He explained it all to Mama, though. He told
her that Ward laughed in his face, and that Doctor Elton said
later that a man who drank himself into a stupor all the time was
plain sick.
One night I overheard Papa telling Mama, "This is one time I
almost wish I wasn't a deacon and that I didn't believe what the
Bible says about not paying back evil for evil."
"I know, Jodie. It's hard, but the only way to live is by the
Bible. And it teaches, 'Recompense to no man evil for evil.'"
"Nannie, I'm holding my breath for fear of what the benighted
fool will do next"
"I declare, Jodie, you're gonna wear out the soles of your
boots pacing the floor! Please sit down. He can't harm the child,
or any of us-not with us and everybody else in the settlement
watching."
In a few more weeks, after Papa got the carpenters started on
building the new store, he quit pacing the floor every night.
And when the store was finished, Papa helped me draw two
pictures of it to send off in the mail to my big brothers, who
just kept on staying in the army.
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