Cold Sassy Tree

by Olive Ann Burns

As they say in Cold Sassy, Aunt Loma was behind the door when they passed out the

Cold Sassy is the kind of town where schoolteachers spend two months every fall drilling on Greek and Roman gods, the kings and queens of England, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, Marco Polo, Magellan, Columbus, the first Thanksgiving, Oglethorpe settling Georgia, and how happy the slaves were before the War. A good teacher could cover the history of the whole world in two months and spend the rest of the school year on the War of the Sixties and how the Union ground its heel in our faces after it knocked us down. Seems like we never got much past the invasion of Yankee carpetbaggers before school let out for the summer.

but didn’t say pea-turkey about my discussing him and Miss Love with a bunch of snotty boys.

Mama looked surprised, but was too happy to say aw shah.

Papa was strict and hard on me because a boy had to amount to something, whereas Mary Toy didn’t, being a girl. But just the same it made me mad. I didn’t go anywhere the next day

As Grandpa and my daddy rushed out, followed by a bunch of customers, Miss Love screamed. “He bit me! He bit me! Somebody help! Get him out of here!” “Will Tweedy, be-have yoreself!” yelled Grandpa as Miss Love leaped out of the car and ran in the store. “I ain’t done nothin’, sir! She’s got a bee down her dress!”

They both could hold a grudge like it was a life work.