Judy's Journey (18 page)

I
T WAS ALWAYS GOOD
to be on the road again. Somehow, just getting into the jalopy and starting off always made the Drummonds feel they were leaving their troubles behind. It put them all in a holiday mood. Papa began to sing
You Are My Sunshine
and Joe Bob tried to whistle. Little Lonnie babbled happily.

“We'll go to Norfolk and take the ferry there,” said Papa. “Up through Delaware will be the shortest route to New Jersey. Hope our tires will hold out.”

“Me-eh! Me-eh! Me-e-eh!”

“Papa, I heard Missy,” cried Judy.

“You couldn't. She's miles behind on that farm where you left her,” said Papa.

“Me-eh! Me-e-e-eh!”

“I hear her. She's in that truck!” screamed Judy, pointing.

Papa slowed down and a truck stopped beside the car. In it sat the farmer and his wife, and over the railing in the back appeared the goat's head. The farmer opened the back of the truck and jerked the goat down.

“Take your old goat!” he shouted. “She knocked me down and nearly killed me.”

“We never want to see her again,” said the woman.

Judy jumped out and put her arms around Missy's neck. “So they don't want you … Well, we do. Joe Bob, come help me.”

In a few minutes the goat was back in the two-wheeled trailer and the jalopy started on.

Route 17 was long and monotonous, running through forests of pine trees and crossing innumerable cypress swamps. It was on a long rickety bridge that Joe Bob saw the dog. He yelled so loudly that Papa stopped at once.

“What's wrong? What's happened?”

Joe Bob jumped out of the car and ran back without speaking.

“What's he after?” demanded Papa.

“A dog,” said Mama, “and he'll want to keep it.”

Joe Bob came up to the car carrying a small puppy in his arms. It had soft silky brown hair and big brown eyes. The children bent over to stroke it.

“It's jest a little bitty thing like Barney was,” said Joe Bob, his eyes shining. “I named him after Uncle Barney—I'll name this un Barney too. He's hurt—he limps, likely a car bumped him. But there was nobody around, so he's jest a stray and nobody wants him but me.”

“Git in the car,” said Papa. “We can't park on a narrow bridge like this.”

They rode on and came to a place where they could pull off the road and stop.

“I'll put his leg in a splint,” said Judy, digging into the back of the car and bringing out her First Aid kit. “He's been scratched too—his leg's bleeding,” she said.

Joe Bob found a stick and borrowed Papa's knife and whittled it. Judy put the splint on and bandaged the dog's leg.

“Oh Papa!
You'll let me keep Barney, won't you
?” cried Joe Bob. “I wouldn't mind losin' Uncle Barney's dog if I can only have this un.”

“Son, you know you've forgot Uncle Barney's dog long ago,” said Papa.

“No, Papa. I'll never forgit, never …”

“And you know we can't even buy grain for the goat, 'cause we got to save every penny for gas and oil. Do you want to keep this dog if we don't have enough food for him?”

“He'd starve all alone there on that big bridge,” said the boy.

“A dog can eat a lot of food, son.”

“I'll find a way,” said Joe Bob. “I'll give him my own dinner.”

“You can't do that, son,” said Papa sternly. “We must go on now. You can keep the dog until we find some good folks to give him to—folks that will feed and take good care of him.”

The boy cuddled the dog in his arms and the jalopy moved on.

It was at a roadside stand that the Drummonds met the Darnells. The Darnells hauled a home-made house-trailer behind their car. It did not take long to get acquainted. There were Mr. and Mrs. Darnell and five children—Loretta and Jenny, fourteen and twelve, Quincy and Jess, the boys, ten and eight, and little Myrtle, six.

“We been all over everywhere,” said Tom Darnell, “but we started out first from Arkansas. They call us ‘fruit tramps' out west. We've picked potatoes in Kansas and Minnesota, cotton in Texas and Oklahoma. In Michigan we picked cherries and apples and peaches. More cherries in Wisconsin, and tomatoes in Indiana. And oh yes, strawberries in Kentucky. We've been in over thirty-three states.”

Judy brought out her Geography and she and Loretta found all the places on the map of the United States.

“How long have you been on the go?” asked Mama.

“Let's see,” said Mrs. Darnell. “We started out when Loretta and Jenny were four and two—that's ten years ago. Quincy was born in cherries, Jess in cotton and Myrtle in strawberries!”

Everybody laughed.

“My, it's nice to meet you folks,” said Mrs. Darnell. “We meet people from all over, at different places. We make so many friends—and then lose 'em.”

“You don't git tired from bein' on the go?” asked Mama.

“Law no, we're used to it—we could never be contented stayin' all the time in one place. Now we got the house-trailer, we got our home right with us. It's easier than when you got to pack and unpack all the time.”

She showed the Drummonds through the trailer. It had a tiny sitting room with pretty curtains and couches that were used for beds at night, a kitchen with sink and cupboards, and a bedroom with double bunks' each side. Judy gazed at all its wonders, speechless.

Then she listened to the men talking. Papa told about Florida and how he was planning to get work in New Jersey for the summer.

“Heard about the new cotton-picker?” asked Darnell. “They've got machines to dig potatoes and pick hops and pick corn. Next thing will be the cotton-picker.”

