He moved slowly toward the stove.
He saw a girl working about the stove, saw that she carried a baby on her crooked arm, and that the baby was nursing, its head up under the girl’s shirtwaist.
And the girl moved about, poking the fire, shifting the rusty stove lids to make a better draft, opening the oven door; and all the time the baby sucked, and the mother shifted it deftly from arm to arm.
The baby didn’t interfere with her work or with the quick gracefulness of her movements.
And the orange fire licked out of the stove cracks and threw flickering reflections on the tent.
Tom moved closer.
He smelled frying bacon and baking bread.
From the east the light grew swiftly.
Tom came near to the stove and stretched out his hands to it.
The girl looked at him and nodded, so that her two braids jerked.
“Good mornin’,” she said, and she turned the bacon in the pan.
The tent flap jerked up and a young man came out and an older man followed him. They were dressed in new blue dungarees and in dungaree coats, stiff with filler, the brass buttons shining.
They were sharp-faced men, and they looked much alike.
The younger man had a dark stubble beard and the older man a white stubble beard.
Their heads and faces were wet, their hair dripped, water stood in drops on their stiff beards.
Their cheeks shone with dampness.
Together they stood looking quietly into the lightening east.
They yawned together and watched the light on the hill rims. And then they turned and saw Tom.
“Mornin’,” the older man said, and his face was neither friendly nor unfriendly.
“Mornin’,” said Tom.
And, “Mornin’,” said the younger man.
The water slowly dried on their faces.
They came to the stove and warmed their hands at it.
The girl kept to her work. Once she set the baby down and tied her braids together in back with a string, and the two braids jerked and swung as she worked. She set tin cups on a big packing box, set tin plates and knives and forks out. Then she scooped bacon from the deep grease and laid it on a tin platter, and the bacon cricked and rustled as it grew crisp.
She opened the rusty oven door and took out a square pan full of big high biscuits.
When the smell of the biscuits struck the air both of the men inhaled deeply.
The younger said, “Kee-rist!” softly.
Now the older man said to Tom,
“Had your breakfast?”
“Well, no, I ain’t. But my folks is over there.
They ain’t up.
Need the sleep.”
“Well, set down with us, then.
We got plenty—thank God!”
“Why, thank ya,” Tom said. “Smells so darn good I couldn’ say no.”
“Don’t she?” the younger man asked. “Ever smell anything so good in ya life?” They marched to the packing box and squatted around it.
“Workin’ around here?” the young man asked.
“Aim to,” said Tom. “We jus’ got in las’ night.
Ain’t had no chance to look aroun’.”
“We had twelve days’ work,” the young man said.
The girl, working by the stove, said,
“They even got new clothes.” Both men looked down at their stiff blue clothes, and they smiled a little shyly.
The girl set out the platter of bacon and the brown, high biscuits and a bowl of bacon gravy and a pot of coffee, and then she squatted down by the box too.
The baby still nursed, its head up under the girl’s shirtwaist.
They filled their plates, poured bacon gravy over the biscuits, and sugared their coffee.
The older man filled his mouth full, and he chewed and chewed and gulped and swallowed.
“God Almighty, it’s good!” he said, and he filled his mouth again.
The younger man said,
“We been eatin’ good for twelve days now.
Never missed a meal in twelve days—none of us.