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"The Ford half-ton was moving at a good clip when they hit the tracks at the level crossing just outside of Magpie."

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“Yeah and how much did that set us back/”

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The mom/wife in the story is very patient person who deals with physical abuse in terrible manner by putting up with it.

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The son is an incredibely gifted kid in the area of art, drawing in particular.

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The father in the story is a farmer who is an abusive husband to his wife, especially when he drinks. He is also a very rude/disrespectful person to the son's teacher.

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“Mom,” he said as he held the last piece of pencil in his hand, “I can sharpen them. I’ll have twenty pencils then.”

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Her eyes settled on his father’s homemade bookcase. It contained, not books, but his father’s Indian collection, a dozen arrowheads, a pair of worn and beaded buckskin moccasins, Currie8 a flint knife, a stone hammer.

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“The crayons stay in the garbage,” he said. “And you leave your mother to do the dishes by herself.”

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He heard the sound of the slap, the sickening crack of flesh on flesh.When he looked again,his mother’s head was turned half away, her eyes closed, a gob of spittle hanging at the corner of her mouth. Already on her left cheek, he could see the red outline of his father’s fingers.

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“No!” he said. Loud and firm. Then his hand was at his mouth as if somehow he could stuff the word back inside."

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“I’ve told you before we can’t afford luxuries. When are you going to get that through your skull?”

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"He felt his knee sting, heard the pencil crack, knew he held a piece in either hand, knew also he was going to cry. “Now the rest of them,’ his father said."

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“I’ll just have me another drink.” He poured amber liquid into his glass, filled it perhaps a quarter full."

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“Take it,” he said. “Now break it.”

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“Twelve ninety-eight,” she said, her voice firm and clear. "

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“We don’t know what it was like for him, growing up with just his uncle. That man! Raised the boy like breaking a horse.”

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"Arrteest in residence. Huh, sponsored by the government - just another kind of pogey!”

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“How shall I put it? The boy has a flair - a gift, a talent. Most children like to draw, but he’s already good - very good in fact.”

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"Things are rough on the farm these days. I got crop still on the ground from last fall.”

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The central conflict is the the father who doesn't apreciate the talent of the son's artistic expertise. He makes the son destroy the pencil crayons which will be a useful tool for him in his special tuition for his skill. it is an external conflict.

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There is an internal conflict in story and it is that the family has financial difficulties. The dad's drinking and smoking problem doesn't help.