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when he entered the house. Mama and I both looked

up and gasped.

"What did you do now, Jack," Mama asked

after a moment, "to get such a beating?"

"They ganged up on me is what happened," he wailed. "Those thieves down at Bloody Mary's." He fixed his eyes on me. "You shouldn't have left that house so fast, Gabriel. We coulda made them pay to

have you leave."

"What for, Jack? So you can go and throw it

away at some bar or over some game of chance?"

Mama snapped. "Just like you did every other

nickel?"

"It was what was coming to us," he declared,

his arms spread.

"Us, Jack? How's it us? She's the one's suffered

and she don't get one penny because you've gone and

lost or spent it all, right? Or did you put away a little

for her?" Mama asked, knowing the answer. "I . . I just been trying to build something for

this family, is all. But I got cheated, so I went back to

get back what's mine and they jumped me." He stared

at me a moment. "They give you anything before you

left?" he asked.

"No, Daddy," I said.

"And if they had, we wouldn't tell you, Jack

Landry," Mama said.

"Ahh. Women never appreciate what a man

tries to do for them," he complained, and sank in his

worn easy chair. "I got to think up a new plan here.

Those Tates can't get off this. easy," he muttered. "Instead of spending all this time sitting, there

trying to think up a new plan to rob people, why don't

you go look for honest work, Jack?" Mama said, her

hands on her hips. He gazed up, his nearly closed