“Your father wants Carrie to think that he’s wonderful, that he’s the best and bravest and finest man on earth. He wants her—”
“But he is! My father is the best.”
Mrs. Emmerling smiled. “Yes, he is, but Carrie doesn’t see that. All she sees is that, well, your father isn’t as good a farmer as, say, your Uncle Hiram.”
“Nobody can farm as good as he can,” Tem muttered. If Uncle Hiram was an example of what a man should be, then he was glad his father was so bad at farming.
“Exactly. I’m afraid Carrie sees that your father’s not a very good farmer, and your father sees that she sees.”
“You think Carrie will fall in love with Uncle Hiram?”
“I doubt that,” Mrs. Emmerling said, chuckling.
Tem still didn’t understand. “But Carrie didn’t like Papa before she saw his fields. I think Carrie liked Papa at first, but Papa didn’t like her. He said she couldn’t feed us or wash clothes.”
“But that’s the same thing, isn’t it? Your father doesn’t think that Carrie is the greatest person on earth, just as she doesn’t think that about him. If they don’t start thinking that about each other, they’ll never love each other.”
Tem was silent for a moment. “What about the dirty dishes?”
Mrs. Emmerling laughed. “If your father falls in love with Carrie, I think that your father may start washing the dishes himself. And he’ll honestly think that whatever she cooks is delicious.”
“Even her eggs?” There was absolute disbelief in Tem’s voice.
“Especially her eggs.” Mrs. Emmerling watched the boy for a while longer, then got up to finish cleaning. For herself, she was glad Carrie didn’t know how to clean, since she and her family needed the money Carrie paid her.
After a while Tem got up, left the house, and went outside. Dallas was sitting under the shade of a tree at the edge of the woods and jabbering away to her doll. When Choo-choo saw Tem, he left Dallas’s side and ran to him. As Tem sat down on the e
dge of the porch, stroking the little dog, he thought about what Mrs. Emmerling had told him.
If Carrie left, he was sure that his father would let the roses she’d had planted die. And both he and Dallas would have to spend all day in the fields with their father. Josh didn’t too often make Dallas do things in the fields, but she had to stay within his sight, and she got awfully bored sometimes.
If Carrie left, everything would go back to the way it was, and right now that looked like a hideous prospect to Tem.
“What can I do?” Tem whispered to Choo-choo. “How can I make Papa and Carrie think that each other is great?”
Tem tried. He knew that if he never did anything else in his life, at least he’d tried to show Carrie and his father how great the other one was. But by the time he went to bed, he was past unhappiness.
Throughout dinner he had pointed out every good quality he could think of about each of them. He told his father how pretty Carrie was. He talked about her trunks full of wonderful things and how, if Carrie stayed, she could bring them into the house for Josh to see. This had made his father say some unpleasant things about Carrie’s brothers who he said spoiled her, which made Carrie say that her brothers were a great deal nicer than Josh was.
Tem told Carrie about his father’s taking care of them. Tem very much wanted to tell Carrie about the past, but he couldn’t because talking about the past was forbidden. His father had said, “That part of my life is done, and there’s no use speaking of it ever again.”
Dallas seemed to sense her brother’s frustration, so she said, “Papa gives speeches. He gives good speeches, and the ladies like him.”
Josh gave his daughter a look that silenced her.
Carrie, however, showed great interest in what Dallas had said and asked several questions, but Josh wouldn’t answer her or allow the children to answer her.
Tem sighed and tried again, trying to think of things for the two of them to do together. He suggested they go fishing together, but Josh snorted at that, saying he had to work for a living. Tem suggested that Carrie help his father debug the corn plants.
“Sorry, but she only does things that Daddy’s money can buy.”
At that, Dallas had started crying at the tone of voice her father was using. When Josh pulled his daughter into his arms, he said that Carrie had made Dallas cry.
“Your rudeness, not to mention your intractability, has made her cry.”
Tem didn’t know that word, but his father seemed to.
Josh got very angry and opened his mouth to say something to Carrie, but she jumped up from the table and went to the bedroom. “You can clear the table yourself, since it seems to mean so much to you,” she said before slamming the bedroom door.