Chapter 1
Then she started forward, my trousers went tight, I heard a rip and a calf bawl. And a big hunk of hot stinking stuff went all over me. Some of it was calf, some of it wasn't.As I went down under t...
Chapter 2
He bent down and pulled the crazy quilt up around my throat. I could tell by the smell of his hand that he'd killed pigs today. There was a strong smell to it, like stale death. That smell was almo...
Chapter 3
"Well, you be friends with Mr. Tanner. Neighbors and all. But we keep this fence up like it was war. I guess that humans are the only things on earth that take everything they own and fence it off....
Chapter 4
"As to the work, what matters is that we have the back to do it. Some days I get the notion that I can't knife even one more of Clay Sander's pigs. Yet I always do, 'cause it's got to be done. It's...
Chapter 5
"Come quick," said Mama, who was standing at the barn door. Just inside was a nest in the hay, right next to the warm wall near Daisy. Down in the hay was our barn cat, Miss Sarah, and three of the...
Chapter 6
The trouble kicked up when I showed my report card to Aunt Matty. She could read. But as it turned out, she couldn't read the letter A, no matter how many she saw. All she could read was D, where I...
Chapter 7
Whump! The hawk hit only a few rods from where I was standing in the clover. Just the yonder side of a juniper bush where the clover wasn't nearby at all, and where it once had been open meadowland...
Chapter 8
"There's talk about a new county road," Papa yelled to me in the raining, "and they say it's wide enough to cut the corner of the churchyard at the Meeting House." "Is that where we be going, Papa?...
Chapter 9
"Mama will make you a lunch basket that'll be breakfast, dinner, and supper. And you're to do all the Tanners ask of you. And see things to be done before they ask.""Yes, Papa. I'll sure do good.""...
Chapter 10
There I be. Me, at Rutland Fair, marching around a big sawdust ring with all the people clapping their hands and pointing at Bob and Bib. It made my heart pound so hard I felt it was going to pump...
Chapter 11
"Into the house with you," Mama said. "It's way past your bedtime and you'll never get up for chores." That sort of stopped me. "Papa? You did all my chores today." "Sure did. And butchered hogs be...
Chapter 12
"I guess I'll never have a coat like that. Can I?""You can. When you earn one. You'll be a man one day. One day soon.""Someday," I said."It can't be someday, Rob. It's got to be now. This winter. Y...
Chapter 13
"Hard work. He ought to take it easy one of these days, now he's got you to man the place.""Papa works all the time. He don't never rest. And worse than that, he works inside himself. I can see it...
Chapter 14
Papa was breathing the way no man or beast should breathe. I had never seen any man work as fast. I knew his hands must of been just about froze off; but he kept working, with no gloves. At last he...
Chapter 15
I fed and watered Solomon and Daisy. And milked her. Then I threw some grain to the hens, made sure they had water, and collected the eggs. One was still wet from laying. I remember there was only...