The Ways of Children

Fast truck, slow moon.











Today my very old friend told me some stories her grandmother told her. I guess that would take us back to the mid nineteenth century. The grandmother said that when she was a child they lived in a cabin on the plains and the kids would be left alone for days when mom and pop went to town for supplies. Once, the two older kids were playing outside. When they came in the cabin they saw a rattlesnake curled up on the bed at their baby sisters feet. They managed to pull the baby away from the rattlesnake without disturbing it, then they hacked it to death with a hoe. Then they got mad at the cat for scraping holes in the sod roof, so they dug a hole, stuck the live cat in it, then covered the hole and cat with rocks, intending to bury it. That night the cat was back on the roof scratching more holes. Makes me wonder why they didn't just hack it to death with the hoe like they did the snake.......