Gussie looked at her dejectedly, wondering whether to go or stay. He tried to reason with her, telling her that he only wanted to get dry before going out again; that was all. She wouldn’ have the heart to turn him out in the rain, after he came all the way from the woods to take a few chances just to help her out? Nobody would turn a dog out-doors a night like that. He wouldn’ bother anybody out in the kitchen all by himself. Who would care anything about him, as long as they were having a good time in the front of the house?
Taking a half dollar out of his pocket, he held it out to Carmelite saying:
“Hyuh; take dis fo’-bits, an’ pick some good numbers, an’ see’f you can’ win de quilt for me; so I kin take it yonder to Aun’ Fisky.”
Carmelite took the coin without a demur. It was an unexpected ameliorating charm. A welcome token of truce.
“Come on out hyuh an’ set to de stove; so I kin hurry up an’ wipe dese tracks off dis flo’ befo’ innybody git hyuh,” Carmelite said in a quiet voice, starting for the kitchen with Gussie following her. “An’ ’tain no pity for you make me change my min’; no,” she went on. “If ’twasn’ say I know Aun’ Fisky so long; an’ know w’at she got to put up wid; I sho would make you take de road tonight; brazen as you is, comin’ hyuh like dis.”
Gussie pulled a chair close to the stove and sat down; glad to get where it was warm, and thankful to be under shelter at last. Carmelite took a floor-cloth from behind the door and went to the front room to wipe up the mud tracks from Gussie’s shoes. After a while she came back; and seeing Gussie looking at the coffee pot on the stove, she said:
“I’m goin’ give you a cup o’ coffee; an’ you stay hyuh an’ drink it. An’ don’t you come to de front w’en people git hyuh, an’ de raffle be goin’ on in yonder. You hyeah?”
Gussie told her that he would stay in the kitchen. All he wanted was to get dry. And maybe after he drank his coffee, he would go to sleep for a little while, before he passed by Tempe’s wake, on his way home.
“Well, you stay hyuh in de kitchen,” Carmelite reminded him. “An’ if inny one yo’ numbers draw de quilt, I’ll fetch it out hyuh to you.”