Raintree County Read Online Free
Author: Ross Lockridge
Indians, the most interesting people were probably the Negroes. Men would get together in front rooms and around the Court House at Freehaven, shake fists, spit tobacco, and talk in loud voices about the Negroes and the Election and Polk and Clay and Texas and the West.
The Negroes were black slaves in the South. It was a bad thing to keep them slaves and make them work. Johnny had walked through the South Field once and had gone a long way back hoping to see a Negro. He never did see one.
But that same day he kept on going and wound around back north until he crossed a road and came out at the Gaither farm. Nell Gaither was playing in the orchard under an appletree. She was a thin, serious girl with long golden hair, big blue-green eyes, and a freckled nose. She had a quiet, grave way of talking in contrast with Johnnyâs older sisters, who were very giggly and loud.
âYouâre Johnny Shawnessy, she said.
âYes, I am.
âIâm Nell.
âIs the river back of your house?
âYes. Iâll show you.
The river was a big mystery to Johnny. Now he and Nell walked a piece and pushed through some trees and came right out at theedge of the river. It was wide and pale green, and it had a cold green odor. He and Nell had played a long time by the river building little mud and stick huts. They both waded out looking for crawdads and frogs. Johnny forgot all about the time until he noticed that long shadows were falling on the river.
âYour folksâll be after you, Johnny, Nell said.
âLet âem, Johnny said.
You had to run away from home to have a good time like that.
When he started down the road that evening, he ran into a lot of people, and they all rushed at him and grabbed him and took him home.
Later his mother had come home on a horse, all hot and dusty and her dark red hair in strings down her face. She began to cry when she saw Johnny in the front yard surrounded by people. She hugged him very hard and kept saying, Thank God! and laughing and crying at the same time. Johnny cried too from sheer excitement. It appeared that he had been lost and found again. People said that his mother had ridden all over Raintree County looking for him.
âPoor Ellen! people said. Johnny, you pretty near killed your poor mother.
They never let him go back and play along the river again with Nell because it was too much fun.
That was when he learned that he was a person of great importance and that his exact location in Raintree County was a matter of intense concern to everyone.
Ellen Shawnessy, his mother, was short and slight. Though not pretty, she had a young girlish look. Her hair, dark with glints of red like Johnnyâs, was entirely ungrayed. Johnny was the last of her nine children, four boys and five girls. Two of the girls had died in an epidemic that swept through Raintree County in the early forties, and they lay beneath two stones with letters on them in the Danwebster Graveyard, across the river from the board church where T. D. preached.
âWhat is a great man, Mamma? Johnny asked as they waited in front of the cabin for T. D.
âA great man is somebody everyone looks up to. Heâs a good man who does things for other people.
âLike Pa?
Ellen Shawnessy smiled. Her smile was like Johnnyâs, quick and affectionate. More often than not she smiled for no other reason than that she felt animated and happy.
âWell, T. D. is a mighty good man, she said, and heâs smart too. But usually a great man is a wellknown man. That is, heâs famous.
Johnnyâs father, T. D. Shawnessy, preached and wrote poetry and delivered babies and made sick people well. He was very tall and thin, and his head looking down at Johnny from a great height always nodded blondly and benignly and smiled confidently and spoke very hopefully of God and the future.
âI aim to be a great man, Johnny said. Is God a great man?
âGod isnât exactly a man, Ellen
The Negroes were black slaves in the South. It was a bad thing to keep them slaves and make them work. Johnny had walked through the South Field once and had gone a long way back hoping to see a Negro. He never did see one.
But that same day he kept on going and wound around back north until he crossed a road and came out at the Gaither farm. Nell Gaither was playing in the orchard under an appletree. She was a thin, serious girl with long golden hair, big blue-green eyes, and a freckled nose. She had a quiet, grave way of talking in contrast with Johnnyâs older sisters, who were very giggly and loud.
âYouâre Johnny Shawnessy, she said.
âYes, I am.
âIâm Nell.
âIs the river back of your house?
âYes. Iâll show you.
The river was a big mystery to Johnny. Now he and Nell walked a piece and pushed through some trees and came right out at theedge of the river. It was wide and pale green, and it had a cold green odor. He and Nell had played a long time by the river building little mud and stick huts. They both waded out looking for crawdads and frogs. Johnny forgot all about the time until he noticed that long shadows were falling on the river.
âYour folksâll be after you, Johnny, Nell said.
âLet âem, Johnny said.
You had to run away from home to have a good time like that.
When he started down the road that evening, he ran into a lot of people, and they all rushed at him and grabbed him and took him home.
Later his mother had come home on a horse, all hot and dusty and her dark red hair in strings down her face. She began to cry when she saw Johnny in the front yard surrounded by people. She hugged him very hard and kept saying, Thank God! and laughing and crying at the same time. Johnny cried too from sheer excitement. It appeared that he had been lost and found again. People said that his mother had ridden all over Raintree County looking for him.
âPoor Ellen! people said. Johnny, you pretty near killed your poor mother.
They never let him go back and play along the river again with Nell because it was too much fun.
That was when he learned that he was a person of great importance and that his exact location in Raintree County was a matter of intense concern to everyone.
Ellen Shawnessy, his mother, was short and slight. Though not pretty, she had a young girlish look. Her hair, dark with glints of red like Johnnyâs, was entirely ungrayed. Johnny was the last of her nine children, four boys and five girls. Two of the girls had died in an epidemic that swept through Raintree County in the early forties, and they lay beneath two stones with letters on them in the Danwebster Graveyard, across the river from the board church where T. D. preached.
âWhat is a great man, Mamma? Johnny asked as they waited in front of the cabin for T. D.
âA great man is somebody everyone looks up to. Heâs a good man who does things for other people.
âLike Pa?
Ellen Shawnessy smiled. Her smile was like Johnnyâs, quick and affectionate. More often than not she smiled for no other reason than that she felt animated and happy.
âWell, T. D. is a mighty good man, she said, and heâs smart too. But usually a great man is a wellknown man. That is, heâs famous.
Johnnyâs father, T. D. Shawnessy, preached and wrote poetry and delivered babies and made sick people well. He was very tall and thin, and his head looking down at Johnny from a great height always nodded blondly and benignly and smiled confidently and spoke very hopefully of God and the future.
âI aim to be a great man, Johnny said. Is God a great man?
âGod isnât exactly a man, Ellen
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