Free The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty

away.
    "Well, go on, Uncle, I'm through with you," says Gladney.
    "He won't go away if you don't give him a nickel," I remarks from my seat.
    "What for?" says old Gladney, but forks over, and the old man goes off real pleased. I must say the whole courtroom smelled of Big John and his flower garden for a good time afterward.
    "I think as a witness, Mr. Gladney, Big John Beech was worth every bit of that," says DeYancey.
    But Uncle Daniel looked to me like his feelings were already hurt. Big John up there instead of him.
    Well, of course I hid it—but I was surprised myself at a few who were chosen as witnesses. Here rose up somebody I'd never expect to see testifying in a thousand years—Miss Teacake Magee. Old Gladney begins to tackle her.
    "Mrs. Magee, you were married to the defendant, Mr. Daniel Ponder, for two months in the year 1944, were you not?"
    Miss Teacake had cut bangs, and was putting on that she could barely whisper; the Judge had to tell her to speak up so people could hear.
    "And divorced?"
    You couldn't hear a thing.
    "Why were you divorced, may I ask?" says old Gladney, cheerful-like.
    "I just had to let him go," whispers Miss Teacake. That's just what she always says.
    "Would you care to describe any features of your wedded life?" asks old Gladney, and squints like he's taking Miss Teacake's picture there with her mouth open.
    "Just a minute," says the Judge. "Miss Edna Earle's girl is standing in the door to find out how many for dinner. I'll ask for a show of hands," and puts up his the first.
    It was a table full, I can tell you. Everybody but the Peacocks, it appeared to me. I made a little sign to Ada's sister she'd better kill a few more hens.
    Then Gladney gives a long look at the jury and says, "Never mind, Mrs. Magee, we understand perfectly. You'd rather keep it to yourself that you were harboring a booger-man. I won't ask you for another word about it."
    Miss Teacake's still looking at him pop-eyed.
    Old Gladney backs away on her easy, and DeYancey hops over and says, "Miss Teacake, just one question will clear this up, for us and you both, I think. In the period of this, your second marriage, did you ever at any time have cause to fear the defendant? Were you scared of Daniel, in other words?"
    "Listen here. I don't scare that easy, DeYancey Clanahan," says Miss Teacake in her everyday voice. They tell her just to answer the question. All she says is, "Ever since I lost Professor Magee, I've had to look after myself." She keeps a pistol by her bed, and for all I know, it's loaded.
    "But you did ask Mr. Ponder to go. Would anything ever induce you to ask him to come back?" says old Gladney, pointing a finger.
    And she hoots out "No!" and scares herself. But by that time they're through with her.
    She was mighty dressed up for that five minutes. Had a black silk fan she never did get worked open. Very different from appearing in church, appearing in a court trial. She said afterwards she had no
idea,
when she was asked to testify, that it might be for the other side.
    And here next came Narciss—her whole life spent with the Ponders, and now grinning from ear to ear. And she had that little black dog of hers with her. She didn't know any better than let him come, so there he trotted. And her black umbrella she came to town under was folded up and swinging by her skirt.
    "Woman, were you working in the Ponder house on the day of which we speak, Monday afternoon the sixteenth of June?" says old Gladney.
    "Just let me take off my shades," says Narciss. In town, she wears black glasses with white rims. She folds them in a case that's a celluloid butterfly, from Woolworth's, and says she was there Monday.
    He asked her what she was doing the last thing she did for Mrs. Ponder, and when she got around to that answer, she said, "Draggin' old parlor sofa towards the middle of the room like she tole me."
    "What for?"
    "Sir, lightnin' was fixin to come in de windows. Gittin' out de way."
    "Was