1. M.C., Ben, and Lurhetta have taken a rabbit from one of M.C.'s traps when Lurhetta asks to visit Kill's Mound. They leave the rabbit, and when M.C. comes back for it, someone has cut off its feet.

M.C. blames the Killburns. Do you think the Killburns did this? Why or why not?

What is the significance of this incident?

2. On Kill's Mound, the three friends meet an old woman in the barn, one of Ben's grandmothers. She is sitting on a chair, rolling cabbages into a pit, and laughing. When Lurhetta says that the grandmother should not be left alone in the barn, Ben says, "It's her place to be [there]." What is the reason for Hamilton's inclusion of this character, and what might she symbolize?

3. The spoil heap poses a real threat to M.C. and his family...