A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR
From:Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works the Library of
America
Flannery O'Connor 1925-1964
THE GRANDMOTHER didn't
want to go to Florida. She
wanted to visit some of her
connections in east Tennessee
and she was seizing at every
chance to change Bailey's
mind. Bailey was the son she
lived with, her only boy. He
was sitting on the edge of his
chair at the table, bent over the
orange sports section of the
Journal. "Now look here,
Bailey," she said, "see here,
read this," and she stood with
one hand on her thin hip and
the other rattling the newspaper
at his bald head. "Here this
fellow that calls himself The
Misfit is aloose from the
Federal Pen and headed toward
Florida and you read here what
it says he did to these people.
Just you read it. I wouldn't take
my children in any direction
with a criminal like that aloose
in it. I couldn't answer to my
conscience if I did."
Bailey didn't look up from his
reading so she wheeled around
then and faced the children's
mother, a young woman in
slacks, whose face was as
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