Chapter 50:
Grandpa left instructions for a letter to be read when he died and before his body was cold. The letter is read, and everyone is shocked, but they do as he wished. He wants to be buried immediately in the box Granny's coffin came in, and he wants Loomis and Will to speak. Instead of a bunch of hypocrites, he wants a quick funeral and a party to celebrate his life. He knows this will shock everyone, so he says that anyone who does not comply with his wishes is out of his will!
At the funeral, Will talks about Grandpa's idea on the verse that he had overheard.
They did have the party and Grandpa's will is read.
Grandpa pretty much satisfies everyone in his will: He leaves Miss Love $1000 and the house, the rest of the estate between his two daughters and Miss love, and if he should have another child, the baby would get a share, too. The family jointly owns the store and Hoyt is named as manager for as long as he wishes to run it. Will gets $400 for college, but only if he works 10 years in the store after college (which he will refuse to do). He also leaves $1 to the Baptists for "their kindness" in helping to bury Camp, which is a real slap in the face. And he gives money to the Methodists for their kindness to Miss Love, so they will take her back. Finally, he gives Loomis $50 for loyal service.
Miss Love decides to stay in Cold Sassy to raise her baby (she is sure it will be a boy), and Will ends by telling the reader that soon after Grandpa town, the town cut down the Cold Sassy tree and changed its name to Progressive City and how he has saved a box with: a piece of the root of the sassafras tree, his journal, a can of tobacco tags, the newspaper story by Toddy Hughes, the photo of him, Grandpa, Miss Love and the Pierce, his Ag diploma, and the buckeye that Lightfoot gave him.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Chapters 48-49: In Which Grandpa Gets Better, Ten Gets Worse and Dies
Chapters 48-49:
When will goes to the house to help, he overhears Grandpa and Miss love talking intimately. They are clearly a loving couple now. He hears Grandpa tell Miss Love that he has been thinking about Will's question: What did Jesus me by "Ask and thou shalt receive"? Grandpa thinks it mean:
"When Jesus said, ast and you'll git it, He was givin' a gar'ntee a-spiritual healin, not body healin'. HE was sayin' that if'n you get beat down--scairt to death you caint do what you got to, or scairt you gonna die, or scairt folks won't like you--why all you got to do is put yore hand in God's and He'll lift you up . . . Jesus meant us to ast God to hep us stand the pain, not beg Him to take the pain away. We can ast for comfort and hope and patience and courage, and to be gracious when thangs ain't goin' our way, and we'll git what we ast for. There ani't no gar'ntee that we ain't go'n have no troubles and ain't gone die. But shore as frogs croak and cows bellow, God'll forgive us if'n we ast him to."
Will put it all in his journal.
At first, Grandpas physical injuries were too not severe, but his pride was hurt because he got tricked. But then, in Chapter 49, he develops pneumonia and gets delirious with fever, calls Miss Love by Mattie Lou's name, and she is heartbroken. She tells Will that she is going to have a baby but has not told Grandpa because she was saving the news for Grandpa's birthday and is afraid he will die before he can learn about it. But then his fever breaks, and he recognizes everyone, and Will overhears Miss Love tell him that she is pregnant. The next morning, Miss Love screams because Grandpa is dead.
When will goes to the house to help, he overhears Grandpa and Miss love talking intimately. They are clearly a loving couple now. He hears Grandpa tell Miss Love that he has been thinking about Will's question: What did Jesus me by "Ask and thou shalt receive"? Grandpa thinks it mean:
"When Jesus said, ast and you'll git it, He was givin' a gar'ntee a-spiritual healin, not body healin'. HE was sayin' that if'n you get beat down--scairt to death you caint do what you got to, or scairt you gonna die, or scairt folks won't like you--why all you got to do is put yore hand in God's and He'll lift you up . . . Jesus meant us to ast God to hep us stand the pain, not beg Him to take the pain away. We can ast for comfort and hope and patience and courage, and to be gracious when thangs ain't goin' our way, and we'll git what we ast for. There ani't no gar'ntee that we ain't go'n have no troubles and ain't gone die. But shore as frogs croak and cows bellow, God'll forgive us if'n we ast him to."
Will put it all in his journal.
