"The Education of Little Tree": Chapter Summary 9.
This chapter started out by telling us that Granpa had never held a job in public works, which is a job for regular hire. During Little Tree's childhood, corn was very cheap in its regular form, but in whiskey form it was worth a profitable amount. Granpa's trade was making moonshine. This was the only way to make money because they had such a small corn patch that it was impossible to make money selling regular corn. Granpa got his trade from his Scotch side. He thought that it was an honorable trade that was often given a bad name because of bad moon shiners. There are many ways to cheat and Granpa didn't do any of them. He said that some big moon shiners try to get rid of the small ones by doing things like telling people that the moonshine is aged which makes no difference according to Granpa. He called the people that purchased that barrel sniffers.
Granpa decided that since Little Tree was six, he should start learning the trade too. And so Granpa taught little tree all about whiskey making and he learned how to use Granpa's prized still, which was all copper and very good quality. Most people used white corn to make whisky but Granpa used Indian corn which gave his product a distinctive color. Little Tree tried very hard to be a good apprentice and succeeded. He would try hard not to make too much noise or to burn the moonshine. Granpa and Little Tree would carry the whiskey back and sell it to the General Store, to Mr. Jenkins to be exact, for 2 dollars a gallon which was good money. They sold 9 gallons each time and kept 2 for themselves. Little Tree had a special job of cleaning the barrels out which he did quickly because they were hot.
When Granpa and Little Tree were at the still, and Granma saw someone coming, she would release the dogs as a warning. Granpa tried Rippit and ol' Maud but they didn't do well because they got drunk each time, so Granpa used Blue Boy. Granpa also warned that you had to be clean about everything or special "law dogs"
Granpa decided that since Little Tree was six, he should start learning the trade too. And so Granpa taught little tree all about whiskey making and he learned how to use Granpa's prized still, which was all copper and very good quality. Most people used white corn to make whisky but Granpa used Indian corn which gave his product a distinctive color. Little Tree tried very hard to be a good apprentice and succeeded. He would try hard not to make too much noise or to burn the moonshine. Granpa and Little Tree would carry the whiskey back and sell it to the General Store, to Mr. Jenkins to be exact, for 2 dollars a gallon which was good money. They sold 9 gallons each time and kept 2 for themselves. Little Tree had a special job of cleaning the barrels out which he did quickly because they were hot.
When Granpa and Little Tree were at the still, and Granma saw someone coming, she would release the dogs as a warning. Granpa tried Rippit and ol' Maud but they didn't do well because they got drunk each time, so Granpa used Blue Boy. Granpa also warned that you had to be clean about everything or special "law dogs"