But the new pride that the café brought to this town had an effe almost everyone, even the children. For in order to e to the café you did not have to buy the dinner, or a portion of liquor. There were cold bottled drinks for a nickel. And if you could not even afford that, Miss Amelia had a drink called Cherry Juice which sold for a penny a glass, and ink-colored and very sweet. Almost everyone, with the exception of Reverend T. M. Willin, came to the café at least once during the week. Children love to sleep in houses other than their own, and to eat at a neighbors table; on such occasions they behave themselves detly and are proud. The people iown were likewise proud when sitting at the tables in the café. They washed before ing to Miss Amelias, and scraped their feet very politely ohreshold as they ehe café. There, for a few hours at least, the deep bitter knowing that you are not worth mu this world could be laid low.
The café ecial be to bachelors, unfortunate people, and ptives. And here it may be mentiohat there was some reason to suspect that Cousin Lymon was ptive. The brightness of his gray eyes, his insistence, his talkativeness, and his cough -- these were all signs. Besides, there is generally supposed to be some e between a hunched spine and ption. But whehis subject had beeioo Miss Amelia she had bee furious; she dehese symptoms with bitter vehemence, but on the sly she treated Cousin Lymon with hot chest platters, Kroup Kure, and suow this wihe hunchbacks cough was worse, and sometimes even on cold days he would break out in a heavy sweat. But this did not prevent him from following along after Marvin Macy.
Early every m he left the premises ao the back door of Mrs. Hales house, and waited and waited -- as Marvin Macy was a lazy sleeper. He would stand there and call out softly. His voice was just like the voices of children who squat patiently over those tiny little holes in the ground where doodlebugs are thought to live, poking the hole with a broom straw, and calling plaintively: "Doodlebug, Doodlebug -- fly away home. Mrs. Doodlebug, Mrs. Doodlebug. e out, e out. Your house is on fire and all your children are burning up." In just such a voice -- at once sad, luring, and resigned -- would the hunchback call Marvin Maame each m. Then when Marvin Macy came out for the day, he would trail him about the town, and sometimes they would be gone for hours together out in the s.
And Miss Amelia tio do the worst thing possible: that is, to try to follow several courses at once. When Cousin Lymohe house she did not call him back, but only stood in the middle of the road and watched lonesomely until he was out of sight. Nearly every day Marvin Macy turned up with Cousin Lymon at diime, and ate at her table. Miss Amelia opehe pear preserves, and the table was well-set with ham or chi, great bowls of hominy grits, and winter peas. It is true that on one ociss Amelia tried to poison Marvin Macy -- but there was a mistake, the plates were fused, and it was she herself who got the poisoned dish. This she quickly realized by the slight bitterness of the food, and that day she ate no dinner. She sat tilted ba her chair, feeling her muscle, and looking at Marvin Macy.
Every night Marvin Macy came to the café aled himself at the best and largest table, the one in the ter of the room. Cousin Lymht him liquor, for which he did not pay a t. Marvin Macy brushed the hunchback aside as if he were a s mosquito, and