Strawberry Girl Read Online Free Page A

fur piece!" asked Dovey again. "My legs is tired."
    "We're most there now," said Birdie. "I hear young uns yellin'." In a moment, she added, "See! Thar 'tis!"
    The schoolhouse was an old one, built of logs, with a stick-and-mud chimney at the end. On one side was the boys baseball field. On the other, a rope swing dangled from a horizontal branch of a large live oak tree, hung with Spanish moss.
    They came up slowly. A group of children playing by the door, stopped suddenly and looked.
    "Let's go home," said Dovey, starting to cry.
    "No," said Birdie. "We come to school and we're fixin' to stay." Dragging Dovey behind her, she approached the group.
    "Howdy!" she said.
    They stared at her and she stared at them. One girl turned and spoke to the others. They all laughed.
    "Howdy!" said Birdie again. "You Yankees?" The girl, who had pale loose hair falling in her eyes, put the question. The other children crowded close behind her, their eyes cold with suspicion.
    "Shucks, no!" answered Birdie with a laugh. "We're shore 'nough Crackers! We was born in Marion County. We're jest the same as you-all." She put her arm round Dovey's shoulder. Dan said nothing.
    "We don't want no Yankees in our school," said the girl.
    Birdie looked at her. "I done role you we ain't Yankees."
    The girl looked at the others. "We heard tell 'at Yankees, with heaps of high-flyin' notions, was livin' in the ole Redden- berry house. They come from up north somewheres."
    "We come from Marion County, Florida--that's up north," said Birdie patiently. "We live in the Roddenberry house, but we ain't Yankees."
    The girl seemed satisfied. "My name's Olema Dorsey. What's your'n?"
    Birdie told her Dovey's and Dan's names and her own.
    Olema began to be friendly. She pointed out the school children by name-Mary Jim Dorsey, Lank Tatum, Rofelia Marsh, Latrelle Tatum, Coy and Loy--the Marsh twins, the Hardens--Shad, Billie Sue and Roxie May--Kossie and Kessie Cook and others. They stood awkwardly and stared at the newcomers.
    "What? No Slaters?" asked Birdie.
    The minute she said it, she knew she had made a mistake. A frown went round the circle of child faces.
    "Don't Essie and Zephy come to school?" she asked.
    "Course not," said Rofelia Marsh. "They're little bitty screamin' young uns."
    "How 'bout Shoestring, then?"
    Rofelia Marsh looked at Olema Dorsey. "We don't mess up with no Slaters," she said.
    What did this mean? Birdie was no wiser than before. "Let's play hall," called Lank Tatum. The boys ran over to their side and Dan followed them.

    "Want a drink?" asked Olema.
    "Yes," said Birdie.
    "Shore do," said Dovey.
    They went to the pump. Olema pumped the water and her sister, Mary Jim, held the gourd. The children watched as Birdie and Dovey drank.
    "Tastes of sulphur, don't hit!" said Birdie.
    Nobody answered.
    "I wore my new calico dress," said Dovey.
    As soon as she said it, Birdie wished she hadn't.
    "Think you’re biggety, don’t you?" spoke up Billie Sue Harden .
    Birdie looked around and saw that most of the girls dresses were made from flour sacks. "No," she said quickly, "our dresses are calico, but not new. They been washed heaps o' times. See how faded they air'" They must not appear to be better than any of the others.
    Billie Sue smiled. That made it all right. "Want to swing!" she asked.
    "Yes," said Birdie.
    "Shore do," said Dovey.
    They walked over to the live oak tree.
    "Your turn first," said Olema Dorsey.
    Birdie swung and let Olema push her. It was nice to be a new girl in a new school and have the first turn. Next it was Dovey's turn, but while she was swinging, the bell rang. Birdie looked and saw a small, thin-looking man standing at the schoolhouse door.
    "Is that... is he ..." she began.
    "That's Mr. Pearce, our teacher," said Rofelia. "He always makes us a talk of a mornin'."
    The children crowded in, stamping their bare feet on the floor to shake the sand off. Olema took Birdie and Dovey to Mr.
    Pearce and told him their names. He