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28 The years slipped away one at a time, winter following summer. Johnnie was still working at the sawmill. Sarah Ellen was now in the eighth grade. One evening when Johnnie was having supper with them he said, just as casually as if he were telling her about buying a mule, "I'm gettin' married this next weekend/7 Rennie was too stunned to speak. She knocked over a glass of milk, and in the fuss of cleaning up the mess, she had time to get control of herself. "Ye're what?" She spoke at last and hoped that her voice sounded normal. "The old bachelor's finally let himself get caught. Betsy is her name. She's the daughter of the man I've been workin' fer. She's been helpin' cook fer the men at the shanty." "Well, I'm glad there'll be someone livin' in yer house. Ye will be livin' there, won't ye?" Rennie asked. "Yeah, we're goin' to marry and move right in. She'll be there and I'll still be workin' at the mill. I'm goin' to try and buy me an old truck so that I can stay at home and drive in to work. I was goin' to ask ye if ye'd help her until she learns the ropes of light housekeepin'. Cookin' fer two will be a lot different from cookin' fer several." "Shore, I'll do all I can. Shore will be good havin' another girl about my age to talk to again, another woman to buddy with." "Well, she's not much younger than you. Let's see, ye're twenty-four now and she's twenty-three, and me, I'm twentynine . This is her second time around. She was married five years ago and her husband got killed when a log rolled off the skids, less than a year after they were married." "How sad," Rennie said. "Were there any childern?" "No," Johnnie said, "and she loves childern, so we hope to have a houseful fer ye to help take care of." "Countin' yer chickens before they're hatched, aren't ye?" Rennie laughed. "No, countin' my childern before they hatch." That night Rennie lay awake a long time thinking. Would Johnnie still be the same? Would she still be his best friend? There were many questions that didn't have answers. "This isn't a story book," she told herself. "This is real life and we must live it as it's meted out to us." Two weeks later Johnnie came by with Betsy, and Rennie saw at first glance that they were going to be friends. She was so small it was hard to think of her as being a grown woman, only coming to Johnnie's ears, and he was only five ten. "She's not much larger than Sarah Ellen," thought Rennie , "and her only twelve." But strength of character seemed to flow from Betsy like a living stream. She was a person it would be well to have on your side, but threatening if against you. "I'm an only child," she told Rennie. "I've never had a family except father. I've followed him from place to place as he set up sawmills. When he gets all the trees cut from one holler, he moves on to another locality. I think that Johnnie jest married me to get the sawmill where he's been workin'." Her laugh told Rennie that she was joking, but it was true that her father had given them the sawmill. "It's better that ye have it now. Ye'd get it when I die," he had told them, and Johnnie had accepted, although it went against his pride. It wasn't long until Johnnie bought his truck. It was far from new, but it was the first truck that had ever been up Lonesome Holler. All the folks came to their doors to see this new marvel . There was no road, and Johnnie had to follow the creek over the bumps and rocks, but he got there somehow. 173 ...
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