In a few days the hens had once more laid enough eggs for Joey Frank to sell to the merchants in Ruby Creek, and finally buy a pair of shoes. The eggs brought enough money to buy a pair of high-topped brogans with an extra set of laces at McGraw’s General Store.
Joey Frank looked over the selection of shoes that smelled of new leather and picked out a pair to purchase. He started over to the checkout counter to pay for them, but he stopped when he got even with the glass case with all the chewing tobacco inside. As he looked in, he thought of Ernie and the many times that he had walked up to that glass unit, craving a chew of tobacco, but didn’t have a penny in his pocket to buy it.
Joey Frank thought about the day that Ernie was craving a chew so bad that he stuck his hand with a thorn and ran into the General Store. He told Mr. McGraw that a hornet had stung him, showing him the hand that had turned red from the jab.
Ernie asked Mr. McGraw if he would please spare him a piece of chewing tobacco to put on the sting to draw out the poison. He had told the proprietor that in the past when the hornets stung him, he got deathly sick, and therefore, the poison needed to be drawn out quickly. He explained that Brown Mule tobacco was the best brand to do the job quickly, because it was the strongest of all, just as the name implied. Mr. McGraw fell for Ernie’s scheme, and he satisfied his habit by giving him a cut of his favorite.
As Joey Frank stood looking at all the tobacco, he wondered if Ernie might not be craving a chew now. He knew Ernie wouldn’t be able to use the thorn scheme because of his predicament. He realized Mr. Brown didn’t have any money to spare toward his habit, especially since the accident had brought on so many medicine and medical bills. Ernie’s father did well to clothe and keep food on the table for his family.
Joey Frank wished now that he had gotten a few more dollars when he robbed Miss Rene, but at the time he was only thinking of Ernie’s eyesight and nothing else. The more he looked at the tobacco, the more he became convinced that Ernie might be in need of a chew. He couldn’t bring himself to go over to the checkout counter and pay Mr. McGraw for the shoes he so desperately needed; instead he took them back, put them on the shelf in their place. He then went to the checkout counter and spent all the egg money for Ernie’s favorite brand of chewing tobacco.
Before leaving Ruby Creek, Joey Frank sat down on the loiterers’ bench outside the General Store to eat an apple that Mr. McGraw had given him. There were two old gentlemen seated there, and they were discussing what they had heard about the bank robbery. One said the robber had cleaned out the bank so Miss Rene would have to close it. The other man said he heard that Miss Rene had put a slug in the robber’s shoulder as he was fleeing her office. His reliable source said the wounded outlaw went across the street to Doctor Black’s office and held him at gunpoint until he removed the bullet.
There wasn’t anything the two old gentlemen chatted about that was anywhere near the truth about how Miss Rene was robbed. Joey Frank got tired of listening to the wild talesand left Ruby Creek to go and visit with Ernie for a while. He decided to go the way he had gone after he robbed Miss Rene, so he could look for Pa’s hat. He felt sure he would find it, because he doubted if anyone would have bothered to pick the old thing up since it was dirty and weather-beaten.
When he reached the Bank on Main Street, he turned onto the alley that ran between it and a shoe shop. When he got to the end of the alley, where he had left Miss Rene standing at the bank’s back door, he began his search for the hat. He took his time as he walked the way he had run that day, combing the ground carefully, hoping to spot the much-treasured keepsake.
He looked in the tall grasses he had run through, and the signs were still there where he trampled them down. He looked in a gully he had jumped, thinking he may have lost it there. When finally he reached the little creek where he had discovered it was no longer on his head; he had little hope of ever finding it.
Joey Frank wondered how he would ever explain to Mama the disappearance of Pa’s hat, after she learned it was missing. He hoped she wouldn’t look for it in the near future, not until he could come back another day to search some more. Hopefully he could find it, and put it back where it belonged.
Joey Frank was disappointed to find no one, when he arrived at the Browns’ home. The only sign of life at the small farmhouse was Ringeye, who was lying on the front porch and a few chickens that were scratching at the edge of the yard. All the windows had their outside shutters closed, and the front door was secured by a heavy lock.
A five-gallon lard bucket used for Ringeye’s water was completely full, and there was more than the usual amount of table scraps left for him.
Joey Frank felt sure the Brown family had left for Atlanta. He was sad that he’d missed seeing Ernie before he went away and couldn’t give him the chewing tobacco. He however, was going to look forward to the day when Ernie would be home and could see once more.
As he was walking from Ernie’s home, he learned something that put his pensive heart at ease. He could see that his buddy didn’t go away without a chew of tobacco, because the evidence was left in a big brown splash on the white sand in the yard.