The Least One, published originally in 1967, portrays a white sharecropping family during the Great Depression and is based on Borden Deal s experiences growing up on a small farm in northeastern Mississippi. My own memory produced a flood of material, said the author. I remembered the loss of the farm, the day the sheriff had come to dispossess us; I remembered picking blackberries and selling them in town for a dime a bucket; I remembered the hope and promise of a government mule. The story is told through the voice of a twelve-year-old, significantly called Boy Sword, and is...