Fifteen minutes later Tooter was standing at the open doorway of the honey house. It was a shed-like building, smaller than her bedroom.
Aunt Sally was inside, washing out metal pails in a large sink. There were more pails, a tall stack of them. There were also tanks and screens and copper pipes and hoses.
“You’re supposed to punish me,” said Tooter.
Aunt Sally looked up from her work. “Is that so? Isn’t that your mother’s job?”
“She did punish me. Now it’s your turn.”
Aunt Sally let out a slow whistle. “You must have been mighty bad. What did you do?”
“I hid under my bed all morning.”
Aunt Sally nodded. “And worried your mother half to death wondering where you were.”
Tooter shrugged. “I guess.”
“So, how did she punish you?”
“She lectured me for nineteen hours.”
Aunt Sally frowned. “Ouch. I reckon that hurt.”
“It was gruesome.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Make you listen to me sing?”
She reared back and let out a note that sounded like a cow with a toothache.
Tooter clamped her hands over her ears. “No! Stop! You’re supposed to show me the farm.”
Aunt Sally’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s punishment?”
Tooter slumped against the doorway and slid to a seat on the cement floor. “For me it is, I guess. My mother says the only things I’ve seen are the house and the chicken coop. She says I should see the whole place.”
“What else did she say?”
“She says I should stop complaining.”
Aunt Sally placed a pail on top of the stack. “What do you say?”
Tooter did not reply at once. She looked away. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.”
Aunt Sally flapped her straw hat at Tooter. “Ah, go ahead. I’m a tough old critter. I don’t have feelings.”
The conversation was getting uncomfortable. Tooter changed the subject. “Aunt Sally, how come you always say words like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like critter. And reckon and yonder.”
Aunt Sally chuckled. “Well, it’s like this. When I bought this place, I told myself, Sal, ol’ gal, you’re a farmer now, so act like one. So I bought me a straw hat and started saying words I heard farmers say in the movies. I don’t reckon it made me a farmer, but it made me feel like one.”
Tooter said, “What does a hog in slop mean?”
“If you’re a hog in slop,” said Aunt Sally, “you’re right smack-dab where you want to be.”
“My dad says it.”
Aunt Sally nodded. “I know. He got it from me. I’ve been saying it for years.”
“I heard my mom and Chuckie say it too.”
Aunt Sally gave her a sideways look. “Sounds like everybody around here is a hog in slop but you.”
Tooter did not say anything. But she thought, I’ll never be a hog in slop. I’ll never be right smack-dab where I want to be.
Aunt Sally clapped her hands. “Okay, enough of this mush. Let’s get on with the punishment.”