At first, Grandpas physical injuries were too not severe, but his pride was hurt because he got tricked. But then, in Chapter 49, he develops pneumonia and gets delirious with fever, calls Miss Love by Mattie Lou's name, and she is heartbroken. She tells Will that she is going to have a baby but has not told Grandpa because she was saving the news for Grandpa's birthday and is afraid he will die before he can learn about it. But then his fever breaks, and he recognizes everyone, and Will overhears Miss Love tell him that she is pregnant. The next morning, Miss Love screams because Grandpa is dead.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Chapters 46-47: In Which Lightfoot Gets Married and Grandpa Gets Bested
Chapters 46-47:
Will turns fifteen, and on his way to the store one day, he runs into Lightfoot. She tells him that she does not want him to feel bad about the kissing because she knew Will just wanted to comfort her. She gives him a buckeye and tells him that she is marrying Hosie, because Grandpa has given Hosie a chance at a new life. Will says it almost killed him for Lightfoot to marry Hosie.
In the next chapter, a couple of thieves try to rob the store, but Grandpa gets them at gunpoint. They trick him into firing the gun which they know has only one shot. Then they jump him and crash a chair over his head.
Will turns fifteen, and on his way to the store one day, he runs into Lightfoot. She tells him that she does not want him to feel bad about the kissing because she knew Will just wanted to comfort her. She gives him a buckeye and tells him that she is marrying Hosie, because Grandpa has given Hosie a chance at a new life. Will says it almost killed him for Lightfoot to marry Hosie.
In the next chapter, a couple of thieves try to rob the store, but Grandpa gets them at gunpoint. They trick him into firing the gun which they know has only one shot. Then they jump him and crash a chair over his head.
Chapters 44-45: In Which Camp Comes to an End and Hosie and Loma Get New Starts
Loma returns home to the news that camp has committed suicide and moves in with Will's family. Even though the town churches taught that people who committed suicide went to Hell and forbade burials for suicides, Grandpa is determined that Camp with get a proper funeral and burial. He compels (sort of pressures) the town to pay respects, and every ends up feeling guilty and wishing they had treated Camp better. Grandpa always gets his way.
After Loma moves in with the Tweedy's (because young, respectable, single women could not work or live alone), Will describes how the relationship between Miss Love and Grandpa advanced and grew. She puts in plumbing and Grandpa gets her a gramophone for her birthday, and Will finds them dancing. At the store, Hosie Roach impresses Grandpa and gets Camp's job, and Aunt Loma starts training under Miss Love as an apprentice milliner.
After Loma moves in with the Tweedy's (because young, respectable, single women could not work or live alone), Will describes how the relationship between Miss Love and Grandpa advanced and grew. She puts in plumbing and Grandpa gets her a gramophone for her birthday, and Will finds them dancing. At the store, Hosie Roach impresses Grandpa and gets Camp's job, and Aunt Loma starts training under Miss Love as an apprentice milliner.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Chapters 42-43: In Which Grandpa Gets a Hotel, and Camp Commits Suicide
Mr. Clem Crummy is opening a hotel, and he needs a name for it. Obviously, he can't use his own last name (Think about it: The Crummy Hotel. Not the best way to attract customers.), so he holds a drawing. And when he pulls out the name, the hotel is still named after somebody. And that somebody is Rucker Blakeslee, Will's Grandpa! So Cold Sassy now has the "Rucker Blakeslee Hotel," which really ticks off Mr. Crummy, not wanting Grandpa to get the credit for the hotel.
The next evening, Grandpa gets sick with a "lung disease he once saw in the Army". After a week or two, he seems to have "made a recovery." Life keeps moving.
Next up is Aunt Loma's Christmas play, and one of the greatest practical jokes Cold Sassy has ever seen. For the play, Aunt Loma asks Will to catch a mouse, which will create "havoc," dropping out of a box at a Christmas party on stage. Will does so, and then he and his friends have an idea. Over the next two weeks before the play, they catch nineteen live rats and put them in a cage. Then, when the mouse falls out of the box in the play, they open the cage, and let the rats loose. Mayhem ensues.
Will gets a beating and has to apologize to Aunt Loma. He does so, and Loma screams at him to get out. He goes home, glad to be back on familiar ground with Loma.
Aunt Loma goes away to Athens for a while to spend some time with her roommate. She asks Uncle Camp to fix the sink while she is gone. While she is gone Uncle Camp commits suicide. Will notices that the faucet is still leaking and fixes it, feeling sorry for Uncle Camp.
The next evening, Grandpa gets sick with a "lung disease he once saw in the Army". After a week or two, he seems to have "made a recovery." Life keeps moving.
Next up is Aunt Loma's Christmas play, and one of the greatest practical jokes Cold Sassy has ever seen. For the play, Aunt Loma asks Will to catch a mouse, which will create "havoc," dropping out of a box at a Christmas party on stage. Will does so, and then he and his friends have an idea. Over the next two weeks before the play, they catch nineteen live rats and put them in a cage. Then, when the mouse falls out of the box in the play, they open the cage, and let the rats loose. Mayhem ensues.
