When we got home, I climbed down from the wagon and skipped on toward the front porch. Mierd's old Nero came around the corner of the house and met me at the yard gate. When I stopped to pet him, he purred and rubbed his back up against my legs.
Mama called to me from the kitchen and told me to run and tell Grandpa and Grandma that we were home from church. "Tell them I'll have Grandma's tray ready in just a little bit—soon as I can warm up the chicken and dumplings."
In a few minutes I was back, and I found Mama in the kitchen already setting things on Grandma's dinner tray.
"Mama, you know what Grandma Ming said?"
"No, there's no telling 'bout your grandma. What'd she tell you this time?"
"She said if I stand 'hind the door and eat a chicken foot, it'll make me pretty!"
"Goodness me! I'd forgotten that old saying."
"Can I do it, Mama?"
"You can try it, if you want to. That is, if the old rooster's feet haven't boiled all to pieces."
I followed Mama over to the cook stove and watched her lift the cover off the stew pot. White steam whoofed up, but she jerked her head back before it could get on her face. With a big spoon, she started stirring through the hot simmering dumplings.