U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [152]
He had a letter from Jim saying that ma had written from Fargo that she was worried about him and that
Charley had better let Jim take a look at him so he went over to the Vogels' next Sunday. First thing he did when he saw Jim was to say that busting up the Ford had been a damn fool kid's trick and they shook hands on it and Jim said nobody would say anything about it and that he'd better stay and eat with them. The meal was fine and the beer was fine. Jim's kid was darn cute; it was funny to think that he was an uncle. Even Hedwig didn't seem so peevish as before. The garage was making good money and old man Vogel was going to give up the livery-stable and retire. When Charley said he was studying at nightschool old Vogel began to pay more attention to him. Somebody said something about La. Fol ette and Charley said he was a big man.
"Vat is the use being a big man if you are wrong?" said old Vogel with beersuds in his mustache. He took an-other draft out of his stein and looked at Charley with
-384-sparkling blue eyes. "But dot's only a beginning . . . ve vil make a sozialist out of you yet." Charley blushed and said, "Wel , I don't know about that," and Aunt Hart-mann piled another helping of hasenpfeffer and noodles and mashed potatoes on his plate. One raw March evening he took Emiscah to see "The Birth of a Nation." The battles and the music and the bugles made them al jel y inside. They both had tears in their eyes when the two boys met on the battlefield and died in each other's arms on the battlefield. When the Ku Klux Klan charged across the screen Charley had his leg against Emiscah's leg and she dug her fingers into his knee so hard it hurt. When they came out Charley said by heck he thought he wanted to go up to Canada and enlist and go over and see the Great War. Emiscah said not to be sil y and then looked at him kinda funny and asked him if he was pro-British. He said he didn't care and that the only fel ows that would gain would be the bankers, whoever won. She said, "Isn't it terrible?
Let's not talk about it any more."
When they got back to the Svensons', Mr. Svenson
was sitting in the parlor in his shirtsleeves reading the paper. He got up and went to meet Charley with a wor-ried frown on his face and was just about to say some-thing when Emiscah shook her head. He shrugged his shoulders and went out. Charley asked Emiscah what
was eating the old man. She grabbed hold of him and put her head on his shoulder and burst out crying. "What's the matter, kittens what's the matter, kitten?" he kept asking. She just cried and cried until he could feel her tears on his cheek and neck and said,
"For crissake, snap out of it, kitten; you're wilting my col ar." She let herself drop on the sofa and he could see that she was working hard to pul herself together. He sat down beside her and kept patting her hand. Suddenly she got up and stood in the middle of the floor. He tried to
-385-put his arms around her to pet her but she pushed him off. "Charley," she said in a hard strained voice, "lemme tel ye somethin' . . . I think I'm goin' to have a baby."
"But you're crazy. We haven't ever . . ."
"Maybe it's somebody else . . . Oh, God, I'm going to kil myself." Charley took her by the arms and made her sit down
on the sofa. "Now pul yourself together, and tel me what the trouble is."
"I wish you'd beat me up," Emiscah said, laughing crazily. "Go ahead; hit me with your
"I wish you'd beat me up," Emiscah said, laughing crazily. "Go ahead; hit me with your fist." Charley went weak al over.
"Tel me what the trouble is," he said. "By Jez, it couldn't be Ed." She looked up at him with scared eyes, her face drawn like an old woman's. "No, no . . . Here's how it is. I'm a month past my time, see, and I don't know enough about things like that, so I asks Anna about it and she says I'm goin' to have a baby sure and that we've got to get married right away and she told dad, the dirty little sneak, and I couldn't tel 'em it wasn't you . . . They think it's you, see, and dad says it's al right, young folks bein' like that nowadays an' everythin' an' says we'l have to get married and I thought I wouldn't let on an' you'd never know, but, kid, I had to tel you."