Billy Boy Read Online Free PDF

clumsiness, and brushed the dirt from his trousers. He grinned at Mary, beguiled as the wind lifted ringlets of her auburn hair from under her bonnet. “You sure look pretty today, Mary.”
    â€œWhy, that’s mighty nice of you, Billy.”
    â€œCan I tell him?” Harry asked excitedly as he turned to Mary. She blushed and lowered her eyelids, nodding slowly.
    â€œMary said she’d wait for me—you know, after the war.”
    â€œWait for what?”
    â€œWe’re going to get married!”
    â€œWhen Harry gets back; three years, most like,” Mary said softly. Dust and dirt spewed from the windswept street. She placed a hand over her mouth and coughed. “I’ll be going now, Harry. Why don’t you stay and talk with Billy for a while.” Mary turned around, the wind fanning her calico skirt around her ankles as she hurried down the steps. “Billy, tell your brother that I’ll be his teacher come the fall term,” she said without looking back.
    â€œYes, ma’am.”
    Harry laughed and shook his head. “Been angling for Mary’s attention since she first come to Sunday school all them years ago. Remember how I told her I’d lost my Bible just so she would share hers with me? Walked her home in the rain, and when I offered up my jacket, my Bible plum fell out of the pocket! Been on a chase for near six years. I’m thinking this here war helped me out this time, what with me leaving and all.”
    Suddenly he glanced at the white clapboard building across the street and turned back to Billy. “Where were you just now?”
    â€œTown hall.”
    â€œYou enlisted?”
    â€œSame as you.”
    â€œYour pa’s letting you do this?”
    Billy scuffed his boots across the plank steps, and then raised his face to the storm clouds rolling black across the skies.
    â€œBilly—you ain’t told your pa, have you?”
    â€œWanted to be with you and Leighton and Josh and—”
    â€œBilly …” Harry ran his fingers through his hair.
    â€œYou sore at me?”
    â€œLook, I ain’t sore at you. It’s just that you went off and done this …”
    The sky rumbled and clapped with thunder. Finally the clouds burst, and in an instant Main Street turned to mud. Billy slapped a hand over his mouth.
The hay!
    â€œI’m needin’ to go!”
    He raced down the greasy steps, his heart pounding as he stumbled through the drenching rain.
    Chores.
    Duty.
    You have to finish your chores in the army.
    â€œSit over there, son,” Pa said sharply, pointing to a row of chairs in the empty hallway. Billy nodded glumly and chose a seat that offered a clear view of the office. He could see Lieutenant Colonel Merrill still at his desk, dropping a stack of papers into a satchel. He glanced quickly around the hallway and noticed that Frances Porter’s desk was no longer there.
    Billy hoped Pa wouldn’t tell the officer about how he had spoiled the hay. When he got back to the pasture he had seenthe rutted tracks of the hay cart in the sodden field, where, heavy with rain, haystacks lay flattened. Billy ran to the barn only to find Pa, Jamie, and Ma piling what little hay they had saved into the loft. Ma turned away when she saw him. He was sure Pa would scold him good, maybe even tan him right there, but he hadn’t raised a hand. Just told him to get in the wagon. Said one of the Kinsley boys had been by. He’d seen Billy at the recruiting office.
    Billy watched Pa pull off his cap and step into the office, his muddied boots heavy across the floor. Resting his elbows on his knees, his chin cupped in his hands, Billy leaned forward and listened.
    â€œName’s John Laird. Understand my son come by and signed up this morning.”
    â€œHmm—yes, here it is. William H. Laird?”
    Billy saw his father nod his head, sit down, and pick at wisps of straw embedded in his overalls.