Free The Widow Finds Love (Mail Order Bride Series) by Susan Leigh Carlton Page B

she said.
     
    “Ma’am, the pleasure is all mine.  You have a mighty fine husband here.  I’ve known him since he was just a little shaver.”
     
    “Jud, I’m looking for some kind of poison powder to use on cotton worms.  Do you have anything along that line?” Clint asked.
     
    “I’ve got some arsenate of lead left over from last year.  I don’t think it goes bad, but I’ll make you a good price on it.  You going to use this on your cotton?  I never heard of anybody doing that before,” Jud said.
     
    “Sarah’s papa is a cotton farmer in South Carolina.  She said he used a mixture of poison and flour and just dusted the plants.”
     
    “It’d be a boon if something like that worked,” Jud said.  “I heard tell Seth Williams lost one whole field to them worms.  Come on back and let’s see what I have back here.”
     
    “Honey, you and the girls look around and I’ll be right back.
     
    “Jud, I’ll need to get a couple of sacks of flour too,” Clint said.
     
    In the back of the store, they found more than enough of the arsenate of lead to allow for a couple of dustings of the cotton.  “I’ll take it,” Clint said.
     
    “That’s a mighty smart woman you got there, Clint,” Jud said.
     
    “Her first husband was killed during the war in Virginia, and she planted and picked her crop until after the war, when they raised taxes way up and she lost the farm.  She’s got a lot of spirit.  I reckon as how I might have lost my entire crop before she told me about this dusting thing.  I hope it works.  If it doesn’t, then at least I’ve tried something instead of just letting the worms have it.”  He said this last, with a fierce determination.  He did not give up easily and not without a fight then.
     
    “You have any gloves?” asked the storekeeper.
     
    “I have a pair I use when working the fences,” said Clint.
     
    “We better get going.  I have to make the duster and start getting it out,  I haven’t seen any worms except in the field they already chewed up. but I want to be ready if they move.”
     
    “Come on girls.  Honey, I’m going to treat you to a meal at the café.  Seeing as you might have saved the day, it’s the least I can do.”
     
    “That’s twice today you’ve called me honey.  I like it.  Are you sure you don’t want to get back and get started on this?”
     
    “Since worms don’t come every year, my thinking is you wouldn’t dust until you had sign of the worms.  You’d save money on the years they don’t show,  I want to have a meal and show off my smart wife.  That’s what Jud called you,” he finished with a grin.
     
    She blushed prettily.  “He’s a nice man,” she said.
     
    They walked down to Delmonico’s Café and enjoyed a meal together.  Once again, with obvious pride, he introduced Sarah to the people he had known his entire life.  “Papa, you sure know a lot of people,” said Rebecca.
     
    “Well, I’ve lived here all my life and most of these people have too, so it’s just natural.  Let’s get back to the wagon and head home,” he said.
     
    Back at the farm…
     
    “I’ve been thinking about the duster,” Clint said.  “It would cut down on the amount of time to dust, if you made it over three rows instead of two.  I would need another bag that way.  If we limit the weight of the bag, and used the mule, I could probably dust most of a field in a day, easy.  It might take me a week to do the whole crop, but that wouldn’t be a problem, if I concentrate on the areas where the worms are active.”
     
    “I think you have a good plan”, said Sarah. 
     
    Two days later…
     
    “We’ve got worm signs in the next field over,” Clint told Sarah.  He donned his gloves, and poured the mixture into the bags.  He hitched up the mule and headed off to the infested area.  Four hours later, he was back at the house. Sarah made his lunch and poured a glass of lemonade for him.