Chapters 46-47 Summary
On Will’s fifteenth birthday, he sees Lightfoot. He apologizes for kissing her in the cemetery. She knows he meant no harm. She has news: she and Hosie will marry, because Grandpa gave Hosie a job. Lightfoot gives Will a buckeye to remember her by.
Grandpa works late on a Friday night and gets robbed by two drunk men with a gun. He opens a nail keg, and a hundred and fifty dollars in gold and silver pieces roll out. The robbers get down on their knees to collect the coins, and Grandpa takes their revolver to capture them. He shows off to the robbers by shooting a string in two to scare them. They goad him into demonstrating his skill again with a second shot. At this, the robbers overcome him and beat him up because they know the gun has only two bullets.
Grandpa is found unconscious with broken ribs, a broken nose, and black eyes. He tells the story from bed as he is being tended by the doctor and Love.
Chapters 46-47 Commentary
There is a happy ending for the Mill Town workers, Hosie and Lightfoot, who are able to marry by Grandpa’s generosity. Will is jealous and lonely because he had a deep crush on Lightfoot, though he couldn’t really be public about his affection for a lower class girl. They part friends.
Grandpa is defeated by his own trickster nature and pride. Defeating the robbers, he could have kept them secure until the policeman arrived, but he had to show off his shooting skill to prove himself and thus was outwitted. The jokes and tricks of Grandpa and Will have a way of backfiring, but they never seem to learn from this. They are both high-spirited and flamboyant and too spontaneous to think through their actions.
On the other hand, both Grandpa and Will have a reflective side to them as well. Grandpa’s sermons and Will’s journal recording the sights and sounds of Cold Sassy prove there is depth to their characters.
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