Way Down Deep Read Online Free PDF Page B

pick up the receiver, and hear what they could hear.
    So it was from the party line that the big news spread around town on the following Saturday that Mr. Dales had taken a bunch of boys from town up to Yonder Mountain in his truck that morning to haul the Reeders and their belongings down. They had moved into the green two-story frame house on Ward Street, a few houses beyond The Roost. The Dales family had lived there before they built their new brick ranch out on Highway 99. Mr. Dales was letting the Reeders live there rent-free for the time being.
    Ruby refrained from intruding on the newcomers at such a hectic time, but all day her curiosity led her to watch the street for any signs of the new kids. She thought perhaps they would want to look around the neighborhood. It was after supper when she glanced out a front window, and sure enough there was a strange boy and an old man walking on the sidewalk.
    â€œGonna run down the street for a bit!” she hollered to Miss Arbutus, and hurried out the door.
    â€œHello!” she called to the strangers. “What’s your name?”
    The boy turned to her with a shy smile. “I’m Peter Reeder, and this is my granddaddy. Everybody calls him Bird.”
    â€œWhy do they call him Bird?”
    â€œ ’Cause that’s his name.”
    â€œOh.”
    The man jingled when he walked because he had a string of tiny silver bells tied round his ankle.
    â€œHow do you do, Bird,” Ruby said politely, and held out a hand to the man. “My name is Ruby June.”
    Bird did not take the hand. Instead he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stared at Ruby with a puzzled expression.
    â€œHe’s not quite all there,” Peter apologized as he took his granddaddy’s arm.
    â€œThen where’s he at?” Ruby asked.
    â€œFloating around somewhere in the past. He’s going through his second childhood.”
    â€œWhat are the bells for?” Ruby asked.
    â€œHe’s liable to wander off and get lost. So the bells let us know where he is.”
    Peter was about the same age as Ruby, she guessed. He was taller than his daddy, Robber Bob, but he had the same gray eyes. He was tan as a nut and had a mess of blond hair hanging down in his face.
    â€œWhere you going to?” Ruby asked him.
    â€œJust to walk around town,” he answered. “Maybe I’ll see a HELP WANTED sign in a store window.”
    â€œMonday morning might be the best time to look for a job,” Ruby informed him.
    â€œWell, to be honest, I was thinking Saturday night might be the best time to make friends,” Peter said.
    â€œConsider me friend number one, and I’ll show you around,” Ruby said.
    â€œSure. I’d like that.”
    Together they continued toward Busy Street.
    â€œPanthers got ’er,” Bird said.
    Peter ignored the old man, and said to Ruby, “Do you live in that big white house you came out of?”
    Ruby nodded.
    â€œI saw a goat in back of there today. He was standing on the top of a Studebaker.”
    â€œThat’s my Jethro,” Ruby replied. “He likes to have a good view of the town.”
    â€œYou’re right handy to the schoolhouse,” Peter said. “Just across the road. With the football field over there, I bet you could go up to the top floor of your house and see the games for free, couldn’t you?”
    â€œI could, but I just pay my quarter like everybody else.”
    Peter glanced back over his shoulder at The Roost. “It sure is a nice big house,” he said, with admiration in his voice.
    â€œIt’s a boardinghouse,” Ruby explained. “Did you see the sign there over the porch that says ‘The Roost’?”
    â€œYeah, I saw it when we first went by today, but I didn’t know what it meant.”
    â€œWell, that’s what it means. You know, when chickens turn in for the night, people say they are going to