Noni is scared as she and Grandaddy walk home at night in the city. But Grandaddy knows just how to make her feel better. He tells her about the moonless Alabama night when he first met and fell in love with her Grandma Ismay.
Lost in the countryside, he was drawn to the sound of Ismay singing in the church choir - her voice "like a brook in the Alabama woods." He walked her home, carrying her book and tambourine. But after leaving Ismay, he got "the scaries" and, finding the tambourine still in his hand, began to pat it for company. Only his hand was shaking from fear, and in a magic moment, the tambourine shook so hard, it flew up into the sky to become a great tambourine moon, pouring light all over.
