THE Nick Adams STORIES Read Online Free Page A

and walked. The road was sandy. Nick looked back from the top of the hill by the schoolhouse. He saw the lights of Petoskey and, off across Little Traverse Bay, the lights of Harbor Springs. They climbed back in the wagon again.
    â€œThey ought to put some gravel on that stretch,” Joe Garner said. The wagon went along the road through the woods. Joe and Mrs. Garner sat close together on the front seat. Nick sat between the two boys. The road came out into a clearing.
    â€œRight here was where Pa ran over the skunk.”
    â€œIt was further on.”
    â€œIt don’t make no difference where it was,” Joe said without turning his head. “One place is just as good as another to run over a skunk.”
    â€œI saw two skunks last night,” Nick said.
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œDown by the lake. They were looking for dead fish along the beach.”
    â€œThey were coons probably,” Carl said.
    â€œThey were skunks. I guess I know skunks.”
    â€œYou ought to,” Carl said. “You got an Indian girl.”
    â€œStop talking that way, Carl,” said Mrs. Garner.
    â€œWell, they smell about the same.”
    Joe Garner laughed.
    â€œYou stop laughing, Joe,” Mrs. Garner said. “I won’t have Carl talk that way.”
    â€œHave you got an Indian girl, Nickie?” Joe asked.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHe has too, Pa,” Frank said. “Prudence Mitchell’s his girl.”
    â€œShe’s not.”
    â€œHe goes to see her every day.”
    â€œI don’t.” Nick, sitting between the two boys in the dark, felt hollow and happy inside himself to be teased about Prudence Mitchell. “She ain’t my girl,” he said.
    â€œListen to him,” said Carl. “I see them together every day.”
    â€œCarl can’t get a girl,” his mother said, “not even a squaw.”
    Carl was quiet.
    â€œCarl ain’t no good with girls,” Frank said.
    â€œYou shut up.”
    â€œYou’re all right, Carl,” Joe Garner said. “Girls never got a man anywhere. Look at your pa.”
    â€œYes, that’s what you would say,” Mrs. Garner moved close to Joe as the wagon jolted. “Well, you had plenty of girls in your time.”
    â€œI’ll bet Pa wouldn’t ever have had a squaw for a girl.”
    â€œDon’t you think it,” Joe said. “You better watch out to keep Prudie, Nick.”
    His wife whispered to him and Joe laughed.
    â€œWhat you laughing at?” asked Frank.
    â€œDon’t you say it, Garner,” his wife warned. Joe laughed again.
    â€œNickie can have Prudence,” Joe Garner said. “I got a good girl.”
    â€œThat’s the way to talk,” Mrs. Garner said.
    The horses were pulling heavily in the sand. Joe reached out in the dark with the whip.
    â€œCome on, pull into it. You’ll have to pull harder than this tomorrow.”
    They trotted down the long hill, the wagon jolting. At the farmhouse everybody got down. Mrs. Garner unlocked the door, went inside, and came out with a lamp in her hand. Carl and Nick unloaded the things from the back of the wagon.Frank sat on the front seat to drive to the barn and put up the horses. Nick went up the steps and opened the kitchen door. Mrs. Garner was building a fire in the stove. She turned from pouring kerosene on the wood.
    â€œGood-by, Mrs. Garner,” Nick said. “Thanks for taking me.”
    â€œOh, shucks, Nickie.”
    â€œI had a wonderful time.”
    â€œWe like to have you. Won’t you stay and eat some supper?”
    â€œI better go. I think Dad probably waited for me.”
    â€œWell, get along then. Send Carl up to the house, will you?”
    â€œAll right.”
    â€œGood night, Nickie.”
    â€œGood night, Mrs. Garner.”
    Nick went out the farmyard and down to the barn. Joe and Frank were milking.
    â€œGood night,” Nick said. “I had a swell