
    Ancil laughed as if Cyl were exaggerating, but Hattie could tell by his flushed face that there was a good deal of truth to the story.
    "Well, I certainly have more than my share," she said casually. "I always put up more canning than I can eat.