Transcript for the Piece Audio version of A Cook's Notebook: Mrs. Clark's Cornbread

Mr. McCabe, a well-known water witch in the Ozarks, had the entire Clark family wandering around their property with dowsing rods. Even the youngest of the five Clark boys ? Little Leonard had a Y-shaped stick made from a red-bud tree. Mr. Clark ? Frank Sr. ? suspected that Mr. McCabe knew exactly where the water was but he liked watching the Clarks try and feel it. Frank Sr. thought ?Why did I barter half a pig for this? We?re the ones doing all his work.? But he kept his mouth shut ? he needed a new well for the planting season. Mr. McCabe chatted on the front porch with Mrs. Clark, enjoying a cup of hot molasses and a piece of her sweet cornbread.

Meanwhile, the boys all flocked around one spot of dirt ? shouting that they?d found water and then started swinging at each other with the branches they?d been handed. The middle child, Mark Wayne claimed he was first one to get there so his brothers made kindling out of his stick. Mr. McCabe came down off the porch and checked it out with his own brass rod. Then he collected his pork and told Frank Sr. he?d be back in a couple of days with his sharpening tools because getting through that limestone was going take the bite off any drill bit.

Frank Sr.?s well-digger was something he made from scraps and things he had lying around in the yard ? a Model A engine, a flagpole with a pulley on top threaded with an old cable, and a heavy star-tipped bit that hung off the end. Mrs. Clark and the boys assembled on the front porch to watch the first strike ? half expecting Frank Sr. would hit a geyser right off the bat that?d wash them all clean. When the drill reached the height of the pole ? it dropped down harder and faster than a bag of rocks and dead skunks, and it landed with a dusty thwop ? barely leaving a dent in the ground.

Over the next couple weeks no matter what they were doing ? the Clark family ended up watching that drill go up and down, up and down. At night they fell asleep to the rhythm ? breathing and even snoring to its cadence. Three of the boys ? L.D. Boogie and Arthur placed bets on when they?d hit water, but they didn?t let Mark Wayne or Little Leonard in on it because they?d go and tell, and Mrs. Clark would have them doing penance on their knees in cornmeal in no time.

Mr. McCabe stopped by every few days to check on how it was going and help sharpen the drill. Every visit he?d bring along some of his wife?s cornbread. Mrs. Clark appreciated the gesture but she didn?t care for it because it had no sugar. She firmly believed that cornbread should taste ?just about as sweet as fresh corn, right from the garden.? And if you baked it with old meal ? a good cook, one that knew better ? would add a touch of sugar just to make up for what?s not there.

More than anyone else in the family it was Mrs. Clark who wished they?d hit water soon because she didn?t know how to politely tell Mr. McCabe not to bring any more of his wife?s cornbread. She couldn?t stand it. And it seemed, neither could her pig.
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