onscious
of its bottle shape. Nevertheless the shape was there. When that child
learned the truth, when it heard the laughter and felt the ridicule,
what then? He could not bring himself to envy Allegheny Briskow.

"First off, Ma and me are goin' over to Dallas to do some tradin'," the
girl was saying. "After that we're goin' to the mountains."

"Your mother mentioned mountains."

"Yep. Her and Pa have allus been crazy about mountains, but they never
seen 'em. That's the first thing Ma said when Number One blowed in.
When we saw that oil go over the crown block, and when they told us
that black stuff was really oil, Ma busted out cryin' and said she'd
see the mountains, after all--then she wouldn't mind if she died. Pa he
cried, too, we'd allus been so pore--You see, Ma's kind of marked about
mountains--been that way since she was a girl. She cuts out stories and
pictures of 'em. And that's how me and Buddy came to be named Allegheny
and Ozark. But we never expected to _see_ 'em. The drought burned us
out too often."

Allegheny and Ozark. Quaint names. "Times must have been hard." The
remark was intended only as a spur.

"_Hard!_" There was a pause; slowly the girl's eyes began to smolder,
and as she went on in her deliberate way, memory set a tragic shadow
over her face. "I'll say they was hard! Nobody but us nesters knows
what hard times is. Out west of here they went three years without
rain, and all around here people was starvin'. Grown folks was thin and
tired, and children was sickly--they was too peaked to play. Why, we
took in a hull family--wagon-folks. Their hosses died and they couldn't
go on, so we kep' 'em--'til _we_ burned out. I don't know how we
managed to get by except that Pa and Buddy are rustlers and I can do
more 'n a hired man. We _never_ had enough to eat. Stuff just wouldn't
grow. The stock got bonier and bonier and finally died, 'count of no
grass and the tanks dryin' out. And all the time the sun was a-blazin'
and the dust was a-blowin and the clouds would roll up and then drift
away and the sun would come out hotter 'n ever. Day after day, month
after month, we waited--eighteen, I think it was. People got so they
wouldn't pray no more, and the preachers moved away. I guess we was as
bad off as them pore folks in Beljum. Why, even the rattlesnakes pulled
out of the country! Somehow the papers got hold of it and bime-by some
grub was shipped in and give around, but--us Briskows didn't get