“The tractor put the mule and the horse out of business,” said Papa. “Next thing, the pickin' machines will do away with the men. I'm shore glad I ain't a cotton sharecropper—I got out jest in time.”

“I used to handpick peas ten years ago,” said Darnell. “Then that stopped and I tended a ‘viner' machine which turned out more peas with two men than two hundred used to pick.”

“Our pickin' days are numbered,” said Papa. “I shore will have to git me that little farm and settle down.”

“There's some crops the machines can't handle—yet,” said Darnell. “It still takes eyes to tell when strawberries are red enough, and fingers to reach in and grab the right ones. Then there's green beans. And fruit—peaches, for instance. They need human hands. The growers can't get along without pickers—yet.”

“How do you like Florida?” asked Papa.

“Sorry wages,” said Darnell, “but nice place to make the winter. I been goin' up to Michigan for three-four summers now, but I thought I'd try the Atlantic coast for a change.”

“Where you headin' for now?” asked Papa.

“We're jest explorin',” said Darnell. “Been thinkin' about tryin' New York State. My young uns would like to stop off in New York City and see the sights, if we go that far.”

“We're goin' to New Jersey,” said Papa. “Hope we'll meet up again.”

They passed the Darnells several times along the road, and once they all ate a picnic supper together and camped side by side. It was there that Judy noticed Jenny's and Loretta's shoes. They were brand new. They wore new dresses too.

“We bought our shoes in Charleston with Papa's potato money,” said Loretta. “Papa was foreman in a potato packing house there.”

“We got our new dresses in Florida with Papa's grapefruit money,” added Jenny.

“Do you wear your shoes when you go out in the field to pick?” asked Judy.

“Oh no, we pick barefooted and save our shoes for dressing up.”

“Do you work or go to school?”

“Both,” said Jenny. “We go to school unless it's easy picking. Or summer vacation—we pick all summer.”

“I don't care how much school we miss,” said Loretta. “Pop says we learn a-plenty just travelin' around.”

Judy sighed happily. How nice it was to have friends again!

It was Papa who suggested that Joe Bob give the dog to the Darnells. The dog's leg was well now and the splint and bandage had been taken off.

“Them two boys would take Barney,” said Papa, “and always have plenty to feed him. Their father makes good money. They dress well and he says he's never out of a job. He's learned the tricks of this crop migration business.”

“Quincy and Jess don't like Barney as much as I do,” said Joe Bob.

“But they would feed him well,” said Papa.

“O. K.,” said Joe Bob bravely.

So the next morning when the Darnells started out, a dog sat in the front seat between Quincy and Jess.

All the way through North Carolina, Joe Bob and Judy kept their eyes open for a dusty house-trailer bouncing along behind a big old red Reo with seven people in it. Each time they stopped, they inquired, but nobody had seen it. They began to wonder if the Darnells had turned off and given up the idea of going to Norfolk.

It was late at night when they reached a small town in the Norfolk area, which had a trailer park on its outskirts. When Papa asked if he could put up his tent, the owner took him over to a tent section, and there they camped for the night.

The next morning, who should walk into the tent but Barney! He ran briskly over to the pallet bed, jumped on Joe Bob's chest and began to lick his face. Joe Bob opened his eyes and laughed. Everybody was glad to see the dog again, even Papa.

“The Darnells are in the park somewhere,” cried Judy happily. “I'm going to find them.”

She came back with Loretta on one arm and Jenny on the other. The house-trailer was parked only a stone's throw away. Soon Mrs. Darnell strolled over to see Mama.

“They're havin' Sunday meetin' out under the trees,” she said. “Don't you folks want to come with us? It's mostly for the young uns, they give 'em story papers to keep, but there's prayin' and preachin' and singin'——”

“Oh Mama,” cried Judy, “just what you been wishin' for ever since Florida!”

“Bless goodness!” exclaimed Mama, astonished. “Here, in a trailer camp, right under the trees, without no meetin'-house?”

“Sure,” said Mrs. Darnell. “A preacher comes here every week, they tell me. They have meetin' for the migrants in lots of camps in California, and in the Middle West too. It's for everybody—it don't matter what church you belong to.”

“But what'll I wear?” wailed Mama. “I ain't been to meetin' since we left Plumtree Creek.”

Mama's old Sunday dress was badly mussed and so was Judy's feed-sack dress, but nobody noticed. They all went to the inter-faith service and sat on plank benches in the shade. There were all kinds of other people there. The preacher played a portable organ and when they sang
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
, the tears rolled down Mama's face.

But Judy did not cry—she was too happy. Her happiness lighted up her face as she listened to the music and all the things the preacher said. His text was
Do Unto Others
, and he talked about how to get along with strangers. One thing he said, Judy remembered: “There's only one way—be kind to others
first
. Don't wait for them to be kind to you.”

While they were singing
Shall We Gather at the River
, Barney jumped out of Quincy Darnell's arms and ran up to the front and barked at the organ. Everybody laughed as Joe Bob ran to pick him up. As the meeting closed, the people were friendly and stayed and talked together. Each of the children was given a different story paper, so Judy spent the rest of the day reading stories aloud to the little ones.

On Monday morning Tom Darnell came to take Papa away and see about jobs for both families. When the men returned, they said there was work for everybody. Papa laughed and said his luck had turned, but Mama and Judy knew it was because Tom Darnell put new life in him by his energetic example.