Roman looked quickly at Adam, but Adam’s manners were too good for him to show that he wanted to keep possession of the instrument. He even managed to smile at Roman, as if adding his giving to the grandmother’s: and Roman held the horn in his hands a little more firmly. “Thank you”, he said, looking at Adam as he said it.

Hoisting her baskets into the back of the wagon, Edna enquired frankly of Sarah, “What’s in yours?”

“Peach pickles, cucumber pickles, a gallon of tea, a gallon of lemonade, a gallon of water, two chocolate pies and two lemon pies and a coconut cake so sweet it makes my teeth ache to think of it!” They had talked it over beforehand, of course, and agreed on what each of them would provide. “What’s in your old baskets?”

“Six fried chickens, two dozen light rolls, eighteen deviled eggs, and enough potato salad to choke a Baptist choir at a camp meeting.”

The women laughed and hugged each other lightly. The children squealed and jumped with greed and anticipation. Presently everyone had climbed or been lifted into the old wagon, and they set off for the picnic grove.

They found it shady and cool and deserted. Everyone piled out of the wagon, leaving the food baskets. Sugar unhitched the mules and led them to a shady place of their own to stand dreaming and attracting flies until they were needed again. The children ran about, eager to explore the new place. None of them had come here before, although all had passed it on the way into town. It was a place Edna had brought Bonard and Rooster sometimes when they were boys. Finally the children settle into games, not too seriously, yet ready to amuse themselves and each other.

Rachel was enchanted by everything and everyone. It was the first real party she had been to. She toddled and ran about, frequently sitting abruptly and unintentionally on the slickly needled ground under the pine trees and laughing when she did so. That was the day she also, when she wandered off by herself, discovered ants. When she cried out, Adam rushed to find her and slapped the insects off her bare feet.