The Ballad of the Sad Café-5

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    The hunchback looked up quickly and sharpened his mouth to speak. "Why, this is a lay-low to catch meddlers."

    The hunchback readied in the box with his scrambly little fingers and ate something, but he offered no one around him a taste. It was not even proper snuff which he was taking, but a mixture of sugar and cocoa. This he took, though, as snuff, pocketing a little wad of it beh his lower lip and lig dowly into this with a flick of his tongue which made a frequent grimae over his face.

    "The very teeth in my head have always tasted sour to me," he said in explanation. "That is the reason why I take this kind of sweet snuff."

    The group still clustered around, feeling somewhat gawky and bewildered. This sensation never quite wore off, but it was soon tempered by another feeling -- an air of intima the room and a vague festivity. Now the names of the men of the group there on that evening were as follows: Hasty Malone, Robert Calvert Hale, Merlie Ryan, Reverend T. M. Willin, Rosser e, Rip Wellborn, Henry Ford Crimp, and Horace Wells. Except for Reverend Willin, they are all alike in many ways as has been said -- all having taken pleasure from something or other, all havi and suffered in some way, most of them tractable unless exasperated. Each of them worked in the mill, and lived with others in a two- or three-room house for which the rent was ten dollars or twelve dollars a month. All had been paid that afternoon, for it was Saturday. So, for the present, think of them as a whole.

    The hunchback, however, was already s them out in his mind. Onfortably settled he began to chat with everyone, asking questions such as if a man was married, how old he was, how much his wages came to in an average week, et cetera -- pig his way along to inquiries which were dht intimate. Soon the group was joined by others iown, Henry Macy, idlers who had sensed somethiraordinary, women e to fetch their men who lingered on, and even one loose, towhead child who tiptoed into the store, stole a box of animal crackers, and made off very quietly. So the premises of Miss Amelia were soon crowded, and she herself had not yet opened her office door.

    There is a type of person who has a quality about him that sets him apart from other and more ordinary human beings. Such a person has an ibbr>?</abbr>nstinct which is usually found only in small children, an instinct to establish immediate and vital tact between himself and all things in the world. Certainly the hunchback was of this type. He had only been iore half an hour before an immediate tact had beeablished between him and each other individual. It was as though he had lived iown for years, was a well-known character, and had been sitting and talking there on that guano sack for tless evenings. This, together with the fact that it was Saturday night, could at for the air of freedom and illicit gladness iore. There was a tension, also, partly because of the oddity of the situation and because Miss Amelia was still closed off in her offid had not yet made her appearance.

    She came out that evening at ten oclock. And those who were expeg some drama at her entrance were disappointed. She opehe doo<cite></cite>r and walked in with her slow, gangling swagger. There was a streak of ink on one side of her nose, and she had khe red handkerchief about her neck. She seemed to notiothing unusual. Her gray, crossed eyes glanced over to the place where the hunchback was sitting, and for a moment lihere. The rest of the crowd iore she regarded with only a peaceable surprise.

    &quot;Does anyone want waiting on?&quot; she asked quietly.

    There were a number of ers, because it was Saturday night, and they all wanted liquor. Now Miss Amelia had dug up an aged barrel only three days past and had sipho into bottles back by the still. This night she took the money from the ers and ted it beh the bright light. Such was the ordinary procedure. But after this what happened was not ordinary. Always before, it was necessary to go around to the dark back yard, and there she would hand out your bottle through the kit door. There was no feeling of joy iransa. After getting his liquor the er walked off into the night. Or, if his wife would not have it in the home, he was allowed to e back around to the front porch of the store and guzzle there or ireet. Now, both the pord the street before it were the property of Miss Amelia, and no mistake about it -- but she did nard them as her premises; the premises began at the front door and took iire inside of the building. There she had never allowed liquor to be opened or drunk by a herself. Now for the first time she broke this rule. She went to the kit, with the hunchback close at her heels, and she brought back the bottles into the warm, bright store. More than that she furnished some glasses and opewo boxes of crackers so that they were there hospitably in a platter on the ter and anyone who wished could take one free.

    She spoke to no o the hunchback, and she only asked him in a somewhat harsh and husky voice: &quot;Cousin Lymon, will you have yours straight, or warmed in a pan with water oove?&quot;

    &quot;If you please, Amelia,&quot; the hunchback said. (And since what time had anyone presumed to address Miss Amelia by her bare name, without a title of respect? -- Certainly not her bridegroom and her husband of ten days. In faot sihe death of her father, who for some reason had always called her Little, had anyone dared to address her in such a familiar way.) &quot;If you please, Ill have it warmed.&quot;

