Part 47 (1/2)
”Papa?”
”Bandershanks, baby, you've talked enough for one day! Don't say no more!”
”Papa, I just wanta know when you're gonna let Black Idd wake up! I ain't gonna tell n.o.body Stray's in the flour barrel and Ned's in the oil drum!”
”Bandershanks!”
Every man in the store looked at me. Then at Papa. They began to laugh. And their laughing was real-not like Mister Hawk's.
”You ain't mad at me, are you, Papa?”
Papa said something about being glad of the day I was born, but I couldn't understand much of it because the men were still laughing.
”You ain't gonna switch my legs?”
”No. But I was just thinking-if your legs were growing as fast as your ears and tongue, you'd be grown already.”
”I'd be a lady?”
”No doubt of it!”
”Could I go to school?”
”I aim to send you to school right this minute! Wiley, son, you take Bandershanks over to the schoolhouse. Just ask the teacher to let her sit in one of the empty desks 'till dinner time. She's got no more business here at the store right now.”
”But, Papa, how'll I get across that branch?” Somehow, I didn't want to go to the schoolhouse. I wanted to go home and hide under Grandma's bed.