be lighting
little kindling fires in the furnace night and morning. And hot
water just by lighting the gas! Land, I never knew my own luck."

"But I like it here!" Jimmie burst out eagerly. "Do you know
something? I'm going to learn to read! I colored my pictures
the neatest of anyone in the class, and She put them all on the
wall. So then I didn't mind telling her how I never learned to
read and write and how Rose-Ellen wrote my letter to Jimmie Brown
in Cleveland."

He beamed so proudly that Grandpa, wringing a sheet for Grandma,
looked sorrowfully at him over his glasses. "It's a pity you
didn't tell her sooner, young-one," he said. "The cranberries
will be over in a few more days, and we'll be going back."

"Back to Philadelphia?" Rose-Ellen demanded. "Where? Not to a
Home? I won't! I'd rather go on and shuck oysters like Pauline
Isabel and her folks. I'd rather go on where they're cutting
marsh hay. I'd rather--"

"Well, now," Grandpa's words were slow, "what about it, kids?
What about it, Grandma? Do we go back to the city and-and part
company till times are better? Or go on into oysters together?"

The tears stole down Jimmie's cheeks, but he didn't say anything.
Daddy didn't say anything, either. He picked Sally up and hugged
her so hard that she grunted and then put her tiny hands on his
cheeks and peered into his eyes, chirping at him like a little
bird.

"I calculate we'll go on into oysters," said Grandpa.

3: SHUCKING OYSTERS

This picnic way of living had one advantage; it made moving easy.
One day the Beechams were picking; the next day they had joined
with two other families and hired a truck to take them and their
belongings to Oystershell, on the inlet of the bay near by.

Pauline Isabel's family were going to a Negro oystershucking
village almost in sight of Oystershell. "It's sure nice there!"
Pauline assured them happily. "I belong to a girls' club that
meets every day after school; in the Meth'dis' church. We got a
sure good school, too, good as any white school, up the road a
piece."

The Beechams said good-by to Pauline's family, who had become
their friends. Then they said good-by to Miss Abbott. That was
hard for Jimmie. He butted his shaven little head against Her
and then limped away as fast as he could.

The ride to Oystershell was exciting. Autumn had changed the
look of the land. "God has taken all the red and yellow he's
got, and just splashe