The Big Spruce schoolhouse was only a few years old. It had been built with New Deal
dollars to replace the log building that had stood on the same spot for almost eighty years.
The structure was white clapboard with windows down one side, and was set on cinder
blocks. Like Louisa's farmhouse, the roof had no shingles, just a "roll of roofing" that
came in long sheets and was tacked down in overlapping sections like shingles. The
school had one door, with a short overhang. A brick chimney rose through the A-frame
roof.
On any given day school attendance was roughly half of the number of students who
should have been there, and that was actually a high number compared to the attendance
figures in the past. On the mountain, farming always trumped book learning.
The schoolyard was dirt, a split-trunk walnut tree in the center of it. There were about
fifty children milling about outside, ranging in age from Oz's to Lou's. Most were dressed
in overalls, though a few girls wore floral dresses made from Chop bags, which were
hundred-pound sacks of feed for animals. The bags were beautiful and of sturdy material,
and a girl always felt extra special having a Chop bag outfit. Some children were in bare
feet, others in what used to be shoes but were now sandals of sorts. Some wore straw
hats, others were bareheaded; a few of the older boys had already upgraded to dirty felt,
no doubt hand-me-downs from their daddies. Some girls favored pigtails, others wore
their hair straight, and still others had the sausage curl at the end.
The children all stared at the newcomers with what Lou perceived as unfriendly eyes.
One boy stepped forward. Lou recognized him as the one who had dangled on the tractor
over the side of the mountain their first day here. Probably the son of George Davis, the
crazy man who had threatened them with the shotgun in the woods. Lou wondered if the
fellow's offspring also suffered from insanity.
"What's the matter, y'all can't walk by yourselves? Hell No got to bring you?" the boy
said.
"His name is Eugene," said Lou right to the boy's face. Then she asked, "Can anybody
tell me where the second-and sixth-grade classes are?"
"Why sure," the same boy said, pointing. "They's both right over there."
Lou and Oz turned and saw the listing wooden outhouse behind the school building.
"Course," the boy added with a sly grin, "that's just for you Yankees."
This set all the mountain children to whooping and laughing, and Oz nervously took a
step closer to Lou.
Lou studied the outhouse for a moment and then looked back at the boy.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Billy Davis," he said proudly.
"Are you always that scintillating, Billy Davis?"
Billy frowned. "What's that mean? You call me a name, girl?"
"Didn't you just call us one?"
"Ain't said nuthin' 'cept the truth. Yankee once is a Yankee for life. Coming here ain't
changing that."
The crowd of rebels voiced their complete agreement with this point of view, and Lou
and Oz found themselves encircled by the enemy. They were saved only by the ringing of
the school bell, which sent the children dashing for the door. Lou and Oz looked at each
other and then trudged after this mob.
"I don't think they like us much, Lou," Oz said.
"I don't think I much care," his sister said back.
The number of classrooms was one, they immediately discovered, which served all
grades from first to seventh, the students separated in discrete clusters by age. The
number of teachers matched the number of classrooms. Her name was Estelle McCoy,
and she was paid eight hundred dollars a school year. This was the only job she had ever
had, going on thirty-nine years now, which explained why her hair was far more white
than mousey brown.
Wide blackboards covered three walls. A potbellied stove sat in one corner, a long pipe
from it running to the ceiling. And, seeming very much out of place in the simple
confines, a beautifully crafted maple bookcase with an arched top took up another corner
of the room. It had glass-paned doors, and inside Lou could see a number of books. A
handwritten sign on the wall next to the cabinet read: "Library."
Estelle McCoy stood in front of them all with her apple cheeks, canyon smile, and
chubby figure draped in a bright floral dress.
"I have a real treat for y'all, today. I'd like to introduce two new students: Louisa Mae
Cardinal and her brother, Oscar. Louisa Mae and Oscar, will you stand up please?"
As someone who routinely bowed to the slightest exercise of authority, Oz immediately
leapt to his feet. However, he stared down at the floor, one foot shifting over the other, as
though he had to pee really badly.