Chapter 2, Friendships Summary

Cassie and Moe discuss the good cotton crop on the land that Moe's father sharecrops for Joe Billy Montier, the landowner. Sharecroppers rent the land from the landowner by paying with a 50 percent share of the harvested crop, plus farming expenses. They start talking about Stacey's newly purchased car, and how this is similar to when Moe's uncle Hammer drove down from Chicago in a new Packard. Moe mentions that he would like a new car, too, but first he needs to buy the land from Montier. He expresses interest in Cassie as a possible wife. Cassie does not want to hear about this, because she has high school and college graduation on her mind and considers Moe to be her best friend, not a possible husband. Moe, Stacey and Willie had dropped out of school in the tenth grade to...