some. Lou noted that pieces of sawed wood had been nailed into the tree's trunk, forming
a rough ladder. Diamond put a foot up on the first rung and started to climb.
"Where are you going?" asked Lou, as Oz kept a grip on Jeb because the hound was
acting as though he too wanted to head up the tree behind his master.
"See God," Diamond hollered back, pointing straight up. Lou and Oz looked to the sky.
Far up a number of stripped scrub pines were laid side by side on a couple of the oak's
massive branches, forming a floor. A canvas tarp had been flung over a sturdy limb
above, and the sides had been tied down to the pines with rope to form a crude tent.
While promising all sorts of pleasant times, the tree house looked a good puff of wind
away from hitting the ground.
Diamond was already three-quarters up, moving with an easy grace. "Come on now," he
said.
Lou, who would have preferred to die a death of impossible agony rather than concede
that anything was beyond her, put a hand and a foot on two of the pieces of wood. "You
can stay down here if you want, Oz," she said. "We probably won't be long." She started
up.
"I got me neat stuff up here, yes sir," Diamond said enticingly. He had reached the
summit, his bare feet dangling over the edge.
Oz ceremoniously spit on his hands, gripped a wood piece, and clambered up behind his
sister. They sat cross-legged on the laid pines, which formed about a six-by-six square,
the canvas roof throwing a nice shade, and Diamond showed them his wares. First out
was a flint arrowhead he said was at least one million years old and had been given to
him in a dream. Then from a cloth bag rank with outside damp he pulled the skeleton of a
small bird that he said had not been seen since shortly after God put the universe
together.
"You mean it's extinct," Lou said.
"Naw, I mean it ain't round no more."
Oz was intrigued by a hollow length of metal that had a thick bit of glass fitted into one
end. He looked through it, and while the sights were magnified some, the glass was so
dirty and scratched, it started giving him a headache.
"See a body coming from miles away," proclaimed Diamond, sweeping a hand across his
kingdom. "Enemy or friend." He next showed them a bullet fired from what he said was
an 1861 U.S. Springfield rifle.
"How do you know that?" said Lou.
" 'Cause my great-granddaddy five times removed passed it on down and my granddaddy
give it to me afore he died. My great-granddaddy five times removed, he fought for me
union , you know."
"Wow," Oz said.
"Yep, turned his pitcher to the wall and everythin', they did. But he weren't taking up a
gun for nobody owning nobody else. T'ain't right."
"That's admirable," said Lou.
"Look here now," said Diamond. From a small wooden box, he pulled forth a lump of
coal and handed it to Lou. "What d'ya think?" he asked. She looked down at it. The rock
was all chipped and rough.
"It's a lump of coal," she said, giving it back and wiping her hand clean on her pants leg.
"No, it ain't just that. You see, they's a diamond in there. A diamond, just like me."
Oz inched over and held the rock. "Wow" was again all he could manage.
"A diamond?" Lou said. "How do you know?"
" 'Cause the man who gimme it said it was. And he ain't ask for not a durn thing. And
man ain't even know my name was Diamond. So there," he added indignantly, seeing the
disbelief on Lou's features. He took the coal lump back from Oz. "I chip me off a little
piece ever day. And one time I gonna tap it and there it'll be, the biggest, purtiest
diamond anybody's ever saw."
Oz eyed the rock with the reverence he usually reserved for grown-ups and church. "Then
what will you do with it?"
Diamond shrugged. "Ain't sure. Mebbe nothing. Mebbe keep it right up here. Mebbe give
it to you. You like that?"
"If there is a diamond in there, you could sell it for a lot of money," Lou pointed out.
Diamond rubbed at his nose. "Ain't need no money. Got me all I need right here on this
mountain."
"Have you ever been off this mountain?" Lou asked.
He stared at her, obviously offended. "What, you think I'a hick or somethin'? Gone on
down to McKenzie's near the bridge lots of times. And over to Tremont."
Lou looked out over the woods below. "How about Dickens? You ever been there?"
"Dickens?" Diamond almost fell out of the tree. 'Take a day to walk it. 'Sides, why'd a
body want'a go there?"
"Because it's different than here. Because I'm tired of dirt and mules and manure and