Free Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

This looked like the time.
    Slater had not forgotten. He was getting even.
    Pa was as determined as ever to get his farm fenced. Through the fall, he and Buzz had been using their spare time to stretch barbed wire on all their outer boundaries. Now it was cut to bits. All four wires were cut between every post for the distance of a quarter of a mile.
    Pa just stood and looked at it. He didn't say another word. He didn't do anything about it. He didn't go near the Slaters or call them to account. He didn't even mention the Slaters by name.
    The next Saturday he took a lot of cane syrup to town to sell. He said he wanted to buy white paint to paint the house.
    "You mean you want to get more barbed wire," said Ma.
    "You shore do love a ruckus. Why dent you let the fence go, and live peaceable!" Pa ignored her question. "I'm studyin' to paint the house, come spring. I want to buy the paint now, when I can pay for it."
    Ma stayed at home to hoe up the trampled strawberry plants.
    Birdie and Dovey went along to town with Pa and Buzz. Birdie took her leghorn hat to Miss Liddy's, the way Ma told her to.
    Azuloy worked on it most of the afternoon, while the girls watched. She bleached it, reshaped and retrimmed it. When it was all done, it had a beautiful red rose on it. This one was made of silk, not paper. The hat looked as good as new.
    Birdie and Dovey waited at Miss Liddy's while Pa took care of his business. It took him a long time. They thought he would never come. They watched for him at the front window. Miss Liddy gave them cold boiled sweet potatoes to eat, to keep them from getting hungry.
    The Tatums passed, and other people they knew, but Pa did not come. Suddenly a loud, shuffling noise filled the air, a rumble made by the tramping of sharp hoofs, and the mooing of cattle. Above the commotion, loud shouts rang out.
    "What's that! Shootin'!" asked Birdie.
    "Oh, I'm scared!" wailed Dovey.
    Miss Liddy hurried over. "The Crackers are coming," she explained. "Just cowmen with their cattle! Hear how they crack their long, rawhide whips. They're driving a big herd to market at Tampa, to ship to Cuba most likely. Probably came from way up yonder by Jacksonville, buyin' up beef cattle all along the way." She paused. "Folks born in Florida or who have lived here a long time are called Crackers--after the cowmen.
    "We're Crackers!" said Birdie proudly. "We was born in Marion County!"
    For half an hour, the air was filled with horseflies and gritty dust; the clay-packed street was ground to dry powder by sharp hoof~. The cowmen rode small, wiry cowhorses, and cracked their whips beside the herd, shouting and whooping and singing lustily:
    "Sittin' on a cowhorse
    The whole day long,

    Thinkin' of those good times,
    All past and gone.
    Apple like a cherry,
    Cherry like a rose;
    Oh, how I love my Cindy
    Nobody livin' knows!"
    An oxcart brought up the rear, carrying supplies. The teamster, who also served as cook, walked to the left of the cart, swinging his whip back over his shoulder, then whipping it forward in a startling crack, that sounded like a shot from a gun.
    The great stream of cattle passed slowly out on the rutty Tampa road. The dust settled down and the town was left to its usual quiet.
    When it was time for Miss Liddy to go home for supper, she said, "I must buy those schoolbooks for the Harden children-they're coming in to town to school; they live near enough. Their Pa asked me to. We'll go down the street and keep an eye out for your father."
    Miss Liddy bought the books at the drug store, then they walked round the block. It was supper time and there were few people about. The square was deserted. A mule, pulling a rickety wagon, went by. An old woman on the seat had a little bell which she rang now and then.
    "That's old Janey Pokes sellin' vegetables," said Miss Liddy.
    "When I start sellin' strawberries," said Birdie, "I'll get me a wagon and a bell."
    "You'll be a strawberry girl, wont you!" said Miss