Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Across the Fruited Plain by Florence Crannell Means
page 43 of 101 (42%)


[Illustration: Bringing back the groceries]


Next Grandma made a twig broom and they swept the dirty ground.
Mrs. Rugieri, next door, showed Grandma her beds, made of
automobile seats put together on the ground. That night the
Beecham men went to the nearest dumps and found enough seats to
make a bed for Grandpa and Grandma and the baby. Fortunately it
was not cold; coats were covering enough.

On the dump Daddy found also an old tub, from which he made a
stove, cutting holes in it, turning it upside down, and fastening
in a stovepipe.

"I don't feel to blame folks so much as I used to for being
dirty," Grandma admitted, when they had done their best to make
the shelter a home. "But all the same, I want for you young-ones
to keep away from them. I saw a baby that looked as if it had
measles."

"If only there was a Center," Rose-Ellen complained, "or if they
even had room for us in school. I feel as if I'd scream, staying
in this horrid tent so much."

"I didn't know," said Daddy, "that there was a place in our whole
country where you couldn't live decent and send your kids to
school if you wanted to."

DigitalOcean Referral Badge