766. THE WALKING OF MATTHEW DUPRE

THE WALKING OF
MATTHEW DUPRE
Matthew Dupre was a cripple from age nine.
His father had run him over with the family's
farm tractor and he'd broken both legs and a hip.
Just like that, cracked like a pretzel, but (as the
country doctor had said) 'with a whole life to recover.'
When he told me that story, I laughed, thinking
it had unforeseen, double meaning. I doubted those
country folk ever got it : a whole life to recover
can mean many things. I guess Matthew never
got the point, or never mentioned it anyway.
-
Hell, like so many others back there, he walked
with a decided limp, a gimp, his every ordinary day.
Never played the sports or the baseball and things
that others did, or tried. he stayed within, morose -
I always thought 'trying to recover that whole life
of his.' But, in that way, I guess I never got the point
either. Matthew went on to preach, and teach.
-
Country boy lesson master and all that stuff
I hated. Though he never really left his village -
farm country anyway, not like a 'town' -
he somehow had become of 'Minister' of
something, and people would call him Reverend
That was a whole lot to recover, and was
always something I hated.