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"It’s okay Byrd Bowlin says he’ll drive ht and the calf"

"I’o too" That’s the Reverend Martin

Hester offers to drive

"Will we see you before you leave again for Baltimore?" I ask Katherine

"I’ll try," she says, "but I need to et William back to Baltimore on the train for his funeral next Thursday He has faht, trying to give her soth Then I turn toward the back of the church for e when I spy the sheriff’s car waiting at the intersection

"Where’s Bitsy and her brother?" the gruff fellow demands

"Stayed for the reception at the preacher’s house" I tell a white lie, knowing Thoh the spruce trees like the shadow of a gray fox

"By the way, I talked to Mrs MacIntosh before the funeral Why didn’t you report that she’d gone back to Baltiives me the squint eye

"We were scared We didn’t want William to try to find Katherine We were scared"

July 30, 1930 Nearly fullclouds

Birth of Daniel Withers, 6 pounds, 14 ounces, seventh child of Edith and Manley Withers of Hog Hollow Bitsy and I delivered the baby together, my hands over hers The Witherses are another family associated with Hazel Patch Baptist Chapel Mrs Potts was feeling poorly and didn’t coirls, Ida and Judith, 10 and 12 Bitsy showed them how to cut the baby’s cord Edith declared, when she put the baby to breast, that the afterbirth pains orse than the actual labor, but I told her they were good because they’d keep her fro a new life coood

33

Drought

Flat gray clouds press down like iron, and I scan the sky each e in the weather The air is full of wetness, but it won’t coan to water the limp corn and beans by hand The root crops, potatoes and carrots, are deep enough to find their own moisture The tomatoes, Bitsy assurestwo buckets each fro a quart jar of liquid to each drooping plant

"It’s a drop in the bucket," I joke with h

Bitsy sets down her pail and arches her back, her eyes closed "No rain today"

"How can you tell?"