ch, but--"

"But _what_?" Mom said.

"He's awful mean to the gang," I said, "He--"

"Perhaps we'd better ask the blessing now," Pop said, in a kind voice,
and right away we bowed our heads, while Pop prayed a short prayer,
which ended something like this, "... and bless our minister tomorrow.
Put into his heart the things he ought to say that will do us all the
most good.... Make his sermon like a plow and hoe and rake that will
make the gardens of our hearts what they all ought to be.... Bless
Shorty Long and his mother and father, and the Till family, all of
which we ask in Jesus' name. Amen."

For some reason, when Pop finished, I seemed to feel like maybe I
didn't actually _hate_ our new teacher, not very much anyway, and I
thought maybe Shorty Long, even if he was a terribly tough boy, would
be better if he had somebody pull some of the weeds out of him....

After supper, we all took our regular Saturday night baths and went to
bed, and the next thing we knew it was a wonderful morning, with the
sun shining on the snow and with sleigh bells jingling on people's
horses, on account of some of our neighbors lived on roads where the
road-conditioner hadn't been through yet, and couldn't use their cars
and so had to use sleds instead. It was going to be a wonderful day
all day, I thought, and was glad I was alive.

7

Just before nine o'clock, we all started in our car toward Little
Jim's house, which was closer than Tom Till's or Shorty Long's. Little
Jim came tumbling out his back door, his short legs carrying him fast
out to the road. He got in and I was certainly tickled to see him. Mom
and Pop and Charlotte Ann were in the front seat, so Charlotte Ann
would be closer to our car heater and keep warm, on account of it was
a cold morning.

"How is your mother this morning?" my mom asked Little Jim about his
mom, and Little Jim piped up in his mouse-like voice and said, "She's
better than last night. Pop and I took breakfast to her in bed," which
is what _my_ pop does to _my_ mom when _she_ doesn't feel well. In
fact, sometimes when Pop gets up extra early before Mom does, he
sneaks out into our kitchen quietly and makes coffee and carries a
cupful in and surprises Mom even when she is perfectly well, which Pop
says is maybe one reason why Mom keeps on liking him so well....

Our car turned north on the road that leads to Tom's house, crossed
the snow-covered Sugar Creek bridge, and went on. While we