Page:The Geranium.pdf/193

91 a cousin in Taulkinham--a Mr. Henrys, she thought. Being from Taulkinham Haze might know him. Had he ever heard the....

"Taulkinham ain't where I'm from," Haze muttered. "I don't know nothin' about Taulkinham" He didn't look at Mrs. Hosen. He knew what she was going to ask next and he felt it coming and it came, "Well, where do you live?"

He wanted to get away from her. "It was there," he mumbled, squirming in the seat. Then he said, "I don't rightly know, I was there butt...this is just the third time I been at Taulkinham," he said quickly--her face had crawled out and was staring at him--"I ain't been since I went when I was six. I don't know nothin' about it. Once I seen a circus there but not...." He heard a clanking at the end of the car and looked to see where it was coming from. The porter was pulling the walls of the sections farther out. "I got to see the porter a minute," he said and escaped down the aisle. He didn't know what he'd say to the porter. He got to him and he still didn't know what he'd say. "I reckon you're fixing to make them up now," he said.

"That's right," the porter said.

"How long does it take you to make one up?" Haze asked.

"Seven minutes," the porter said.