After gettin into town, John and his Ma went to the nearest big grocery store. “I reckon this is a rite purty haul of chestnuts. I don’t see these comin in hardly atall any more,” the manager at the Kroger store said to ma and John.
Their spirits lifted and they were sure this manager would take them all! After all, Kroger was a big chain. They weren’t at all prepared for his next words and John was ready to start hauling all of those bags of chestnuts into the store.
“But I can’t make no decisions without contacting the higher up men in the Kroger stores. All of those decisions are out of my hands,” the manager said kindly. “I’m sure sorry. But if’n you folks will be here next week, I might have a different answer.”.
John and Lucy looked at each other sadly. They didn’t have that much time to be away from their family. They left, feelin deflated. The Kroger manager had recommended The Trading Post, which was a couple of miles away, so they decided they had nothing to lose by trying to sell or trade the chestnuts there.
The manager at The Trading Post practically flew out the door to look at the chestnuts. “How many did you say you have? We never see chestnuts anymore; why all of the chestnut trees have been dead around these parts for a few years. I just had a man from New York in here yesterday and he would have bought up the whole wagon load! “What kind of a price are we lookin at here?
Ma and the manager of The Trading Post managed to come to an agreement that was acceptable for them both and on top of their agreement, the manager offered to give them a 10% discount on any supplies they bought from him. Ma had set everybody down before they left the house and had drawn around each of their feet on butcher block paper and then wrote the name of each of them on their respective papers. She used that to find the new shoes for everyone. Then she picked out material for sewing dresses and shirts for everybody. Then she got some nice sturdy overalls for all of the menfolk. They got sugar, salt, chicken feed, flour, cornmeal, coffee, smoking tobacco for pa to tide him over till their crop of tobacco was harvested and dried and they got all of the rest of the household goods they would need for the winter. John took his list of items needed for the still down to the hardware store and managed to get everything with the cash pa had given him without too many questions. He had decided if anyone asked him about if’n they were running a still to tell them he was thinkin about runnin water from their spring into the house with a copper tube made from the sheets of copper. But no one really did confront him.
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John packed the copper sheets in the wagon first, then he put the mason jars down with sewing material between each flat of jars to protect it from the wagon’s jostling while they rode home. He was a careful packer. The rest of the supplies were packed around this. They were finished about 4:00pm and hoped to make it back before dark.
Lucy was pretty happy about how things had worked out. They sang while they traveled home. Then it got real quiet while Lucy was making up patterns in her head for the dresses and John was thinkin about buildin that still with his pa. The horses shied away from the left of the road and it was all John could do to calm them down. He handed the reins to his ma and said, “It’s probably a mountain lion. I’ll grab my gun so’s I’m ready if’n one comes near.”
Lucy said, “We’s almost home and I’m glad we didn’t lolly-gag around but hit the road as quick as we could. These mountain lions ain’t no joke and he would have the advantage over us if’n we wuz still out here after dark. I ain’t never been so glad to see the old house as I am now, son!”
“Me too, ma!” John answered. As they pulled into the yard, the whole family came out to help unload and to celebrate their supply! The wagon was unloaded and John and Timmy took the horses to unhitch them and feed them and put them away for the night, so if there was a mountain lion anywhere around, he couldn’t get to their horses!
Pa was lickin his lips to keep from droolin he was so eager to get started on the still! Ma saw the blackberries and figured what had gone on while she was away. She waited till she and Earl wuz alone and she had time to cool off and then talked to pa about that trip. “Honey, I thought you wuz goin to stay off of that leg till it healed. You’ve done been up the mountain again.”
Pa said, “Yes, but it proved itself today. There was no bleedin and my leg ain’t achin. It is all healed up and ready to go!”
Ma just sighed. “Earl, you are goin to do what you are goin to do! Heaven help us!”