    Now, this was the beginning of the café. It was as simple as that. Recall that the night was gloomy as in wiime, and to have sat around the property outside would have made a sorry celebration. But ihere was pany and a genial warmth. Someone had rattled up the stove in the rear, and those who bought bottles shared their liquor with friends. Several womehere and they had twists of licoric..e, a Nehi, or even a swallow of the whisky. The hunchback was still a y and his presence amused everyohe ben the office was brought in, together with several extra chairs. Other people leaned against the ter or made themselves fortable on barrels and sacks. Nor did the opening of liquor on the premises cause any rambunctiousness, i giggles, or misbehavior whatsoever. On the trary the pany olite even to the point of a certain timidness. For people in this towhen uo gathering together for the sake of pleasure. They met to work in the mill. Or on Sunday there would be an all-day camp meeting -- and though that is a pleasure, the iion of the whole affair is to sharpen your view of Hell and put into you a keen fear of the Lord Almighty. But the spirit of a café is altogether different. Even the richest, greediest old rascal will behave himself, insulting no one in a proper café. And poor people look about them gratefully and pinch up the salt in a dainty and modest manner. For the atmosphere of a proper café implies these qualities: fellowship, the satisfas of the belly, and a certain gaiety and grace of behavior. This had never been told to the gathering in Miss Amelias store that night. But they k of themselves, although never, of course, until that time had there been a café iown.

    Now, the cause of all this, Miss Amelia, stood most of the evening in the doorway leading to the kit. Outwardly she did not seem ged at all. But there were many who noticed her face. She watched all that went on, but most of the time her eyes were fastened lonesomely on the hunchback. He strutted about the store, eating from his snuffbox, and being at once sour and agreeable. Where Miss Amelia stood, the light from the ks of the stove cast a glow, so that her brown, long face was somewhat brightened. She seemed <samp></samp>to be looking inward. There was in her expression pain, perplexity, and uain joy. Her lips were not so firmly set as usual, and she swallowed often. Her skin had paled and her large empty hands were sweating. Her look that night, then, was the lonesome look of the lover.

    This opening of the café came to an end at midnight. Everyone said good-bye to everyone else in a friendly fashion. Miss Amelia shut the front door of her premises, but fot to bolt it. Soohing -- the main street with its three stores, the mill, the houses -- all the town, in fact -- was dark and silent. And so ehree days and nights in which had e an arrival of a stranger, an unholy holiday, and the start of the café.

    Now time must pass. For the  four years are much alike. There are great ges, but these ges are brought about bit by bit, in simple steps whi themselves do not appear to be important. The hunchback tio live with Miss Amelia. The café expanded in a gradual way. Miss Amelia began to sell her liquor by the drink, and some tables were brought into the store. There were ers every evening, and on Saturday a great crowd. Miss Amelia began to serve fried catfish suppers at fiftees a plate. The hunchback cajoled her into buying a fine meical piano. Within two years the place was a store no longer, but had been verted into a proper café, open every evening from six until twelve oclock.

    Eaight the hunchback came dowairs with the air of one who has a grand opinion of himself. He always smelled slightly of turnip greens, as Miss Amelia rubbed him night and m with pot liquor to give him strength. She spoiled him to a point beyond reason, but nothing seemed tthen him; food only made his hump and his head grow larger while the rest of him remained weakly and deformed. Miss Amelia was the same in appearance. During the week she still wore s boots and overalls, but on Sunday she put on a dark red dress that hung on her in a most peculiar fashion. Her manners, however, and her way of life were greatly ged. She still loved a fierce lawsuit, but she was not so quick to cheat her fellow man and to exact cruel payments. Because the hunchback was so extremely sociable, she eve about a little -- to revivals, to funerals, and so forth. Her d was as successful as ever, her liquor even fihan before, if that were possible. The café itself proved profitable and was the only place of pleasure for many miles around.

    So for the moment regard these years from random and disjointed views. See the hunchback marg in Miss Amelias footsteps when on a red winter m they set out for the pinewoods to hunt. See them w on her properties -- with Cousin Lymon standing by and doing absolutely nothing, but quick to point out any laziness among the hands. On autumn afternoons they sat on the back steps chopping sugar e. The glaring summer days they spent ba the s where the water cypress is a deep black green, where beh the tangled s trees there is a drowsy gloom. Wheh leads through a bog or a stretch of blaed water see Miss Amelia bend down to let Cousin Lymon scramble on her back -- and see her wading forward with the hunchback settled on her shoulders, ging to her ears or to her broad forehead. Occasionally Miss Amelia ked up the Ford which she had bought and treated Cousin Lymon to a picture-show in Cheehaw, or to some distant fair or cockfight; the hunchback took a passionate delight iacles. Of course, they were in their café every m, they would often sit for hours together by the firepla the parlor upstairs. For the hunchback was sickly at night and dreaded to lie looking into the dark. He had a deep fear of death. And Miss Amelia would not leave him by himself to suffer with this fright It may even be reasohat the growth of the café came about mainly on this at; it was a thing that brought him pany and pleasure and that helped him through the night. So pose from such flashes an image of these years as a whole. And for a mome rest.

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