Page 49

By Jack Joseph Smith

kinds of things on my way out the back door. Don't go through the neighbors lawn, my mother called as I was runing toward our back fence and geting ready to cut through and up to Danials. I didn't say anything and just changed my direction and keep going around our home and up to the street at the top of the hill and over to Danials. Gee it was great to be free and off and runing in the morning for Danials house to capture all the thoughts in my immagination. Through the morning we went around to all the boys and girls we decided we could trust, most of them pretty close to our own age, and told them to be ready to go apple hunting on Mister Metzes farm in the afternoon. We told everybody that they wouldn't have to be afraid of ghosts or anything like that because they would be driven away by the sun, but we had to be on the lookout, because Mister Metzes had a gun. Danial and I were the two scouts, who had risked our lives under fire, but with their help we were sure that we would be able to capture the apples. Later in the morning I went home and asked my mother if I could eat lunch at Danials, and she said that I could, but not to come home too late in the afternoon. Too late in the afternoon, I thought. No special time and my mind went clear and happy. I was off again and after lunch we gathered together our band of apple hunters and headed for Metezes field. The day was hot and the dust was rising out of the weeds as we ran through them. The sweat came evenly out of my pure body and I felt good and tight moving with precision through the bushes and hilly grass. Danial and I led our scattered line of followers up the far side of Metzes hill and than began making our military way across the peak of the field that looked over

Original Scan

Page 49

AI Interpretation

GPT

Michael and Danial recruit trusted children for an apple raid on the farm of Mister Metzes, promising protection from ghosts in sunlight and warning about his gun.

The boys call themselves scouts who have risked their lives under fire and lead the children across the hot field. Michael takes his mother's instruction to return before too late as permission to enjoy time without a fixed deadline. He describes his own body as pure and tight while moving through the grass.

Claude

Ignoring his mother's 'Don't go through the neighbors lawn', the boy runs to Danials, and the two recruit trusted children for 'apple hunting on Mister Metzes farm', promising the ghosts 'would be driven away by the sun' but warning that 'Mister Metzes had a gun'. Told only not to come home 'too late', he feels his mind go 'clear and happy', and the band crosses Metzes hill in hot dust, the narrator 'moving with precision' in 'our military way'.

The page captures a child's first sense of command and freedom, casting a simple apple raid as a military campaign with scouts who had 'risked our lives under fire'. The vague parental limit 'Too late in the afternoon' becomes a gift of open time, and the body is described as 'pure' and 'tight', a rare moment of physical confidence in the book. The comedy of the boys' self-mythologizing sits alongside the real thrill of trespass and danger.