Cassie is the narrator.
She has three little brothers named Little Man, who is 6, Christopher-John, who is 7, and Stacey, who is 12.
They all live in Mississippi in 1933. Cassie's father owns 400 acres of land, but is having trouble paying the taxes on the land because the price of cotton is down. So her father goes to work for the transcontinental railroad laying track.
Cassie's father is worried that his children might not be able to live on their own land.
"Look out there Cassie girl, all that belongs to you. You ain't never had it like that, you ain't never had to live on nobody's place but your own as long as I live and the family survives." (p. 4)
Cassie
