"Careful! Don't yank so hard, Wiley-you'll get him all tangled up. If you'll just read the directions, you'll see how he climbs up the string."

"Yeah! Look at him! I don't need no directions!"

"Mierd. Com'ere. You're next on the presents. I bought this for you in New York City the day after the Armistice was signed."

Mierd grinned as our oldest brother handed her a small, slick, black box not more than half the size of a biscuit. I could hardly wait for her to open it!

She didn't know how.

"Mash the little bra.s.s catch on the side," Walker told her.

As soon as Mierd pushed in the little k.n.o.b, the lid flew up. She started squealing and jumping!

"It's a ring! A gold finger ring! Gee, thanks, Walker! Oh, ain't it pretty!"

"Let's hope it fits."

Mierd slipped the ring on her middle finger and dashed back over to the supper table to hold her hand close to the lamp. She turned her finger from side to side, making the gold ring shine and sparkle. To get a close look at it, I had to jump up on the end of the bench and lean across the corner of the table.

"Lemme wear it a little bit, Mierd."

"No, Bandershanks! I'm not gonna ever, ever take it off."

"Stingy!"

"I'm not stingy. It's my ring! And it's pure gold! Anyhow, Bandershanks, they brought you lots of pretties, too. Look there spread out on the table: a beaded purse with real money in it, and a yellow soap doll, and pink beads to wear around your neck!"

"I want a ring."

"You ain't big enough yet to wear rings!"

I picked up my doll. Walker had said it was solid soap, through and through. Poor little thing. She smelled sweet, but she was as naked as a jaybird. I covered her with my napkin, and once I had it folded and patted down, it looked just as good as a sure-'nough doll blanket.

Where could I put my new doll to sleep when bedtime came? And where were all the rest of us going to sleep? Mama had said before all my big brothers and sisters came home that we didn't have but seven beds, counting the narrow cot in the side room.

"Where're we all gonna sleep?" I asked Mama as soon as she came over to bring the stack of corn bread.

Gertie heard me. "Oh, you don't have to worry, Bandershanks.

We can slip you down in a tow sack and hang you in the corner!"

"No, y'all can't neither! I don't wanta sleep in no sack!"

"Well, good gracious! Don't get so mad. I was just teasing.

We're gonna make a nice big quilt pallet down on the floor for you and Farris and little Cleburne."

"Where?"

"Right in front of the fireplace. You think that'll be all right?"

"Yeah, I reckon."

Mama told me there would be plenty of beds for everybody, and Gertie didn't say anything else about a sack. She started talking to Grandpa and her husband Henry about how dim the lamplight seemed.

"We oughta've had this celebration supper before dark. I can't half see what I'm doing."

"Ah, Gertie," Grandpa told her, "your eyes are just spoiled to them electric lights."

"I guess so, Grandpa. Electric lights are wonderful."

"It's all in what you're used to. Our coal-oil lamps still seem bright to us poor country folks."

Mama was crowding more and more food on the supper table.

Bess was fixing the tray to send out to Grandma, and Gertie had started dishing up some things in saucers for her young'uns.

"Bandershanks, you go with me into the fireplace room and eat with Farris and little Cleburne at Mierd's and Wiley's study table."

I couldn't do that! Gertie hadn't noticed that I was too big to eat with little kids!

"See, Gertie. I'm big! I don't wanta be with them babies! And I just ain't!"

She didn't answer me.

"Soon's I eat 'nough 'taters, I'm gonna get real, real big.

And my legs will get long and fat! And y'all won't call me Bandershanks no more! And I can go to school!"

"Bandershanks, I don't know when Mama and Papa are gonna start you to school, but you're big, all right! You're just about too big for your britches, I think!"

I lifted up the bottom of my dress and looked at my bloomers.

They weren't too tight!

During supper Walker and Clyde asked questions and questions.

Clyde said he'd like to know everything that had happened in Drake Eye Springs while he was off in the army.

"There's not been much going on," Papa told him, "except my knock-down-drag-out fight with Ward and the store burning. Then the kidnapping! And we've already told you how bad all that was.

'Course the fight and losing the store was nothing compared with that ordeal last week. Me and Nannie aged ten years apiece Sat.u.r.day night while the baby was gone."

"I can imagine."

"Yeah, what a time! Every soul in the settlement came, trying to help, all night long. The women, in the house with Nannie, crying and praying! The men, out in the woods with me, searching and cussing! Reckon I ought not say it that way. We was praying, too. But we was all disgusted with ourselves for letting a snake like Ward live among us."

"Papa, what was Ward wanting so much money for?"

"To get him a automobile! The man was obsessed with the notion of buying one. That's what started the whole trouble. You see, first, he took it in his head he could make big money with moonshine whiskey. The fool, he came to me wanting money to buy a copper drum. That's when we had the fight! Then-out of pure spite-he burned down my store! Next thing you know, he had his whiskey still in operation. But I reckon money wasn't coming in fast enough to suit him, so he got this fellow Hicks's automobile and carried off Bandershanks!"

"He figured Jodie would pay a fortune to get her back alive.

He would have, too!"

"Yes, Pa, I'd 've paid. A man will do most anything to save his young'un. I just thank the Good Lord things didn't turn out no worse than they did. Doctor Elton and the schoolteacher say that if Ward's not dead and if the Law ever finds him, he could be locked up for over twenty years, but I can't help that. Oh, well, let's try to forget the whole business for tonight. Pa.s.s me some more of that 'possum."

The talk around the table went on and on. I got so sleepy I couldn't listen to what Mama and Papa and Grandpa Thad and all my big brothers and sisters were saying. Not till Wiley started telling about school did I rub my eyes good, yawn, and try to pay attention again.