The Davis plantation, called simply Oaks, shared no boundary with Beulah Land, but the Davises were the nearest considerable family in the county, and so there were frequent social occasions that brought the two families together. Indeed, the intervention between them of two small farms, each of less than a hundred acres, made for a closer feeling between them perhaps than if they had shared a boundary line.

Benjamin and Edna Davis were plain as potatoes, Deborah said privately, but goodhearted. Both were stout, florid, and open-faced, and might have passed for brother and sister had their true relationship not been known. Both had big red hands that when empty looked like idle farm tools. Arnold and Benjamin hunted together, consulted with each other about slaves and crops and animals. Deborah and Edna exchanged vegetable and flower seed and cuttings, recipes and patterns for sewing.

The Davises had two sons, Bonard, who was three years older than Leon, and Bruce, nicknamed Rooster, who was a year younger than Leon. Rooster was clearly his parents’ son, a jolly, easy, earthy boy. Bonard was like no one else in the family: dark, handsome even as a child, haughty, and sly.

At a barbecue the Kendricks gave one Fourth of July, the boys, who had known each other all their lives and therefore never thought about each other, got into a fight while playing a game of marbles. Leon, who was eight years old at the time, accused Bonard of cheating and of thereby stealing a beautifully flecked green glass marble that he treasured particularly. Bonard called Leon a liar and gave him a hard push that made him trip and fall to the ground.

He was up quickly and flew at Bonard with his head down, butting the older boy so hard in his midsection that Bonard gasped for breath. Seeing his brother attacked, Rooster, who was somewhat short for his age but already well fleshed, began kicking Leon’s legs from behind. Recovering his wind, Bonard grabbed an ear with one hand and used the other to shove Leon’s chin upward. Floyd, who had been watching the game of marbles but not playing, although he and Leon played the game together when there was no company, leaped on Bonard’s back and began choking him.

Rooster left off kicking and tried to pull Floyd from Bonard’s back. All happened in seconds and without words except for the accusations of thief, cheat, and liar that had occasioned the fight. Within seconds it was over, as Felix and Benjamin, who stood nearby smoking cigars and talking about the building of a new courthouse in Highboro, separated the tangle of bodies.

“Dirty nigger!”

“Thief! Cheat!”