Buddy, the narrator and protagonist, is a seven-year-old boy living in “a spreading old house in a country town” in the South during the early 1930s (3). While he lives with relatives, it is unclear whether his parents play any role in his life. “Buddy” is not his birth name; it is the nickname bestowed by his “best friend,” a “sixty-something” year old woman who is his distant cousin. Buddy is devoted to this friend, and he spends all of his time with her and their dog, Queenie. Buddy identifies so completely with his friend that, throughout the story, he uses “we” and “us” more often than “I”; he and his friend are a unit, sharing equally in all of their pleasures and difficulties.

Like his friend, Buddy is passionately excited for Christmas and looks forward to making fruitcakes, decorating a tree, and exchanging gifts. Throughout the story, however, he is anxious about acquiring money, wishing that he could buy his friend “a whole pound of chocolate-covered cherries” (22). His financial anxiety indirectly reveals his generosity, as his most pressing grievance is his inability to provide gifts. The story also suggests that Buddy is sensitive and creative: every week Buddy goes to the movies and afterward describes the story to his friend; he dreams of being “a tap dancer in the movies” (16); and he tries to earn money by entering contests to come up with new advertising slogans and

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