Will gets a beating and has to apologize to Aunt Loma. He does so, and Loma screams at him to get out. He goes home, glad to be back on familiar ground with Loma.
Aunt Loma goes away to Athens for a while to spend some time with her roommate. She asks Uncle Camp to fix the sink while she is gone. While she is gone Uncle Camp commits suicide. Will notices that the faucet is still leaking and fixes it, feeling sorry for Uncle Camp.
Chapter 41: In Which Will Learns the Secrets of Grandpa and Miss Love
Chapter 41: They have to stay with an old lady in a small town nearby because the mechanic can't fix the car until the next day. The sleeping situation has Will and Grandpa in one bed and Miss Love on a cot in the next room, so it will look like the married couple was together and Will was alone. Granpa goes to Miss Love after he thinkg Will is asleep, and Will overhears Grandpa and Miss Love confessing their secrets to each other.
Grandpa admits that he has been loving Miss Love since he saw her. He also explains that he and Miss Mattie Lou had been like friends or siblings since they found out having more children might kill Granny. Though Grandpa dearly loved his wife, he had "stayed off from her" for so long that the passion had gone out of their marriage. Grandpa explains how guilty and shameful he felt for so long and how God "set [him] free" of Miss Love when Granny was dying, but how after she dies, he had been determined to marry Miss Love and that he had "stolen" Mary Willis's trip to New York in order to spend time with Miss Love alone.
Miss Love says she never guessed his feelings and that she could never have a "real" marriage: she only agreed to marry Grandpa because she thought she would be merely his housekeeper. She finally tells Grandpa the awful secret that caused Mr. McAllister to initially reject her after she told him: Miss Love's was a violent drunk who, one night, when she was young, had insisted that Miss Love was not really his child and had raped Miss Love.
Grandpa is horrified by the story but still wants to be with Miss Love; he tells her, "[hit] don't make no difference" to him. But she thinks it will and sends Grandpa back to bed with Will.
The next day, on the way home, Grandpa rides up front with Will.
Grandpa admits that he has been loving Miss Love since he saw her. He also explains that he and Miss Mattie Lou had been like friends or siblings since they found out having more children might kill Granny. Though Grandpa dearly loved his wife, he had "stayed off from her" for so long that the passion had gone out of their marriage. Grandpa explains how guilty and shameful he felt for so long and how God "set [him] free" of Miss Love when Granny was dying, but how after she dies, he had been determined to marry Miss Love and that he had "stolen" Mary Willis's trip to New York in order to spend time with Miss Love alone.
Miss Love says she never guessed his feelings and that she could never have a "real" marriage: she only agreed to marry Grandpa because she thought she would be merely his housekeeper. She finally tells Grandpa the awful secret that caused Mr. McAllister to initially reject her after she told him: Miss Love's was a violent drunk who, one night, when she was young, had insisted that Miss Love was not really his child and had raped Miss Love.
Grandpa is horrified by the story but still wants to be with Miss Love; he tells her, "[hit] don't make no difference" to him. But she thinks it will and sends Grandpa back to bed with Will.
The next day, on the way home, Grandpa rides up front with Will.
Chapter 40: In Which Will Plays Chauffeur and Gets an Eyeful
The cars are a big hit, with everyone stopping and admiring/messing with cars out front, and attracting many more customers. Grandpa loves to advertise them and talks about them all the time. Miss Love also plays a part in attracting customers by becoming a window mannequin. Unfortunately, they have to put the cars in back because people are messing with them too much.
They finally sell a car and Will takes Miss Love and Grandpa to the county fair where Grandpa won the big prize for shooting and Will notes in his journal that Grandpa sat in the back with Miss Love on their trip home. They then plan a picnic, and Will drives them. When they try to avoid a crashed car, they drive off the road, putting a hole in their radiator, but do not realize it until they are alone and stranded. Miss Love has an idea to plug the hole with grits, and they send Will to buy some grits from a local. When he comes back, he is shocked to see Grandpa kissing Miss Love and feels for the first time as though Granny has been betrayed.
They finally sell a car and Will takes Miss Love and Grandpa to the county fair where Grandpa won the big prize for shooting and Will notes in his journal that Grandpa sat in the back with Miss Love on their trip home. They then plan a picnic, and Will drives them. When they try to avoid a crashed car, they drive off the road, putting a hole in their radiator, but do not realize it until they are alone and stranded. Miss Love has an idea to plug the hole with grits, and they send Will to buy some grits from a local. When he comes back, he is shocked to see Grandpa kissing Miss Love and feels for the first time as though Granny has been betrayed.
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