"Wish I could take trouble as easy as that boy," sighed Mammy. "It
slides right off'n him like watah off a duck's back."
"He's like the rollin' stone that gethah's no moss," remarked Uncle
Billy. "He goes rollickin' through the days, from sunup 'twel sundown,
so fast that disappointment and sorrow get rubbed off befo' they kin
strike root."
Despite all his troubles, if John Jay had been marking his good times
with white stones, there would have been enough to build a wall all
around the little cabin by the end of the summer. There were two days
especially that he remembered with deepest satisfaction: one was the
Saturday when Mars' Nat took him to the circus, and the other was the
Fourth of July, when all the family went to the Oak Grove barbecue.
[Illustration: Uncle Billy]
But now blackberry season had begun,--a season that he hated, because
Mammy expected him to help her early and late in the patch. So many of
the shining berries slipped down his throat, so many things called his
attention away from the brambly bushes, that sometimes it took hours for
him to fill his battered quart cup.
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