However, the incident takes place in late October, when the rainy season had started. One day, while the Logan children are walking to school, they are forced to jump into a muddy ditch to save themselves from the speedy white children's school bus which was about to hit them. From one of the windows of the bus, one white child yells at them," Nigger" and "mud eater". The children are all angry at this and promise to take revenge. They are all frustrated especially Little Man. Stacey, the eldest of them all, is the one who plans for the revenge. He asks them to meet in this place where they were forced to go in the mud during lunch time. They go out to the road and dig a ditch with the help of shovels. Soon this ditch becomes filled with rain water. That afternoon, the bus falls into their trap. It gets stuck in the ditch which causes the breaking of its axle and water logging the engine. Its repairing would take weeks. The bus driver tells the white children,
" All y'all gonna be walkin' for at least two weeks by the time we get this thing hauled outa here and up to strawberry to get fixed". Chapter 3 pg. 55
Knowing this, the children get happy that their plan worked out as they wanted. When they reach home that day, they tell Mama and Big Ma about this incident, not telling them that they were the ones behind it. The women laughed over this at dinner and enjoyed it. However, the story doesn’t end here. Later that night, and while the children are studying, they over hear Mama talking to T.J's father. He was warning her that the night men are coming back again tonight. He said,
"It's… it's them again. They are ridin' tonight." Chapter 3 pg. 60
This makes Mama afraid and she puts the children to bed. They are all terrified and have the feeling that they would be caught. However, Cassie tries to sleep but wakes up in the middle of the night on the sounds of cars and people. She looked at them scared but soon she heard them deciding that this was the wrong house. Later, T.J tells them that they tarred and feathered a black man because he was accusing a white man who owned a mercantile in Strawberry, of cheating him.
This incident tells us a lot about eh Logan children's characters. Little Man gets angry quickly and especially when it comes to cleanliness. That is why he was the most annoyed of this bus. Stacey who is the eldest is shown to us as a smart and clever boy who is ready to break the rules in order to take revenge for his rights. This incident tells us about the children in general that they all loved each other and were united in everything. It's true that this incident ended up for their side but it is to be noted that the latter incidents don’t!
