It hadn't been two days since Wiley had told me I looked
exactly like a billy goat.
Mama was saying, "Bandershanks, you take Miss Ophelia's gourd
out of the water bucket on the porch and run get some fresh
spring water. Follow the trail now, like Miss Dink said."
I was following the trail, but I was beginning to think I
wasn't ever going to find that spring. Then I heard Mister Ward
Lawson yelling at his wife.
"Good God A' mighty, Ophelia! Damn you! What in God's name
are you doin' down here, roamin' round at the branch this time of
the evenin'?"
"Just looking for berries, Ward."
"Berries, hell. You're lookin' for my still, that's what
you're doin'. Huckleberries ain't ripe yet!"
"Still? What still?"
"My whiskey still!"
Miss Ophelia dropped the basket on her arm. "Lord help my
time. You must be lying to me, Ward."
There they were, right down the trail in front of me-Miss
Ophelia wringing her hands and twisting them up in her flimsy
apron, Mister Ward shaking his fist at her.
I darted behind the nearest sapling.
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