Free Buddies by Nancy L. Hart Page A

she so thoroughly enjoyed spreading and hearing.
    Ernie said, “I heard what y’all wuz talkin’ about; an’ I commence to wonder who Ruby Creek wuz named after? I’ve lived around these parts all my life; go to school too, but I ain’t never heard it said who it wuz named after. Do y’all happen to know sech?”
    “I’d say that it wuz named after a gal, bein’ its gotta gal’s name.” Joey Frank spoke up.
    “Well, I know that, Joey Frank, an’ ever’body else knows sech, but who wuz the gal? That’s what I wanna know.”
    Miss Mattie’s face flushed red, and she looked at Ernie as if she wanted to knock his head off. She looked at Joey Frank the same way, and what she had to say wasn’t the lease bitfriendly. “You young folks think you’ve got to know everything these days, blabbing your mouths where they’re not wanted and having no respect whatsoever for your elders.”
    Miss Mattie’s spectacles had slipped to her nose from shaking her head back and forth with shame. She pushed them back up, as she walked closer to the stunned boys and pointed her finger at them. She shook it a time or two and concluded her little speech by saying, “Foolish minds are not my kind, their thoughts are worthless and deprive my time.”
    Miss Mattie reached over and snatched up the bag of things she had purchased from the counter. She said “Good-day” to Mr. McGraw, then whirled around and left the store.
    Joey Frank and Ernie were baffled by Miss Mattie’s actions. They couldn’t imagine what on earth they had said to offend her so much. They saw her about every time they came to Ruby Creek, and she had always been friendly enough. On one occasion when they were walking by her home on Main Street, she waved and called out to them from her front porch to come in so they could sample her fresh blueberry pie. Today Miss Mattie was totally different. The sudden change in her perplexed the boys.
    Joey Frank remembered hearing his Pa laugh and say little humorous things about Miss Mattie. He, Mama, and Gloria would always get a big thrill out of hearing them. There was no one who could put things into words and make them as exciting as Pa could. He said that Miss Mattie was the ugliest and nosiest old lady that he had ever seen in his life. She worked part-time at the post office. The men folks nicknamed her “Teakettle” because she kept a teakettle at the post office for the purpose of steaming open people’s mail. Pa said in the wintertime the little teakettle stayed heated and ready at all times on the potbellied stove. In the summer she heated the little metal pot of water on a contraption that she had rigged up with a candle under it. She told the public that her arthritis hurt so badly, sometimes, she couldn’t make it through the day without having her hot tea to sip on. He said her arthritis tale might have some of the folks fooled, but it sure didn’t fool him, because he knew the smell of tea brewing and Miss Mattie’s little kettle was full of nothing but pure well water for steaming open people’s mail. She felt compelled to keep up with what was going on in Ruby Creek.
    When Pa finished telling his tales about Miss Mattie and the family had their laughs, he would always add a kind word about her. He said although Miss Mattie might be a bit nosey and ugly, with oversized ears for a female, nevertheless she was a gracious old soul and there wasn’t a harmful bone in her body.
    Ernie wanted to know what he and Joey Frank had said to upset Miss Mattie, causing her to behave the way she had. He wanted to ask Mr. McGraw if he knew, but Mr. McGraw couldn’t stop laughing long enough for him to ask. The boys looked at each other with puzzled faces and then, at Mr. McGraw with confusion. They had made Miss Mattie so angry that she left the store, now Mr. McGraw was laughing so hard that he couldn’t get a hold of himself. His face had become so red from all the laughing that it looked as though every