Chapter 7 Summary

Christmas' memories now wander to the day on which he became a man. He recalls himself as a boy, sitting at a table with a large Bible in front of him. He wears a white shirt and black pants, and his shoes are polished clumsily, as a child would polish them. McEachern stands beside the table and accuses the boy of not trying to learn. McEachern looks at his watch and tells the boy he will give him another hour to learn it. McEachern's shoes are well polished, remembers Christmas, because the child had been beaten the night before for polishing them clumsily, and had re-polished them in the morning. Half an hour later, Mrs. McEachern enters wearing her church clothes. She looks at the silent tableau of man and boy for a moment, and then leaves again. At the end of the...