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stop off at Aunt Martha’s. She probably has some shopping she wants you to do on your way home.”
    â€œCome on, let’s go.” Dotty dragged her hat down to her eyebrows and said good-bye to the girls.
    Silently Dotty and Jud climbed the stone wall and made for Aunt Martha’s.
    Uncle Tom met them at the door, suspenders dangling, one side of his face smooth and clean, the other covered with shaving cream.
    â€œHear the pigs last night?” he asked. “Blizzard’s coming. Nothing like ’88, I’ll wager, but a blizzard nevertheless. Why, in ’88 the drifts were so high they swallowed up a four-story building over in Earlville. Whole herds of cattle froze standing up and they didn’t even find ’em until the thaw. Now, that was a blizzard.”
    Last time she’d heard that tale, it’d been a three-story building over in Oriskany Falls, and Aunt Martha had said, “Tom!” the way she did when Uncle Tom was stretching the truth.
    â€œOn your way home, Dotty,” Aunt Martha cut in, “will you pick me up a loaf of bread—make sure it’s fresh—a pound of hamburger, and a quart of milk?” She handed Dotty thirty-five cents. “And make sure you count your change before you leave the store. You got to watch him. You don’t count it while you’re in the store, he’ll say you must’ve dropped some on the road. I know him. You got to keep a sharp eye on him.”
    â€œYes, Aunt Martha.”
    â€œAnd tell him last time the meat was too fatty. When I pay fifteen cents a pound for hamburger, I expect it to be lean.”
    Dotty pocketed the money and waited for further instructions. Apparently her aunt was finished telling her what to do and not do. Uncle Tom shaved the other side of his face, patted it dry, and saw them to the door. On the horizon the clouds were building themselves into a high wall, and the wind was from the northwest.
    â€œBundle up good,” he said. “And keep an eye out for the bank robbers. Radio this morning said they’re still out there, preying on us innocent citizens. Got to watch for them. It’s a big black car they’re driving. Watch for it.”
    â€œLet’s go,” Jud muttered.
    They hadn’t gotten far, only to Kimball’s orchard, where they’d picked all the apples they could eat or carry only a few months before, when Dotty clapped her hand to her head and said, “Sweet Jesus!”
    â€œMy ma says it’s bad to swear,” Jud said piously.
    Dotty made a grab for him, but he leaped away in time.
    â€œYou know what?” she shouted. “He doesn’t have money for his own shoes. That’s why he’s got to fit paper in the holes! Sweet Jesus!” she said again.
    Jud turned around to see who she was talking to. There were just the two of them.
    Dotty took off her mitten and with her newly long fingernails she pinched her own cheek so hard she almost cried out. She wanted to punish herself for having been so stupid about her father’s shoe.
    â€œDon’t!” Jud protested, glad it was her cheek and not his. “It’s bleeding.”
    â€œIs it? Good. I deserve to bleed.” Dotty put the mitten back on, and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

CHAPTER 7
    Dotty skidded into her seat minutes after the bell had rung, and Mrs. Murray hollered at her for being late. Bad enough but only the beginning.
    â€œHello,” Janice Bailey said sweetly from the next desk.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” Dotty said. She felt her face go sour, like milk that’s been left too long in the sun. Janice always had that effect on her.
    Janice ran her tongue over her teeth and treated Dotty to one of her dazzling smiles. “My mother wrote a note to Mrs. Murray saying I had to sit nearer the blackboard on account of my eyes,” she said. Janice’s two front teeth got in each other’s way and