“I don’t want it,” he said suddenly, as loud as he could. “I don’t want Tempy’s old book!” And from where he was sitting, he threw it with all his might underneath the stove.

Hager gasped in astonishment. “Pick that up, sir,” she cried amazed. “Yo’ Aunt Tempy done bought you a fine purty book an’ here you throwin’ it un’neath de stove in de ashes! Lawd have mercy! Pick it up, I say, this minute!”

“I won’t!” cried Sandy stubbornly. “I won’t! I like my sled what you-all gave me, but I don’t want no old book from Tempy! I won’t pick it up!”

Then the astonished Hager grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and jerked him to his feet.

“Do I have to whip you yet this holy day? . . . Pick up that book, sir!”

“No!” he yelled.

She gave him a startled rap on the head with the back of her hand. “Talkin’ sassy to yo’ old grandma an’ tellin’ her no!”

“What is it?” Annjee called from the bedroom, as Sandy began to wail.

“Nothin’,” Hager replied, “’ceptin’ this chile’s done got beside hisself an’ I has to hit him—that’s all!”

But Sandy was not hurt by his grandmother’s easy rap. He was used to being struck on the back of the head for misdemeanors, and this time he welcomed the blow because it gave him, at last, what he had been looking for all day—a sufficient excuse to cry. Now his pent-up tears flowed without ceasing while Willie-Mae sat in a corner clutching her rag doll to her breast, and Tempy’s expensive gift lay in the ashes beneath the stove.

XIV. RETURN

After Christmas there followed a period of cold weather, made bright by the winter sun shining on the hard crusty snow, where children slid and rolled, and over which hay-wagons made into sleighs on great heavy runners drove jingling into town from the country. There was skating on the frozen river and fine sledding on the hills beyond the woods, but Sandy never went out where the crowds were with his sled, because the was ashamed of it.

After New Year’s Annjee went back to work at Mrs. Rice’s, still coughing a little and still weak. But with bills to pay and Sandy in need of shoes and stockings and clothes to wear to school, she couldn’t remain idle any longer. Even with her mother washing and ironing every day except the Sabbath, expenses were difficult to meet, and Aunt Hager was getting pretty old to work so hard. Annjee thought that Tempy ought to help them a little, but she was too proud to ask her. Besides, Tempy had never been very affectionate towards her sisters even when they were all girls together—but she ought to help look out for their mother. Hager, however, when Annjee brought up the subject of Tempy’s help, said that she was still able to wash, thank God, and wasn’t depending on any of her children for anything—not so long as white folks wore clothes.