Mama didn't put me down till we got out to our front porch. Then she let me slide to the top doorstep, and she sank down on the plank beside me. "Mama, what're we gonna do?" "Well, tomorrow I'll send for Doanie and Bett to come sweep the yard from front to back. They'll have to have new dogwood brush brooms. And just before your big brothers get in, I'll have Huldie up here helping me bake plenty of cakes and pies." "Mama?" "Yes?" "When we get to Heaven, can we have cake and pie every day?" "Why, I don't know! Maybe! It's gonna be sorta like Heaven right here when Clyde and Walker come home. But, my, I've got work ahead. I'll have to catch a dozen or so young pullets and roosters and coop them up to fatten. We'll need piles of fried chicken. I hope your papa will have Black Idd get a good-sized shoat ready to butcher so I'll have fresh hams to boil. Or, if it would just turn cold enough, we could have hog killing." Mama sounded like she was talking to herself, not me, but I didn't stop her. "I've got a quilt in the frame that's simply got to be finished and put away. I always did hate to see a half-finished quilt hanging up against the ceiling. That makes me think; I'd better set up another bed in the far side room. That floor's got to be scrubbed first, though. This porch and all these old floors need a good going over with sand and lye." "Mama, what's for me to do?" "I'll think of something." Mama looked out across the yard toward the grove of black walnut trees in front of our house and at the ones growing by the barns and wagon shelter. The trees were nearly naked. They still had a handful of brown and yellow leaves flipping in the wind, but all their walnuts were lying on the ground, their thick green hulls already shriveling up and turning from green to black. "I know the very thing, Bandershanks. You can pick up walnuts. We'll make some chocolate candy with—" "Mama, look coming! Yonder's Mierd and Wiley! What're they running for?" "My sakes! Mister Shepherd must've turned school out early!" "Mama! Guess what! School's out! We're getting a holiday!'' Wiley yelled, long before he and Mierd got to the gate. "Teacher said we ought'a celebrate stopping the war! November 'leven's gonna be a big day to remember! Always!" "Yeah, Mama!" Mierd hollered. "Mister Shepherd said they'll put it in the history book! But he assigned us so much arithmetic it ain't gonna be no holiday a-tall! Me and Wiley'll be up till midnight!" "Maybe not." "Mama, I gotta run tell Grandpa the war's over! He won't have to save no more peach seeds!" "Son, he knows it. Your papa phoned us the news just a few minutes ago." "Peach seeds? What's Grandpa and peach seeds got to do with the Armistice?" "Good grannies, Mierd, you heard Grandpa talking 'bout saving 'em not long ago. The Government wanted folks to all start saving up peach seeds and nut hulls for the soldiers." "Are you crazy, Wiley?"