The followin mornin, Lucy got the kids off to school and she and Earl sat down to talk with Carl. “Well, we have us a predicament here,” Earl started off. “The mines are real dangerous around here and I don’t see them gittin any better. We have gotten some income from the moonshine and it would be enough to keep us financially, but we have had some trouble too.”

  About that time, little Hattie came through the front door and the screen door slammed shut. “Oh, sorry, ma. I didn’t mean to slam the door,” Hattie said.

  “Land sakes Hattie, what are you doin here? You are supposed to be at school!” her mother exclaimed.

  “Oh, I was already there, but I don’t like the cipherin. I just don’t git all them numbers. I look at them and it is like a bunch of crawlin ants all over the blackboard and I don’t know what to do with them! So, rather than waste my time, I come on home!” Hattie explained.

  “Well, you just march yourself on back to school!” Lucy said. “Earl, you and Carl go on without me. I think I will walk Hattie back to school and have a talk with the teacher.”

  Earl said, “I promised Donna I would check on ol Petey-boy so I think Carl and I will go on back up to the huntin cabin. We need to bring the skins back down anyway. We should be home tonight, Lucy and it’ll give us some more time to think about the future. Bye Honey,” and he kissed her before he and Carl went out the door.

  Lucy got dressed in her outside clothes and headed back to school with Hattie.

  “Laws a mercy, Miss Higgins, where did you come from?” Miss Louisa, Hattie’s teacher said as she and Hattie walked in the door of the classroom. “Hattie where did you go?”

  “I went home, Miss Louisa. That cipherin don’t make no sense to me, so I went home to do something that did!” Hattie said.

  “Now Hattie, you cain’t just go runnin off every time things don’t make no sense! That’s why you come to school; so you can learn to make sense of those things! You just hang on and I will show you magic from them numbers!” her teacher explained.

  Lucy went back home when she saw Hattie delvin in to her studies.

  Earl and Carl didn’t plan on stayin at the cabin more than a couple of hours this time so they didn’t take supplies with them. “I’m gettin right tired of this drive, although I could probably do it in my sleep by now, so I will be pretty glad to get this Pete thing over with.”

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  “I’m with you, pa. I’m ready to get on with whatever comes next,” Carl agreed.

  Pullin up to the huntin cabin, Earl and Carl were disappointed to see how trashy it looked. The fire that they usually cooked on was littered with empty cans and the pans sittin there were encrusted with food. It appeared the deer Pete had killed when they were together had never gotten cut up, nor raised up in the trees, as the carcass lay a few yards from the fire and had obviously been gnawed on by wild beasts. The door to the cabin lay open and there were articles of clothing in the doorway on the ground. As they went toward the door, a squirrel ran out with a bag of nuts in his mouth. Startled, he dropped the nuts and ran up the closest tree. He sat on a branch and scolded Carl and Earl for scaring him!

  They spent a few minutes cleaning up the area and then decided to go on a walk. “Well, Carl, you’ll be gettin married and leavin home before too long. I’m glad you have gotten to meet Pete and see what happens when one is lazy and selfish. You are a wonderful young man and I am awfully proud of you. I hope seein these situations stays with you fur the rest of yore life and you never decide to indulge in them. We kin always give of ourselves no matter how poor we are. Remember that!” Earl dispersed his wisdom to his oldest.

  “Thank-you for those kind words, pa. I hope I never disappoint you,” Carl said.

  As they stepped past the old cedar tree and the still site came into view, pa let out a low whistle. “Hellfire and Brimstone! It looks like a bomb went off here! I never seen a bomb go off, but this is what I suspect it might look like,” Earl said.

  “We can forget salvagin anything from the still, pa,” Carl remarked.

  The coil they were goin to use agin was busted in half with part of it in the creek and part of it in a nearby tree. The mash barrels had both rolled away and one had a nosy raccoon in it. He looked out and chittered at them. Their copper pot was blown into a million pieces,

  After surveyin everything, Earl said, “Should we look around fur Petey-boy, or do you figure they took him away?”

  “I don’t think he’s anywhere around here, pa,” Carl said.

  “I’ve gotta agree with you, Carl. He’d be long gone, either with the revenooers or runnin. It’s probably the best exercise he’s had a long time!” Earl said.

  They both enjoyed a good laugh! They went back to the cabin and loaded up the skins, after finishin cleanin up the whole area.They had a quiet ride back to Donna’s house, where they stopped and let her know what they had found. “You might want to telephone down to the city to see if he is in jail or the hospital, Donna,” Earl suggested.

  “Thank-you for checkin on him and thank-you fur the suggestion. I think I will do just that. I will call you if I find him,” Donna said.