Mister Leland lay on his back, listening to the faint laughter and to someone who had started to sing and thought about the party. They might have popcorn there, and candy, and soda. It would be a good party, with people happy to see each other like the reunions his people had at his grandfather’s house in Willson City. He had been to only one of those reunions himself and even though he had been very small, he could remember it very well. He had been lying in bed, and could hear the grown-ups laughing and singing and when he got up in the morning, they were all asleep, even his grandfather who was a farmer like his own father and usually started work while it was still dark. He had gotten up, the only person awake in the house, had gone into the parlor and found they had left some of the candy and popcorn from the night before. When everybody finally woke up, red-eyed and wrinkled, his uncles and aunts, he had already eaten enough of the leftover party food not to be hungry any more.

He lay on his back and thought about that, and then he knew what he would do when morning came. It would be Sunday and first they would eat and go to church, where his mother taught Sunday school, and then they would come home. He would take Walter by the hand and they would go back through the woods and come out on Tucker’s field. Tucker would see them and wave and they would run across the soft, gray earth of the plowed and salted field toward him. He would say hello, and would be glad to see them. Mister Leland would show him Walter.

Then Mister Leland would ask Tucker why he came back. Tucker would say he had found what he had lost, and he would smile and tell them he had something for them. He would bring out large bowls of the leftover candy and popcorn and cracker-jack and chocolate drops. And they would eat until they were full. And all the while, they would be laughing.

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