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Smith, Jewell Ellen, 1915-1998

"Great Jehoshaphat and Gully Dirt"


"Get on your belly and crawl! We's gotta get outta here! To
the woods! No, this way! Through the corn!"
The next shot whizzed right over our heads!
Mister Ward yelled, "O, God!" He was right at us!
Shoogie jumped up, jerked me up, and darted back toward the
woods. Then she whirled to go the other way.
"No, Shoogie! Not this way!"
We ran smack into Mister Ward! It knocked him down! We fell
too, but he didn't reach out and catch at me or Shoogie! He just
grabbed at his own neck, pulled himself up against our hiding
stump, and cried "O, God" again. Shoogie rolled me over so fast
my mouth got full of dirt! Before I could spit it out she had us
both down in a gully, up again, and headed across the field. She
was dragging me every step. Cornstalks hit me in the face. They
were hitting her too, but she wouldn't slow up.
"Shoogie, wait and see what they're gonna do!"
"No! We don't care what they gonna do! We gotta get outta
here!"
"I can't run so fast, Shoogie!"
"We's gotta get back to that rail fence and that hickor'nut
tree! Bandershanks, pick your feets up high! That's the way to
run fast!"
It seemed we were running and stumbling through all the
cornstalks in the whole world, but Shoogie didn't care.


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