Chapters 8 and 9 Summary

The Preacher comes by the stable to let Elijah know a carnival is coming to the area. Cooter's mother has already told him he cannot go. The Preacher tries to make Elijah feel guilty if he doesn't use this opportunity to help the Settlement.

At the carnival, they approach the booth of Madame Sabbar, who has slain 541 lions in the jungles of Sweden with her slingshot. There are no lions in Sweden because she has supposedly killed them all. Elijah has never known anyone who has ever even seen a lion, and this makes him shake. She performs her skills, aiming at a bullseye and putting out candle flames with marbles. Mawee, a little white boy who is supposedly a member of the savage Mobongo tribe emerges, and magically blinds Madame Sabbar. Elijah recognizes the boy as Jimmy Blassingame from school...