"
"Mama, all our candy's burning up!"
"Yeah, Bandershanks. I guess it is. Don't cry, hon!"
"Hot diggity! Yonder's Wallace Goode! Mama, see Wallace
standing up there with all the men? Lemme go where he's at!"
"Just for a minute, son. Then you come straight back."
Mierd and I wanted to go see Wallace too, but Mama wouldn't
let us. Wiley came streaking back, Wallace with him.
"Mama, Wallace was one of the first ones here, and him and
Mister Goode and all of 'em poured on lots of water, but it was
too far gone!"
"Yes'm, Miss Nannie. Doctor Elton, he was the first one who
seen it, and me and Papa was next. Doctor Elton woke up smelling
smoke. Soon's he run out in his yard and looked down this way, he
seen 'zactly what it was. He got on the phone and started
calling. But the phone, it went dead 'fore he could get y'all
'cause the line going past the store melted in two!"
"Mama, you know what Mister Goode thinks?" Wiley asked. "He
says somebody set Papa's store afire. Poured on coal oil!"
"Well, son, we-"
"Doctor Elton says so too, Miss Nannie! He figures somebody
built a blaze under the porch first 'cause that porch was slam
gone when we all got here.
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