Start of Journal for Split Cherry Tree by Jesse Stuart

Professor Herbert:
He wore gray clothes which matches his hair. It was a suit so that implies that he takes his job as a teacher very seriously. He is not from around the area that he teaches in. Professor Herbert teaches biology class to

Dave:
He wears clean clothes for school which indicates that he enjoys school. The size of a full grown man. He is a teenager.  Dave is poor. Dave is the first of his eleven siblings to be allowed to go to high school. Has to walk six miles to school every day.

Pa (Luster) Sexton:
His face gets red when he is mad and his eyes danced fire. He has brown weather-beaten skin. Pa was big compared to Professor Herbert. He wore overalls, big boots, a blue shirt, and a worn out black hat. He has really long legs. His hands are knarled like the roots of an elm tree because of all the farm work he has done.

Ma Sexton: 
She understands that Pa should not pull his gun on professor Herbert because Pa could get "jailed fer a trick like that". Ma thinks that Pa will only be an embarrassment for Dave and he won't fix anything. I see her as a peace keeper in the story only she fails to keep Pa away from the school. Same age as pa and has eleven children.

Farm:
the farm is six miles away from the school which Dave has to walk. It has seven cows, nineteen cattle, four mules, twenty-five hogs and a well. There is no electricity.

School:
The school is six miles away from home and lies next to rolling hills. Much different from the time Pa went to school. There are no carpets and there is a blackboard not white board.

Metaphor:
1) His eyes danced fire.
2) "I'll take a different kind of lesson down there and make 'im acquainted with it."

Simile:
1) I was shaking like a leaf in the wind.
2) He looked like a leaf turned brown on the tree among the tree among the treetop filled with growing leaves,

Dialect:
Southern voice
1) “Send you to high school and you get too onery fer th’ buzzards to smell!”
2) "Why did you haf to stay atter school?"

Foreshadow:
Pa will find out that professor Herbert is a good man
Bullet can go through a poor man same as a rich man
I'll take a different kind of lesson down there and make 'im acquainted with it

Summary:
Dave and five other students break down a cherry tree while they chased after a lizard for biology class. The farmer charged them six dollars for the damage. Everyone paid except for Dave. He had to stay after school to pay it off. When he got home Pa was furious with the school & Dave. Ma attempted to persuade Pa to not go to the school but pa went anyways. Pa & Dave walked to school the next morning. At school Pa pulled a gun on Professor Herbert and expressed his opinions. Eventually he cooled off & put his gun away. Pa & professor Herbert toured the school. Pa didn't believe that there was germs on his teeth but Professor Herbert showed them to him under a microscope. Professor Herbert offered to take away their debt but Pa & Dave worked together to pay back what they owed. When they went home Pa told Ma all about the new school.