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Loreda turned “Can Stella spend the night after?”

“Sure,” Mo”

Loreda was so happy, she actually hugged hertoo hard

Loreda yanked free

Mom looked sad “Go downstairs,” she said “Help Grandma pack up the food”

Loreda bolted out of the bedroom and hurried down to the kitchen, where Grand up the pot of minestrone soup A plateful of her cannoli with sweetened ricotta filling waited on the table Both of which only the other Italian families would eat

Loreda covered the tray of desserts with a dish towel and carried it out to the wagon She climbed up into the back and sat close to her father, who put his arm around her and held her close Grandma and Grandpa took their places up front Moon

Ant tucked in close to Mo in excitement as they neared the town Daddy, she noticed, was uncharacteristically quiet

Lonesoer town squatted on a table-flat plain, surrounded by nothing

Only the water tower stood tall against the cloudless blue sky

Once, patriotish in town Loreda remembered how the old athering Who fought, who died, and who grew the wheat to feed the troops Back then, Pioneer Days had been an expression of the farmers’ pride in themselves and a celebration of their hard work Americans! Prosperous! They’d draped the stores of Main Street in red, white, and blue bunting and planted Aans on the s The ratulate each other on winning the war and turning grazing land into farmland They drank houitars while the women did all the work

Or that was how Loreda saw it In the week leading up to the celebration, Mom and Grand

ma Rose cooked more, made more homemade macaroni, did more laundry, and had to darn or repair every scrap of clothing that was to be worn No ht money was, Mom wanted her children to look presentable

Today there was no bunting (too hot to put up, she figured, or else sos in the flowerpots, no patriotic slogans Instead, Loreda saw hobos gathered around the train depot, wearing rags, their back pockets turned inside out in ere being called Hoover flags A shoe with holes was a Hoover shoe Everyone kneho to blame for the Depression but not how to fix it