Chapters 5 and 6 Summary

Callie works with her grandfather in his laboratory, and he thinks he is making progress on developing a liquor made from pecans. He gives Callie a small taste of his latest batch, causing her to cough violently and begin to hiccup. She continues to hiccup during dinner, and her mother sends her to her room. While she is exiled there, her brother Travis brings her a kitten to keep her company, and her grandfather brings her a book and sneaks in a sandwich. Callie feels proud that she is the first among her siblings to taste alcohol, and later she learns that the health tonic her mother takes is 20 percent alcohol.

Chapter 6 explores Callie's hated piano lessons. She only takes lessons because her mother insists on it, and although Callie has never told her mother, the teacher, Miss Brown, strikes her...