"Papa, come see! It's a big, big light!"
Papa set down his coffee cup.
"Where's any light?"
"Up in the sky. And somebody's shooting firecrackers! There
they go again! Hear them?"
"Yeah!"
Papa and Mama ran with me out to the far end of the porch.
"Lord, Nannie, that's a big fire! Up about the store!"
"Looks like it's far enough away to be Doctor Elton's house,
don't you think?"
"Maybe. Whatever it is, it's burning down! I'm gonna go see!"
"I'll go with you, Jodie."
"Me too, Papa!"
"Y'all hurry, Nannie. Wake Mierd and Wiley while I hitch up
the wagon. Just let them come on in their night clothes!"
The light from the fire kept getting brighter and brighter.
By the time we had splashed across the branch and reached the
next rise we could see the huge blaze, already up higher than the
trees.
Papa kept jerking on the reins, trying to make Belle and
Puddin' Foot trot faster.
"Nannie, you think it might be Hal's grist mill?"
"Yeah. Or, it could be the cotton gin. Mister Hansen's got lots
of cotton stored there.
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