Spring 2015
mules died he ‘bout gave up but he had too many kids to give up. He worked night and day and was
beginning to see the light and then the drought hit. Now they was living on hog fat and whatever else
come their way. He wanted to go to California but didn’t have the means to do so.”
Somebody hollers, “Cab, what’s this got ta do with marrin’ Millie?”
“Hold your horses. I’m getting’ to it. Just give me time. Let’s see where was I? Oh yeah…I was
finishin’ filling my barrels when that farmer was called in the house. I begin to roll the barrels over
ta the truck and loadin’ up. There was this young boy standing by the corral watching me. He’d had
his eye on me ever since I drove up. He wasn’t more than fourteen and bare foot with worn-out overalls
and a raggedy straw hat. I decided to see if he could talk so I asked him what the wire cages was for.
When he said, ‘Them’s monkey cages.’ My chin bounced off my chest—that weren’t no boy that was
a woman. A smart-alecky woman too, callin’ coolin’ cages monkey cages. I didn’t know what ta say
so I finished loadin’ and drove back to camp.”
Joe Blow from Idee’ho asks, “Was that boy Millie?”
“Sure was but I didn’t know it at the time. I couldn’t get those poor folks off my mind so the
next Sunday I drove around to the cookhouse, loaded up with food stuffs and went over ta visit ‘em.”
Millie calls from the tent. “Cab Cleebo, you get that boy in to bed right now. It’s way past his
bed time.”
Cab takes Archie by the hand and says, “Goodnight, I’ll finish the story tomorrow.”
It’s almost dark the next day as the men gather around the campfire for a session of story telling.
Archie, as usual, has a front row seat. Sandy says, “Cab, ya gotta finish that story ya started last night.”
Archie delights as Cab goes through the long, drawn-out version of his courtship of Millie. “Well,
when Bill Hager, that’s the old farmer’s name, saw all the grub I brought for the family he invited me
to stay for dinner. After dinner we sit outside and he lit up his pipe to chase the bugs away. That old
man, they called him Hager Bill, knowed more about World affairs than any city feller I ever met. He
told me all about the Teapot Dome Scandal and about Boss Tweed and the Railroad Barons and Jim
Fiske, Diamond Jim Brady, and fellers I barely ever heard of. He talked about Cal Coolidge like they
growed up in the same house.”
Sandy leaps to his feet. “Cab, ya done told us about everything in this world ‘cept Millie. When
ya gonna stop beatin’ around the bush and tell us how ya hooked up with Millie?”
Cab breaks into a belly laugh. “There ain’t much to tell. For two months I went over to that
house ever’ Sunday and ever’ time was the same; I’d bring a truck-load of grub, we’d eat dinner, then
Hager Bill and me would sit outside and talk till it was time to go home.”
“You never once talked to Millie?”
“I never talked to nobody but Hager Bill. I didn’t even know the names of the youngun’s or the
Missus. It was him and me the whole way.”
“Damn it! Stop beatin’ around the bush!”
Both Archie and his dad roared with laughter. “The last Sunday I was there I told ‘em my job was
over and I’d be movin’ on to my next job. The Missus and all the kids started wailin’: they didn’t
wanna see me go. Old Bill Hager understood and wished me well but ever’ body else kept bawlin’.
Finally, I decided not to stay for dinner and headed for my truck. Millie followed me and held onto
the door so I couldn’t drive away. She was bawlin’ and I was trying to tell her I might come back some
day. S he wasn’t havin’ none of that so I asked her if she wanted to go with me. She said yes and I
said I’d talk to her folks and she said it was all right with them. So she run and got her suitcase and
The Linnet's Wings