Carl went out in the woods with a purpose in mind. He found some plantain leaves to bring back. There was already pus starting to come out of the wounds and he had learned from his ma that if you ground up plantain leaves and place that on a wound that it would take the infection out of a wound. He changed the dressings again and put the plantain on the places where there was pus. The revenooer had not woke up, so he took a spoon and turned him on his side so as not to choke him and fed him a few sips of water. He fed him a spoonful of shine the same way so as to make wakin up go a mite easier.

  Earl and Timmy had started bringing the jars back down the hill and Pa was planning how they would load it up, along with the deer and bear meat, the revenooer and all of them. John had his hands full butcherin up all that meat sose it would take up less room in the car. He pulled out his sharpenin stone and got to work. He knew a sharp knife would be well worth the time it took to sharpen it.

  Carl gave a few little sips of water to the revenooer and alternated with broth. He felt Steve’s brow. “Whew doggies, he is burnin up.” After changin the bandages again and washing out the used ones, Carl went lookin fur some willow bark to make a tea to hopefully bring down the fever. “He’s lost so much blood, I don’t know if he’s got any left,” he said to himself. When he got back with the tea, Steve was goin in and out of consciousness.

  Steve said weakly, “Who are you?” Then he screeched in pain when he tried to sit up and passed out again. Carl fed him some shine with a spoon so the next time he tried to wake up, it might be a little less painful. Steve opened his eyes again a half hour later and asked, “Where am I? Who are you?”

  Carl answered, “I’m Carl and you got attacked by a big ol black bear. You don’t never sneak up on a bear when he is feedin. He done got you on the chest and on yore leg.”

  Steve slept again. The next time he woke up he was delirious. His fever was raging. Steve said, looking right at Carl, “Daddy, why’d you woop me. It was my brother Pete smokin behind the barn. It hurts so bad. Help me.”

  Carl felt befuddled. Should he feed him tea for the fever or shine to take down the pain. Steve couldn’t make it much longer with such a high fever. They had to get him back to Ma. she would know what to do.

  Pa and Timmy and John had gotten the car about loaded up. The still was finished runnin and all of the meat was cut enough to make it home. Earl had Carl and Timmy sit on the back seat and he and John would sit up front. He and John brought out the mattress with the revenooer on it and laid it across Carl and Timmy’s laps. He made sure that revenooer got ten big spoonfuls of shine before they started out because it was going to be a little bumpy, driving through the creekbed, not on a proper road and he didn’t want the revenooer to be in too much pain.

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  Earl said as he drove like a snail with someone holdin him back, “It’s kindly comical boys. Here we is runnin shine and we got the revenooer as a passenger!”

  Carl had brought a jar of cold water and kept refreshin the rags on his forehead every time they went dry from the high fever. Steve was moanin in his sleep. It’s not a smooth ride drivin through a creek bed.

  Meanwhile, Lucy and the girls was out in the cane field, cutting down cane to take to the press. First they had to strip it, which was pullin off the leaves so they wouldn’t gum up the press. Then they would cut the cane with tobacco hatchets down by the ground. Next they would load up the cane on the wagon to take to the press. The seed up at the top of the stalks had to be removed, too.

  While they was workin on strippin, a wagon pulled into the yard. “Laws a mercy, who is a comin here durin harvest time?” Lucy asked. She knew all of their neighbors worked pretty much from sun-up to sun-down this time of the year, gettin all of their crops put up to keep them through the winter. A figure started walkin up toward them. “Oh, it’s Clement! “Howdy Clement! How’s yore ma?”

  “She’s fine, Miss Lucy. How are all of you doin?”

  “We’re fine too. What brings you around durin harvest time?”

  “I done finished up early and my ma said to bring you some of our corn to show our thanks fur helpin when Pa was a dyin. You helped make him comfortable and we’re mighty grateful fur yore help. We ain’t needin so much corn any more, now that Pa won’t be makin shine and she thought you might keer fur some.”

  “Why thank-you, Clement. That’s mighty thoughtful of you,” Lucy said.

  “I see you are harvestin yore cane. That’s my favorite thing to do. Why don’t I give you a hand. You and the girls finish strippin the cane and I’ll whack it! Clement said.

  With Clement’s help, and he worked twice as fast as the girls, they finished loading up the wagon and all went in to enjoy Karen’s fried chicken, collards and mashed potatoes. After supper, Clement went out to unload the bags of corn. Along about that time, Earl pulled in with his car full of surprises!

  Earl and John went to unload the revenooer first along with his mattress and Steve woke up, in his delirium, looked up at Earl and said, “You’re under arrest!”