"Yeah, Bandershanks?"
"I wish it ain't your store, Papa."
"Yeah, sugar, I know. Great Jehoshaphat and gully dirt! Look at that! Nannie, look!"
We all saw it. Not the store—it was done swallowed up. The huge blaze shooting up was as high as stores and stores stacked on top of each other and getting higher all the time! Wild flames, roaring and leaping, were trying to climb to the clouds and set them on fire!
"Oh, Nannie, our lifetime of work, going up in smoke!"
The wind was blowing smoke toward us, and already we could feel the heat. As we got closer, more and more sparks and cinders came flying in the air.
"Jodie, yonder's a whole bunch of men!"
"Where?"
"Backed up there between the fire and the schoolhouse branch."
"Yeah, I see them now. They've been trying to put it out for us! Nannie, it won't be safe for y'all to go any closer. I'll stop the wagon here at the gin. Now, you young'uns stay with your mama."