“What did Grandpa Jim say?” asked Mary Louise, trying to keep back the tears that were forcing their way down her pale cheeks.
Aunt Sally was crying now.
“Oh, honey, I cyarn’t say sech things, even in vain repetition! He done ’lowed that po’ Mr. Danny wa’ a fortune hunter an’ a dead beat comed from a fambly er law breakers an’ he done come an’ stole yo’ love an’ tromple it in the dus’. Now, he said, he wa’ neglectin’ er you mos’ shameful. He ’cused him er bein’ the cause er yo’ pale face an’ sad eyes.”
“What did poor Danny say?” sobbed Mary Louise.
“He done arsk with a moughty stiff back bone: ‘Air my wife make complaint er me?’ an’ I wa’ so ’stonished I couldn’t b’lieve my years when Marse Jim up’n tol’ as big a lie as the debble hisse’f could er fabricated. ‘Yes,’ he say, ‘yes, time an’ time ergin.’ I knowed it wa’n’t the truth an’ I come moughty nigh bustin’ in an’ a sayin’ so but I wa’ a mixin’ up a sponge cake at the time an’ you know, honey chil’, how ’ticular I air ’bout keepin’ a stirrin’ when oncet I gits a goin’ on sponge cake?”
“Yes, I know,” Mary Louise nodded, sadly. “But, oh, Aunt Sally, I do wish you had stopped this one time.”
“Well, p’raps I should er, but habit’s habit. Not only air I got that there habit ’bout sponge cake but I also boast the habit er not wedgin’ in on other folks’s business, mos’ specially white folks’s. They wa’ in the dinin’ room at the time where Mr. Danny done come ter try an’ git you on the phome at that there Humpty Dumpty Shop. He comed back an’ arsked me whar’ you is an’ when I tol’ him, he pick up the phome and, while he wa’ a tryin’ ter git you, Marse Jim comed in. You had done gone from the Humpty Dumpty Shop but he got ter chattin’ a piece with one er yo’ gal friends, Miss Josie, mo’n lakly. I heard him say, ‘Well don’t let Mary Louise find out about it,’ kinder laughin’ lak, an’ jes then Marse Jim comed in an’ he yanked the phome out’n his han’. I seed him do it from the crack in the pantry do’ what Mr. Danny done lef’ open a bit the way men folks has a way er doin’, black an’ white.
“‘Whe’fo’ you use the phome in my house fer sech a vile nufarious comversation!’ he hollered out an’ Mr. Danny jes’ stepped back an’ said real quiet lak, ‘Colonel Hathaway, you are mistaken. You must have misunderstood me. I merely said—’
“‘Never min’ what you said! I heard what you said’ an’ then he started in tellin’ him mo’ things than you could er believed pos’ble. When he done tol’ him you’d made complaint er him time an’ time ergin, it looked lak Mr. Danny jes’ give up. Befo’ then he’d kinder jawed back but mos’ ’spectful lak cawnsiderin’ the way Marse Jim wa’ a ladlin’ it out ter him.”
“What did he do then? Did he tell you where he was going and when he’d be back?” asked Mary Louise breathlessly.