Summary:

Lily Daw is a mentally retarded young woman who lives by herself but is watched over by the women in the small town. Since Lily has become sexually mature, the women decide she really does not know how to take care of herself, so they write to get her accepted in an institution for the mentally retarded.

When they visit Lily, they discover that she has been out on a date the previous night with the xylophone player from a traveling show. Lilly announces she is going to get married. The women are shocked and worried, but Lily seems quite happy. This wry story ends with Lily going to the Justice of the Peace with the xylophone player who intends to give her a better life than she would have had in the institution.

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Summary:

This story is told by Sister, whose grandfather, Papa-Daddy, has gotten her a job as postmistress of the smallest post office in Mississippi. Sister is living peaceably with Papa-Daddy, her Uncle Rondo, and her Mama, when her younger sister, Stella-Rondo, returns home from an apparently failed marriage with a two-year-old daughter, Shirley T. Stella-Rondo had eloped with Mr. Whitaker, a traveling photographer, now nowhere to be seen.

No sooner does she move in then Stella-Rondo is back to her old tricks as the family favorite. When Sister questions the paternity of Shirley T (even noting how much she looks like Papa-Daddy), Stella-Rondo steadfastly maintains that the child is adopted. She punishes Sister by telling Papa-Daddy that Sister said he should trim his beard, which has been growing untouched by human scissors since it first appeared.

Later, Sister tries to fight back by saying that Shirley T is mute and mentally challenged, but (lo and behold!) she isn't. No matter how tall Stella-Rondo's tales are, the family believes her, and Sister remains the family scapegoat. Finally, to protest her dispossession, Sister rebels by moving away from home--to the local post office.

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Summary:

On a "bright, frozen day" in December, a very old Negro lady named Phoenix Jackson carefully, haltingly walks through the woods and fields on her way to town. She talks to herself and the animals. She pauses to rest. A dog jumps at her and she falls into a ditch. A hunter comes along and helps her get up. Although she is completely worn out, she says, "I bound to go to town, Mister . . . The time come around."

When she reaches town, she goes to the clinic where an attendant thinks, "A charity case, I suppose." But Phoenix has come to get "soothing medicine" for her grandson's throat. He swallowed lye years before and his throat never heals. "We is the only two left in the world . . ." The attendant gives her a nickel. She turns to go, planning to buy her grandson a paper windmill and then make the arduous trip home.

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