“That’s a pretty nice thing,” said Pa. “Ma’s worried. Ya Granma’s off her chump.”
“Yeah, Al tol’ me. She any better now?”
“Well, anyways she’s a-sleepin’.”
The proprietor said, “If you wanta pull in here an’ camp it’ll cost you four bits. Get a place to camp an’ water an’ wood. An’ nobody won’t bother you.”
“What the hell,” said Tom. “We can sleep in the ditch right beside the road, an’ it won’t cost nothin’.”
The owner drummed his knee with his fingers. “Deputy sheriff comes on by in the night. Might make it tough for ya. Got a law against sleepin’ out in this State. Got a law about vagrants.”
“If I pay you a half a dollar I ain’t a vagrant, huh?”
“That’s right.”
Tom’s eyes glowed angrily. “Deputy sheriff ain’t your brother-’n-law by any chance?”
The owner leaned forward. “No, he ain’t. An’ the time ain’t come yet when us local folks got to take no talk from you goddamn bums, neither.”