"
Now that they were out of sight, I tiptoed back to the
narrow, winding trail. I dropped the water gourd, and it got sand
and grit inside. I didn't know whether to pick it up and run back
up the hill to the house or whether to skedaddle on to the spring
and dip up Miss Dink's cool water, like she had told me to do.
I grabbed the gourd and swiped it out as best I could with
the tail of my underskirt. I could still hear Miss Ophelia and
Mister Ward. Her sobbing and his yelling sounded like they had
stopped close by, but there were so many dogwood bushes and briar
vines and pine trees growing tangled together on both sides of
the trail that I couldn't tell for sure where they were. I ran on
down the hill.
When I got even with Miss Ophelia's berry basket I slowed
down to look at it, but I didn't dare touch it. It was lying
bottom side up, but I couldn't see any huckleberries spilling
out.
The more Mister Ward shouted at Miss Ophelia, the faster I
scooted on down the steep hillside. Once I stumped my toe on the
root of a sweet gum tree and fell.
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