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.