Chapter 6 Summary

As the children wait in the trees for the approaching men, Little Homer Honey fashions a lasso out of a rope retrieved from under his cowboy hat. Verena and twenty men follow Sheriff Candle up to the China tree brandishing their guns. While the Judge and the sheriff face each other in a stand off, Little Homer Honey lowers the lasso over the head of the minister and snaps it tight around the man's neck. The minister's plight is just the catalyst needed to spur the group into an all out fight complete with cursing, rocks and beatings.

At some point during the altercation, a shot is fired and Riley falls from his perch in the tree. As the crowd rushes toward Riley lying on the ground, Verena demands to know who fired the gun and Dolly answers that it is their own...