Smarter By Myself

When I was 5, my brother Rex and my cousin Brian were 6 and the three of us
were at my grandparent's house. They lived in the country...they had a great
old house, big barn and so forth. My grandpa had a big tree stump by the barn
and he kept his BIG ax in the stump, for this is where he cut his kindlin' for
their wood-burning stove. We decided we should help Grandpa cut the
kindlin'. Of course being the girl I was only allowed to watch (a blessing). Rex &
Brian weren't very big but the ax was so they decided one of them would hold
the "kindling" while the other one wielded the ax.

Poor Brian.

He was the poor sap who got to hold the kindling. As you probably guessed,
Rex took a big ol' swing and cut Brian's finger off!

All I remember is we ran to the house and Grandma picked up Brian and wrapped
his finger in her apron and off we went in their old pickup.

We had lots of fun like that when I was a kid.