Stella by Starlight

Back home, Papa is moody. He chops wood while Stella tries to talk to him about the tough life of a tree: growing tall, then eventually cut up for wood. Papa tells her to consider the “big picture,” and when Stella says she has trouble with that, Papa sympathetically tells her adults do as well: “We just figure it out one day at a time” (115).

Later, Stella sits on the step outside trying to write and hears her parents arguing over the matter of registering to vote. When a flock of geese take off suddenly from the pond, Stella grows worried about what scared them and goes inside.

Stella writes about trees, their types, and their many purposes, including what Papa told her earlier that day about using sawdust to make paper. Writing about trees brings her to a new realization about their final purpose: “Dust becomes words. I like that” (118).

JoJo wakes the Mills household in a terror a few nights later. Mama and Papa worry that JoJo saw the Klan, but JoJo insists that on a trip to the outhouse he saw a headless cow. Papa goes to see and quickly solves the mystery. A cow wandered off from the Winston’s property; its black head on a white body in the dark gives the illusion of a headless cow. JoJo says he feels silly for the scare, but Stella commiserates with him and mentions things that scare her: “Trust me. The older you get, the scarier the world gets to be” (123). 

The next day, Papa tells Stella she is not to go to school. He wants her to come to Spindale and witness his registering to vote. Stella is excited to serve as Papa’s moral support. On the way to Spindale in the wagon, they talk about schooling and Stella’s writing. Papa shows his support for Stella’s attempts to write: “Bad writers don’t practice, Stella. It’s the good ones who care enough to try, who worry about getting the words just right” (127-8). He reminds her to stay inside at night. He also mentions how he used to write creatively, including poetry, but that his father disapproved and burned his work. Papa says he kept a few poems only in his memory, and when Stella asks for one, he recites a poem about his grandmother by heart.

Papa and Stella arrive at the Board of Elections office in Spindale and meet Pastor Patton and Mr. Spencer, who plan to register as well. Pastor Patton prays over the men and their endeavor. Inside, the registrar, Mr. Pineville, is rude to the men, calling them “boys” and telling them that the deadline to register passed. When Pastor Patton observes a poster with the deadline of that day on it, the registrar tries several other tactics to dissuade them: he asks if they can pay, if they can write, and if they realize they have to take a test. Papa asks Stella to recite the part of the Declaration of Independence that she memorized for school as an example of their knowledge about law and rights, which Stella does. Mr. Pineville, however, claims that even a trained animal can learn to count. The men persevere, and finally the registrar gives the copies of the test to them. He offers no pencils, but Mr. Spencer has brought three: “I come prepared” (138).

The sawmill foreman Mr. Smitherman and another man whom the registrar greets as Johnny Ray Johnson arrive and register with no questions nor fee. Johnny Ray uses a racial slur to refer to the men taking the test, and Mr. Smitherman angrily tells his employee Mr. Spencer to not bother reporting to work for the week. After submitting the tests, the men ask that the registrar score them at once. He refuses, but when the three men sit and sing a hymn, the registrar changes his mind. After a long wait, the registrar tells them they passed, but warns that they brought trouble on themselves in doing so.

Stella writes that evening about a story Papa told her in the wagon on the way to register. Papa turned 18 in 1914 and showed up early to enlist in the army on the first day local boys could sign up. Reporters planned to take a photo of the first to enlist, but they told Papa to leave: “When the reporters saw that a colored boy stood first in line, they pushed him out of the way and said he was in the wrong line” (148-9). They took a photo of the white boy who was behind Papa instead. Rejected by enlistment officers, Papa went home. 

Though Stella feels a desire to write Papa’s enlistment story, her writing woes return the next day at school when Mrs. Grayson announces a contest sponsored by The Carolina Times. Mrs. Grayson plans to have everyone contribute a potential entry; she will decide whose work to enter in the contest. The youngest students will draw while the older ones will draft an essay. Now that the pressure is on again, Stella cannot think of what to write. Instead, she helps first grader Hazel Spencer with her picture. Hazel wants Stella to show her how to draw Hazel’s hiding spot: “When you live at my house, you gotta have a hidey-hole” (154). Stella walks after school with Tony, who encourages her to think about an essay on dragons or the scene she saw at the pond. Tony tells Stella that the name for a KKK leader is “Grand Dragon,” and Stella grows anxious.

Stella attempts an essay that discusses the presence of dragons in fairy tales. She reasons that the Ku Klux Klan uses a dragon to symbolize their leader as a scare tactic. She acknowledges that the KKK is scary, then broaches the idea that they are not insurmountable: “But didn’t all the dragons from the fairy tales get slain?” (159).