Pig in a Poke Chapter 3 Slight misunderstanding

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About a week later I was walking pretty good and the bruising was almost gone although there was still some pain when I sat down, but it was tolerable.  

 

Charlie came over and we laughed about the evening, but I wished I had my five dollars back.

Ma heard us talking and had a good idea what happened but she figured I had to get it out of my system so she didn’t get down on me.

She did see me down at the creek washing up and saw my bruising, but still kept quite about it and didn’t question me like Charlie’s Ma did.  She got the whole story out of him and eventually she told my Ma and a whole lot of other people.

All I had kept was the ten cents and I couldn’t work for a couple of weeks.  It was going to take me a long time to save up some money again for I didn’t make much and I give almost everything I earned to Ma.

Since Pa left us she had a hard time making a living for us.  She had a big garden, some chickens and raised a hog or two for the killing in the early winter.  

 

With the money she made taking in washing and sewing for others we barely got by, but to me, I thought we lived pretty good.  As the days went by, working and schooling was about all we did.  

Charlie said there is pot luck on Saturday and we should go.  I agreed cause there was always more food than you could eat and it was free.  

 

When we got there it wasn’t a pot luck but was a box social where the women fixed baskets full of food to bid on and when you won you got to sit with them while eating.

Neither of us had much money so we watched all the pretty girls’ baskets being bid on and sold.  Then it got down to the not-so-pretty girls and the bids were still too high for us.  

 

After that the only boxes left were fixed by some older spinsters and grandmas.  Even the spinster’s boxes were too high but when they got to the grandmas we proudly began to bid.  

 

There were some other boys in the same financial condition as we were and they looked hungry.  

They kept out bidding us and then there were some old men that joined in.  I suspected some of them had their eye on one of the widows.  Some of the widows were fixed pretty well.  They had their own home and a bank account.  

After a while I had the highest bid and a few baskets later Charlie won one.  As soon as I had won the bid some woman came over and said “you are mine.” 

 

As she led me off I could see Charlie being hugged by a very large woman as he cast his eyes in my direction.

To be Continued