Not Without Laughter

Tempy and Arkins Siles's house is quite different from Hager's house. Tempy insists that he wake himself on time for school. Sandy has his own room. They have indoor plumbing, including a bathroom. In addition, the house is spotless. Tempy insists that Sandy not say "yes'm" to her because that is "slavery talk," and she forces him to use Standard American English (169).

She proudly takes him to a clothing store in town where she is the only black patron with a credit account. She does so because she wants "white people to know that Negroes have a little taste" (169). Sandy will have to learn to follow her example in this as well.

Annjee, who has by now received Tempy's coldly worded note about Hager's death, promises to send for Sandy as soon as she can raise the money to do so. Toledo is a hard place to live, she explains, and neither she nor Jimboy are home that often because they have to work.

Tempy responds to this letter by insisting that Sandy stay in Stanton where she believes he can get a good education and be raised to become "a credit to the race" in her hands. Sandy was a "quiet, decent child, smart in his classes," despite the disadvantage of having been raised with "Jimboy and Harriet and going to a Baptist church" (169).