He hollered, "There's nothin here but a sucklin pig!" "Well," said the mama, "I never said what kind of baby I was givin up. And that little pig did belong to me before I gave it over to you, Mister Hairy Man."

"Shoot!" hollered the Hairy Man. He raged and he yelled. He stomped and yammered and bared his drippin teeth. Finally, he took the pig and tore out to the swamp. He knocked down trees and let loose rocks and boulders all the way. In the mornin, say there was a big, wide path right through the swamp just like a cyclone cut along through it. Trees torn clear up, roots and all, and lyin there on the ground.

After all that, when it was most safe, Wiley came down from the loft.

"Is that man gone, Mama?" he asked his good mama.

"Oh, yes, child," said his mama. "Old Hairy Man won't hurt you ever again. Because we did surely fool him three times."

And that was the end of that. But they say that Hairy Man is still deep in the swamps somewhere. Say he is waitin on the right time.

—“Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man,”
Virginia Hamilton

How is the story’s conflict resolved?

A. Wiley’s hounds attack the Hairy Man.
B. Wiley climbs a tree that is so large the Hairy Man cannot chop it down.
C. Wiley and his mama trick the Hairy Man three times, and he is forced to leave.
D. Wiley steps on the Hairy Man after turning him into a possum.

explanation:

the intellectual community is a place like a university where people with high marks, or original thought or an outstanding interest in something gather. they take classes together. they discuss things. they argue sometimes, and not always in a friendly way. but if they argue, it is because they are passionate about something, and there is nothing the matter with that.

lately i've been hearing rumors that it is not the way it was when i went to school. the one thing all schools used to have was free speech. the 1st amendment rights were sacred. now i'm hearing they are not. students can be reported and disciplined for giving an off the wall opinion.

that is shameful.

intellectual ideas are meant to be discussed. they are meant to be chewed up and worked on. that is the primary responsibility of every intellectual community. if that is not the way it is, then that is not a school to go to.

social media, in my opinion, and this is just an opinion. i wouldn't take it too seriously, complicates everything to do with human communication. you can want to share things and others feel they have the right to be very critical or sarcastic or mean about what you share. lack of respect is an immeasurable intolerable condition and social media abounds with that sort of thing.

one of the things i really like about is how careful people are because they must have some idea that the mods are exactly what the word says they are. they police this board very well, and what is so remarkable about them is that they are no older than the average grade 12 student.

my hat goes off to them (which means i respect them quite a bit).

if i was falling raindrop:

1. land safely (pretty sure that’s a tough one)

2. wished that time slowed down

3. a beautiful ending