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.
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