Spit. “Silence.”
“Say Earl, ma says if you chew tobacco you get consumption.”
“Aw rats, your old lady is a crank.”
“Yuh, that's so.” Pause. “But she says she knows a fella that did.”
“Aw, gee whiz, didn't Doc Kennicott used to chew tobacco all the time before he married this-here girl from the Cities? He used to spit—-Gee! Some shot! He could hit a tree ten feet off.”
This was news to the girl from the Cities.
“Say, how is she?” continued Earl.
“Huh? How's who?”
“You know who I mean, smarty.”
A tussle, a thumping of loose boards, silence, weary narration from Cy: