Since the ground was deep in
mud, they had gone barefoot, on the advice of Pauline Isabel, the
colored girl in a neighboring shack. The cool mud squshed up
between their toes and plastered their legs pleasantly.
The grown folks had been given wooden hands for picking--scoops
with finger-like cleats! At first they were awkward at stripping
the branches, but soon the berries began to drop briskly into the
scoops. The children, who could get at the lower branches more
easily, picked by hand; and before noon all the Beecham fingers
were sore from the prickly stems and leaves. In the afternoon
they had less trouble, for an Italian family near by showed them
how to wrap their fingers with adhesive tape.
But picking wasn't play. The Beechams trudged back to their
shack that night, sunburned and dirty and too stiff to straighten
their backs, longing for nothing but to drop down on their beds.
"Good land of love!" Grandma scolded. "Lie down all dirty on my
clean beds? I hope I ain't raised me up a mess of pigs. You
young-ones, you fetch a pail of water from the pump, and we'll
see how clean we can get. My land, what wouldn't I give for a
bathtub and a sink! And a gas stove!"
"Peekaneeka, Gramma!" Dick reminded her, squeezing her.
"Picnic my foot! I'm too old for such goings-on.
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