Mouth Full of Money — Gerald Duff

In A Mouth Full of Money (a selection from the short story collection Fire Ants and Other Stories by Gerald Duff), a brother and sister are sent by their mother to fetch a jug of milk from a neighbor, and are confronted by the local madman on a lonely highway in Deep East Texas and must find a way by him physically and imaginatively. The young sister rises to the occasion and her gesture of care for the despised person earns them passage.