“Tell him to go on,” Cash says. We go on. Dewey Dell leans back and wipes Cash’s face. Cash is my brother. But Jewel’s mother is a horse. My mother is a fish. Darl says that when we come to the water again I might see her and Dewey Dell said, She’s in the box; how could she have got out? She got out through the holes I bored, into the water I said, and when we come to the water again I am going to see her. My mother is not in the box. My mother does not smell like that. My mother is a fish.
“Those cakes will be in fine shape by the time we get to Jefferson,” Darl says.
Dewey Dell does not look around.
“You better try to sell them in Mottson,” Darl says.
“When will we get to Mottson, Darl?” I say.
“Tomorrow,” Darl says. “If this team don’t tack to pieces. Snopes must have fed them on sawdust.”
“Why did he feed them on sawdust, Darl?” I say.
“Look,” Darl says. “See?”
Now there are nine of them, tall in little tall black circles.
When we come to the foot of the hill pa stops and Darl and Dewey Dell and I get out. Cash can’t walk because he has a broken leg. “Come up, mules,” pa says. The mules walk hard; the wagon creaks. Darl and Dewey Dell and I walk behind the wagon, up the hill. When we come to the top of the hill pa stops and we get back into the wagon.
Now there are ten of them, tall in little tall black circles on the sky.