Read Courting Miss Hattie for Free Online Page A

Before you leave, Cyl , I'll take you down to the cellar, and you can pick out whatever you want."
    "Me too?" young Ada piped up.
    It was the first words Hattie had heard the little girl speak, and she was delighted. "I'm thinking, Ada , that I still have a couple of pints of plum butter down there. Would you be interested in taking home some plum butter?"
    All around the table faces lit up in anticipation, and Hattie knew she'd said the right thing. Even Mary Nell seemed to perk up.
    Ancil said grace, and at his "amen," it was as if a gun had been shot off for a race. Every child instantly reached across the table for something.
    Attempting to maintain a semblance of order, Hattie picked up the platter of chicken and handed it to Ancil , on her left. He easily mimicked the method, and with a little coaching for the boys, the dishes were soon passing clockwise around the table in a civilized fashion.
    "This is fine cooking, Miss Hattie," Ancil said, pointing to his plate with his chicken leg. "Preacher Able told me that you set quite a table, but I never imagined anything so downright tasty."
    Hattie demurred with an embarrassed thank-you and tried to control the stain of flushed pleasure in her cheeks.
    "Is this goat's milk?" Fred asked.
    She nodded, and the boy made a face. "I hate goat's milk!"
    Hattie struggled to think up an appropriate response, but Cyl took care of it for her. "Taste it, Freddy. It ain't nothing like the milk we get at home. This is plumb good."
    The boy picked up the glass, still unsure, and took a tiny sip of the despised liquid. His eyes widening in pleasant surprise, he gulped down half a glass. "This is good!" he exclaimed. "You sure this is goat's milk?"
    Smiling, Hattie assured him. "I milked her myself."
    "It sure don't taste like the milk we get," Luke said.
    "Yeah," Fred said. "The milk we get tastes like snot!"
    Hattie nearly choked on her biscuit.
    "Fred!" Ancil's stern admonition wiped the smile off the boy's face.
    Covering her shock with a slight cough, Hattie tried to diffuse the embarrassment at the table. "Is your goat's milk getting ropey, Mr. Drayton?" she asked, hoping to bring the conversation back to practical farming concerns.
    "I don't really know, Miss Hattie," he admitted. "I guess it is. I don't drink the stuff myself, and Mary Nell takes care of the milking, of course."
    Turning to the older girl, Hattie was careful to keep a friendly smile on her face. "Are you having trouble with your milk, Mary Nell? Is it coming out stringy?"
    "It ain't made nobody sick," the girl said defensively.
    "Oh, no," Hattie said. "Ropey milk won't hurt you, but it doesn't taste all that good. It happens when the place where you're keeping the goat has gotten dirty. Goats are naturally clean animals and won't eat from a dirty trough or a fouled floor if they have any choice at all. Once you get the goat cleaned up and her quarters whitewashed, that stringiness will go away in a week's time."
    Mary Nell raised her chin in defiance. She was definitely not taking any advice or instruction from Miss Hattie. "I got six children to clean after, and I sure to the Lord don't have time to be cleaning after some goat."
    "Mary Nell!" Ancil raised his voice for the second time during the meal and gave Hattie a look of genuine discomfort at the poor behavior of his offspring.
    Hattie smiled reassuringly at him, while thinking that this courting business was a bit trickier than she had expected.
    * * *
    "When Ancil Drayton helped Miss Hattie into that buggy, I swear Reed's jaw dropped nearly down to his belt buckle." Cal Tyler's description of his brother brought a round of laughter to the dinner table.
    Andy, the Tylers ' youngest at fifteen, had his own comment. "Reed just wanted Bessie Jane to see for sure that he still had all his own teeth!"
    Even Bessie Jane, sitting a little self-consciously amid the boisterous Tyler clan, giggled at that.
    "Watch it, squirt!" Reed said, giving his youngest brother a