Down Old Lady Henry's Road there lived the Cora family.  They
lived in an old two room shack with cracks in the floor and wall
nearly big enough to put your hand through.

Shadrack Cora, an old man who always had tobacco juice running
down both sides of his mouth, lived there with his wife and several
children.  One of the boys was Marion, another was Saverne, and
the rest I don't know.

One day, Uncle Bill went to visit Shadrack.  (Uncle Bill told this
story as true...so we'll just believe it is.)  One day, as I said, Uncle
Bill went to visit the Coras. 

Shadrack was sitting by the wood stove and Mrs. Cora was in the
kitchen working.  There was a pile of wood next to where Shadrack
was sitting and a cat was on top of the wood.  As Bill and he chatted,
Shadrack would reach over every so often and push the cat out of
the way, grab a stick of wood, take the lid off the stove, and toss the
wood in. 

One time though, he didn't push the cat out of the way.  Instead, he
picked up the cat, opened the stove and threw him in the fire.  The
cat made a horrible crying noise and Mrs. Cora came rushing in
from the kitchen to see what all the squalering was about.  I'm afraid
it was too late though for poor pussy.  I guess he just got tired of moving
that cat out of the way.

Of course the Cora and the Harris families were neighbors.  One day,
when Saverne Cora was over at the Harris place a chicken hawk was
after the Harris chickens.  Saverne in trying to shoot the hawk killed
one of the Harris girls and filled another with buckshot.  That was a sad
day in the little community of Fernnook.