Read Corral Nocturne for Free Online

hair. Habit, and a natural
disinclination toward making an effort to change anything, had made
of her an unquestioning, uncomplaining woman, who perhaps did not
realize she had anything to complain of; but she had not been blind
to the changes of this summer. She had seen, though she had not had
cause to give it close thought until this moment, the happiness and
life that a few simple amusements had given to Ellie, and perhaps
it had planted the tiny, barely stirring seeds of a revolt against
what her son’s petty tyranny had made of their life.
    She looked at Ellie for a moment longer, and
then her mouth folded up determinedly. “Never mind about the blue,”
she said. “You’re going to go, and you’re going to have something
pretty to wear.”
    Ellie straightened up, half alarmed, half
amazed. “But Mama, Ed wouldn’t—”
    “Ed won’t have anything to do with it,” said
Mrs. Strickland firmly. She moved the pile of socks from her lap to
the table and got up. “I’ve been saving part of the egg money all
along for emergencies, and this is one. If we ever have a real
emergency, Lord forbid, then Ed’ll just have to pay up.” She opened
the cupboard in the corner and took down a chipped china pitcher,
the last of a set long broken and departed a piece at a time. From
this she took a small brown bag that chinked in her hand. “It’s
about time we stopped acting like we can’t spend money on a few
nice things every once in a while. We may live plain, but we’re not poor , Ellie, and your brother knows it as well as I do.”
    Ellie stared at her, eyes shining with
subdued but growing delight. She came around the table and watched,
half-incredulously. Mrs. Strickland pulled open the drawstring of
the bag and shook out some coins on the table, spreading them out
with her fingers. “There’s enough here to buy a length of goods for
a dress, and there ought to be some left over to get you a nice
pair of shoes and stockings.”
    “Shoes too? Mama, I don’t think—”
    “Yes,” said Mrs. Strickland, nodding her head
even more decidedly as she sat down at the table again; “yes, you
ought to have a pretty pair of shoes to wear with a good dress.
They’ll last you a long time, anyway, Ellie; your foot’s not going
to get any bigger now you’re grown up. Yes, you get the shoes.”
    “All right,” said Ellie, laughing, still
feeling like she had stumbled into a delicious dream.
    “You can go into town with Ed tomorrow or day
after and pick out the things, and we’ll get the dress made in
plenty of time for the Fourth. What kind of material do they have
at the dry-goods? I haven’t been in there in a long while.”
    “Well, last time I was there they were just
beginning to get in the summer goods…let’s see, they had a
pearl-colored lawn with a tiny dot and leaf pattern, kind of like
berries—and a green one with—”
    “Don’t you get green unless it’s just right,”
said Mrs. Strickland decisively. “Green’s either the prettiest
color or the ugliest color on earth, and there aren’t too many
shades of difference between the two. Anyway, they’ll have more out
now, so you just pick the prettiest thing they’ve got to your
taste, so long as it’ll wash well.”
    Ellie impulsively bent and flung her arms
around her mother’s neck and kissed her. “Oh, Mama, I wish I could
do something as lovely for you someday!”
    “Well, well,” said Mrs. Strickland, smiling
and patting Ellie’s hand as it lay on her shoulder. “You’d better
get to bed. You want to get up early and go in the morning.”
    “All right, Mama. But do you think Ed
will—?”
    “Don’t worry about that. I’ll fix Ed,” said
Mrs. Strickland, the determination in her voice making it sound as
if she intended to do it with a hammer.
    No such persuasion was necessary, however.
Ellie was up betimes the next morning, dressed and ready before
breakfast, and sat through the meal in slightly anxious
anticipation of the