Following dinner that night, Mrs. Algood told Chad he needed to go to the wood shed and bring in the kindling for the next day. This annoyed Chad as he was eager to return to Rex Ryan, who was waiting for him under the pillow in his room. His sister followed him as he stomped out of the house.
Sally was only eight, ten years his junior. She had been referred to by her parents as their Christmas surprise. How she could be a Christmas surprise had puzzled Chad as her birthday was in late August.
She was a sweet child—blonde-haired and blue-eyed, looking more like her mother than Chad with his deep set dark eyes and brown hair. As he had grown older, folks in town had remarked how he resembled his father and what a blessing that must be to his mother now that Wellington Algood was gone. Ano
