I Heard The Owl Call My Name

The men of the village tear down the vicarage and prepare the foundation for the new one while Mark stays at Marta’s house. Keetah and Jim often join them for dinner along with the village elders, and Mark encourages Keetah to write down the stories and traditions of the village. Gordon visits one weekend, and Jim and the elders stay away because “Gordon was not interested in the past” (92)and says that he wants to board with a white family and go to school in a white town. When the materials for the new village arrive, the men of the village decide to rent a forestry barge, and over two days load the materials, transport them upriver, and unload them. The villagers all pitch in to assemble the vicarage in six weeks and a feast is planned in honor of the Bishop, who will visit to bless it. Caleb and a doctor also arrive with the Bishop, and Caleb offers to help find homes for Gordon and the other boys who want to go to school. The Bishop notices that Mark is worried that the village will be legally allowed to buy liquor in two days, saying he is afraid some of his best parishioners will wind up “in the gutter” (98).