Эптон Синклер - Oil!

“It seems like it to me,” said Bunny.

“Gee, kid, but you’re lucky! You never knew you had a soul at all! You sure missed a lot of trouble!” There was a pause, and then Paul added: “I had a hard time runnin’ away, and I ’spose I’ll go back in the end—it’s tough to think of your brothers and sisters starvin’ to death, and I don’t see what else can happen to ’em.”

“How many are there?”

“There’s four, besides me; and they’re all younger’n me.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m sixteen. The next is Eli, he’s fifteen; and the Holy Spirit has blessed him—he has the shivers, and they last all day sometimes. He sees the angels, comin’ down in clouds of glory; and he healed old Mrs. Bugner, that had complications, by the layin’ on of his hands. Pap says the Lord plans great blessings through him. Then there’s Ruth, she’s thirteen, and she had visions too, but she’s beginnin’ to think like I do; we have sensible talks—you know how it is, you can sometimes talk to people that’s your own age, things you can’t ever say to grown-ups.”

“Yes, I know,” said Bunny. “They think you don’t understand anything. They’ll talk right in front of you, and what do they think is the matter with your brains? It makes me tired.”

“Ruth is what makes it hard for me to stay away,” continued the other. “She said for me to go, but gee, what’ll they all do? They can’t do hard work like I can. And don’t you think I’d run away from hard work; it’s only that I want to get somewhere, else what’s the use of it? There ain’t any chance for us. Pap hitches up the wagon and drives us all to Paradise, where the Pentecostal Mission is, and there they all roll and babble all day Sunday, most, and the Spirit commands them to pledge all the money they’ve got to convert the heathen—you see, we’ve got missions in England and France and Germany and them godless nations, and Pap’ll promise more than he’s got, and then he’s got to give it, ’cause it don’t belong to him no more, it’s the Holy Spirit’s, see. That’s why I quit.”

There was silence for a space; then Paul asked: “What’s that big crowd of folks in there for?”

“That’s the oil lease; didn’t you know about the oil?”

“Yes, we heard about the strike. We’re supposed to have oil on our ranch—at least, my Uncle Eby used to say he’d come onto signs of it; but he’s dead, and I never seen ’em, and I never expected no luck for our family. But they say Aunt Allie here is a-goin’ to be rich.”

A sudden vision flashed over Bunny—of Mrs. Groarty, in her shiny robe of yellow satin, and her large bare arms and bosom. “Tell me,” he said, “does your aunt roll?”

“Gosh, no!” said the other. “She married a Romanist, and Pap calls her the Whore of Babylon, and we’re not supposed to speak to her no more. But she’s kind, and I knew she’d gimme some grub, so when I found I couldn’t get a job, I come here.”

“Why couldn’t you get a job?”

“’Cause everybody lectures you and tells you to go back home.”

“But why do you tell them about it?”

“You have to. They ask where you live, and why ain’t you at home; and I ain’t a-goin’ to lie.”

“But you can’t starve!”

“I can before I’ll go crooked. I had a fuss with Pap, and he says, if you depart from the Holy Word, the devil gets you, and you lie and cheat and steal and fornicate; and I says, ‘Well, sir, I’ll show you. I think a fellow can be decent without no devil.’ I made up my mind, and I’m a-goin’ to show him. I’ll pay back Aunt Allie, so I’m only borrowin’ this grub.”

Bunny held out his hand in the darkness. “You take this,” he said.

“What is it?”

“Some money.”

“No, sir, I don’t want no money, not till I earn it.”

“But listen, Paul, my Dad’s got a lot of money, and he gives me what I ask him for. He’s come here to lease this block from your aunt, and he won’t miss this little bit.”

“No, sir, I ain’t a-goin’ to turn into no bum; I didn’t run away for that. You think ’cause I took some food out of my aunt’s pantry—”

“No, I don’t think that at all! And you can call this a loan, if you want to.”

“You put up your money,” said the other, with a note of harshness in his voice. “I ain’t a-goin’ to call no loans, and you done enough for me already; so forget it.”

“Well, but Paul—”

“Do what I say, now!”

“But then, you’ll come to the hotel tomorrow and have lunch with me?”

“No, I can’t come to no hotel, I don’t look decent.”

“But that don’t matter, Paul.”

“Sure it matters! Your Dad’s a rich man, and he wouldn’t want no ranch-boy at his hotel.”

“Dad wouldn’t care—honest, he wouldn’t! He says I don’t know enough boys, I stay by myself and read too much.”

“Yes, but he don’t want no boys like me.”

“He says I’ve got to work, Paul—honest, you don’t know Dad. He’d like to have you come; he’d like us to be friends.”

There was a pause, while Paul weighed this proposition, and Bunny waited anxiously as if it were the sentence of a court. He liked this boy! He had never met any boy he liked so much as this one! And did the boy like him?

As it happened, the sentence of the court was never pronounced. Paul suddenly started to his feet crying, “What’s that?” Bunny also sprang up. From the direction of Mrs. Groarty’s house had come a clamor of voices, rising above the pounding of hammers and the sounds of labor in the neighborhood. The yells grew louder, and yet louder, and the boys dashed to the open window of the house.

Everybody in the room was on his or her feet, and all seemed to be shouting at once. It was impossible to see many in the crowd, but two men close by the window made a little drama all by themselves. They were Mr. Sahm, the plasterer, owner of one of the “little little lots,” and Mr. Hank, the ex-gold-miner, owner of one of the “big little lots”; they were shaking their fists at each other, and Mr. Sahm, the party of the first part, was shouting at Mr. Hank, the party of the second part, “You’re a dirty, lying, yellow skunk!” To which the party of the second part answered, “Take that, you white-livered puppy!” and hit the party of the first part, Biff! a crack on the nose. The party of the first part countered with a nasty upper-cut to the jaw of the party of the second part, Bang! And so they went to it, Biff, bang! Bang, biff!—and the two boys gazed through the open window, horrified, enraptured. Whoopee! A scrap!

There was a general appearance as if everybody in the room were fighting; but that could not have been the case, for there were several left to separate Messrs. Sahm and Hank, and to shove them into opposite corners. Before this process was entirely completed, Bunny heard a voice calling his name from the front of the house. “All right, Dad!” he answered, and ran to meet his father.

The three men of the Ross party were descending the front steps, and proceeding down the walk. “Come on,” said the father; “we’re a-goin’ back to the hotel.”

“Gee, Dad! What happened?”

“They’re a bunch of boobs, and you can’t do anything with them. I wouldn’t take their lease if they offered it as a gift. Let’s get out of here.”

They were walking towards their car, which was parked a little way down the road. Suddenly Bunny halted. “Oh, Dad,” he cried; “wait just a minute! Please, Dad, there’s a boy I met, and I want to tell him something. Wait for me, please!”

“Well, be quick,” said Dad. “I got another lease to see about tonight.”