Four
__4 __ FOUR IT WAS ABOUT three o'clock when I knocked on Mrs. Walters' door. She woke JoJo to answer the door. He lit an oil lamp, then called out to ask who was there. I told him. He swung the door open and saw me standing there with blood over the most of my clothes. And my eyes, I knew he could tell they had been flooded. JoJo pulled me into the house and called his mother to come quick and told her, "Somebody has tried to kill Red." She came rushing in and nearly fainted when she sawall the blood on me. All the time I was trying to tell what had happened, but with both of them jabbering at the same time, it took several minutes to explain to them. Mrs. Walters bathed and bound my hand and got the bloody clothes taken off. JoJo, wide awake, kept wanting to know why I was there at this time of night. I told him to go back to bed and I would tell him all about it in the morning. Mrs. Walters put some old quilts on an old folding army cot and told me to lay down and try to get to sleep. She then blew out the light, and I slept good. They let me sleep until six o'clock. I got up, put on some clean overalls and a new shirt she had made for another one of her sons. I washed my face in cold water and held a handful of it to my eyes to help kill the stinging and redness I knew were in them. Breakfast was on the table and the aroma from a big plate of country ham was sure getting to me. Mrs. Walters had made a big mound of steaming hot biscuits, a bowl of gravy, eggs, butter, and country wild honey. I had to eat in a hurry. I didn't want to be late on my first day on my new job. I asked if JoJo could go with me. Mrs. Walters tried to get me to let JoJo go tell the foreman I had an accident, but she did let him go with me. She wrapped up some ham, biscuits, eggs, and a little honey in a cloth and told us to eat it for lunch. 27 When we got to the livery stable, Uncle John, the hostler (no kin to me, everybody called him Uncle) had the big blacks harnessed. They had been brushed till they shined like they had been polished. Uncle John sure loved to care for good animals. We were the first to leave the stable. Other drivers were brushing and harnessing their stock. Dad and Jim came riding up. Jim came to a stop and asked what happened to my hand. Dad rode on into the stable, paying me no mind. I told Jim how I hurt it. He cursed Dad and Mom and all he thought had anything to do with it. Me and JoJo led the mules to where I had left my wagon. I was still a little groggy and red eyed from last night and my hand wasn't letting up. It ached and pained like a toothache. The boss, Ben Howard, came up to give out orders for the day's work and saw me holding my bandaged hand up on the other shoulder. He asked me what was wrong. I told him I had snagged it on a wire. I asked him if JoJo could drive instead of me and told him that JoJo was the one I was to bring for him to meet. The boss walked over to JoJo and shook hands and said he would be pleased to hire him. JoJo's eyes gleamed with pride as he came over to where I stood. Mr. Howard said JoJo would be working as a company hired man and the company would pay his wages. I would be paid my rate just to stay on the job. JoJo hitched the big mules to the wagon and I climbed up to sit beside him. Three other workers got in the wagon to ride to the railroad siding. The foreman was there waiting. There were three huge pieces of machinery on a flatcar he wanted to be placed at different spots throughout the town. They were too large to put in the wagon. After measuring a dozen times or more the foreman gave up...
OR
