Acknowledgments -- About the Makingof the Work -- Fact and Fiction -- The Process -- The Projects -- The Collaborators -- Instructions for This Book -- Close History -- A Civil War Story -- Great-Grandfather -- Places -- The Yoder Barn -- The Fulton Opera House -- Geology -- Plowing Outback -- Other Places -- Cambodia -- Greece -- The Countess -- Troubles and Fears -- Brown Dress -- Whipping -- Somewhere Safe -- Covet -- Covet Follow-Up(White Coyote) -- Bombs Upstairs -- Porchman/Parchman -- Women and Mice -- Mouse Stole -- Eden Mouse -- Thousands -- Mules -- Amish Mule -- Three Mule Stories -- Characters -- Secret Marriage -- The Patternmaker -- False Witness -- The Butcher Loved Her -- Exceptional Experience -- Rattlesnake -- Bass Hammock -- Fire -- Grabbler -- Shot -- Train Wreck -- Wasted Youth -- Hermaphrodite -- Bad Days andHard Comedy -- Tour of a Minor TrafficAltercation -- Snake-Bit Dog -- Work -- Cooking Liquor -- Route -- Hard Way to Hunt -- Migrant Work Stories -- Summer Day -- Wal-Mart -- Children -- Lonely -- No -- Shared Younguns -- One Child -- Only Child -- Missed Children -- Sixteen Children -- Healing -- The Cures -- Healer -- Voodoo -- Midwife -- Great-Grandmother -- Fiddler Slave -- Things to Say -- Faith -- The Carmen Miranda Hats -- Baptism -- The Call to Preach -- The Postman -- The Last Chance.