{"id":76,"date":"2021-10-29T11:15:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T15:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/the-distributed-proofreaders-canada-ebook-of-their-eyes-were-watching-god-by-zora-neale-hurston-5\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T11:19:50","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T16:19:50","slug":"6","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/6\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 6","rendered":"Chapter 6"},"content":{"raw":"
<\/div>\r\n

Every<\/span> morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun. So Janie had another day. And every day had a store in it, except Sundays. The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn\u2019t have to sell things. When the people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see, it was nice. The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to.<\/p>\r\n

Take for instance the case of Matt Bonner\u2019s yellow mule. They had him up for conversation every day the Lord sent. Most especial if Matt was there himself to listen. Sam and Lige and Walter were the ringleaders of the mule-talkers. The others threw in whatever they could chance upon, but it seemed as if Sam and Lige and Walter could hear and see more about that mule than the whole county put together. All they needed was to see Matt\u2019s long spare shape coming down the street and by the time he got to the porch they were ready for him.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHello, Matt.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cEvenin\u2019, Sam.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMighty glad you come \u2019long right now, Matt. Me and some others wuz jus\u2019 about tuh come hunt yuh.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut fuh, Sam?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMighty serious matter, man. Serious!!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah man,\u201d Lige would cut in, dolefully. \u201cIt needs yo\u2019 strict attention. You ought not tuh lose no time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut is it then? You oughta hurry up and tell me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cReckon we better not tell yuh heah at de store. It\u2019s too fur off tuh do any good. We better all walk on down by Lake Sabelia.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut\u2019s wrong, man? Ah ain\u2019t after none uh y\u2019alls foolishness now.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat mule uh yourn, Matt. You better go see \u2019bout him. He\u2019s bad off.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhere \u2019bouts? Did he wade in de lake and uh alligator ketch him?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWorser\u2019n dat. De womenfolks got yo\u2019 mule. When Ah come round de lake \u2019bout noontime mah wife and some others had \u2019im flat on de ground usin\u2019 his sides fuh uh wash board.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The great clap of laughter that they have been holding in, bursts out. Sam never cracks a smile. \u201cYeah, Matt, dat mule so skinny till de women is usin\u2019 his rib bones fuh uh rub-board, and hangin\u2019 things out on his hock-bones tuh dry.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Matt realizes that they have tricked him again and the laughter makes him mad and when he gets mad he stammers.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou\u2019se uh stinkin\u2019 lie, Sam, and yo\u2019 feet ain\u2019t mates. Y-y-y-you!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw, man, \u2019tain\u2019t no use in you gittin\u2019 mad. Yuh know yuh don\u2019t feed de mule. How he gointuh git fat?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh-ah-ah d-d-does feed \u2019im! Ah g-g-gived \u2019im uh full cup uh cawn every feedin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLige knows all about dat cup uh cawn. He hid round yo\u2019 barn and watched yuh. \u2019Tain\u2019t no feed cup you measures dat cawn outa. It\u2019s uh tea cup.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh does feed \u2019im. He\u2019s jus\u2019 too mean tuh git fat. He stay poor and rawbony jus\u2019 fuh spite. Skeered he\u2019ll hafta work some.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah, you feeds \u2019im. Feeds \u2019im offa \u2018come up\u2019 and seasons it wid raw-hide.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDoes feed de ornery varmint! Don\u2019t keer whut Ah do Ah can\u2019t git long wid \u2019im. He fights every inch in front uh de plow, and even lay back his ears tuh kick and bite when Ah go in de stall tuh feed \u2019im.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGit reconciled, Matt,\u201d Lige soothed. \u201cUs all knows he\u2019s mean. Ah seen \u2019im when he took after one uh dem Roberts chillun in de street and woulda caught \u2019im and maybe trompled \u2019im tuh death if de wind hadn\u2019t of changed all of a sudden. Yuh see de youngun wuz tryin\u2019 tuh make it tuh de fence uh Starks\u2019 onion patch and de mule wuz dead in behind \u2019im and gainin\u2019 on \u2019im every jump, when all of a sudden de wind changed and blowed de mule way off his course, him bein\u2019 so poor and everything, and before de ornery varmint could tack, de youngun had done got over de fence.\u201d The porch laughed and Matt got mad again.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMaybe de mule takes out after everybody,\u201d Sam said, \u201c\u202f\u2019cause he thinks everybody he hear comin\u2019 is Matt Bonner comin\u2019 tuh work \u2019im on uh empty stomach.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw, naw, aw, naw. You stop dat right now,\u201d Walter objected. \u201cDat mule don\u2019t think Ah look lak no Matt Bonner. He ain\u2019t dat dumb. If Ah thought he didn\u2019t know no better Ah\u2019d have mah picture took and give it tuh dat mule so\u2019s he could learn better. Ah ain\u2019t gointuh \u2019low \u2019im tuh hold nothin\u2019 lak dat against me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Matt struggled to say something but his tongue failed him so he jumped down off the porch and walked away as mad as he could be. But that never halted the mule talk. There would be more stories about how poor the brute was; his age; his evil disposition and his latest caper. Everybody indulged in mule talk. He was next to the Mayor in prominence, and made better talking.<\/p>\r\n

Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge. He didn\u2019t want her talking after such trashy people. \u201cYou\u2019se Mrs. Mayor Starks, Janie. I god, Ah can\u2019t see what uh woman uh yo\u2019 stability would want tuh be treasurin\u2019 all dat gum-grease from folks dat don\u2019t even own de house dey sleep in. \u2019Tain\u2019t no earthly use. They\u2019s jus\u2019 some puny humans playin\u2019 round de toes uh Time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Janie noted that while he didn\u2019t talk the mule himself, he sat and laughed at it. Laughed his big heh, heh laugh too. But then when Lige or Sam or Walter or some of the other big picture talkers were using a side of the world for a canvas, Joe would hustle her off inside the store to sell something. Look like he took pleasure in doing it. Why couldn\u2019t he go himself sometimes? She had come to hate the inside of that store anyway. That Post Office too. People always coming and asking for mail at the wrong time. Just when she was trying to count up something or write in an account book. Get her so hackled she\u2019d make the wrong change for stamps. Then too, she couldn\u2019t read everybody\u2019s writing. Some folks wrote so funny and spelt things different from what she knew about. As a rule, Joe put up the mail himself, but sometimes when he was off she had to do it herself and it always ended up in a fuss.<\/p>\r\n

The store itself kept her with a sick headache. The labor of getting things down off of a shelf or out of a barrel was nothing. And so long as people wanted only a can of tomatoes or a pound of rice it was all right. But supposing they went on and said a pound and a half of bacon and a half pound of lard? The whole thing changed from a little walking and stretching to a mathematical dilemma. Or maybe cheese was thirty-seven cents a pound and somebody came and asked for a dime\u2019s worth. She went through many silent rebellions over things like that. Such a waste of life and time. But Joe kept saying that she could do it if she wanted to and he wanted her to use her privileges. That was the rock she was battered against.<\/p>\r\n

This business of the headrag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn\u2019t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it as she went about things in the store. And one night he had caught Walter standing behind Janie and brushing the back of his hand back and forth across the loose end of her braid ever so lightly so as to enjoy the feel of it without Janie knowing what he was doing. Joe was at the back of the store and Walter didn\u2019t see him. He felt like rushing forth with the meat knife and chopping off the offending hand. That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him<\/span> to look at, not those others. But he never said things like that. It just wasn\u2019t in him. Take the matter of the yellow mule, for instance.<\/p>\r\n

Late one afternoon Matt came from the west with a halter in his hand. \u201cBeen huntin\u2019 fuh mah mule. Anybody seen \u2019im?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSeen \u2019im soon dis mornin\u2019 over behind de schoolhouse,\u201d Lum said. \u201c\u202f\u2019Bout ten o\u2019clock or so. He musta been out all night tuh be way over dere dat early.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHe wuz,\u201d Matt answered. \u201cSeen \u2019im last night but Ah couldn\u2019t ketch \u2019im. Ah\u2019m \u2019bliged tuh git \u2019im in tuhnight \u2019cause Ah got some plowin\u2019 fuh tuhmorrow. Done promised tuh plow Thompson\u2019s grove.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cReckon you\u2019ll ever git through de job wid dat mule-frame?\u201d Lige asked.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw dat mule is plenty strong. Jus\u2019 evil and don\u2019t want tuh be led.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s right. Dey tell me he brought you heah tuh dis town. Say you started tuh Miccanopy but de mule had better sense and brung yuh on heah.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt\u2019s uh l-l-lie! Ah set out fuh dis town when Ah left West Floridy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou mean tuh tell me you rode dat mule all de way from West Floridy down heah?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSho he did, Lige. But he didn\u2019t mean tuh. He wuz satisfied up dere, but de mule wuzn\u2019t. So one mornin\u2019 he got straddle uh de mule and he took and brought \u2019im on off. Mule had sense. Folks up dat way don\u2019t eat biscuit bread but once uh week.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

There was always a little seriousness behind the teasing of Matt, so when he got huffed and walked on off nobody minded. He was known to buy side-meat by the slice. Carried home little bags of meal and flour in his hand. He didn\u2019t seem to mind too much so long as it didn\u2019t cost him anything.<\/p>\r\n

About half an hour after he left they heard the braying of the mule at the edge of the woods. He was coming past the store very soon.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLess ketch Matt\u2019s mule fuh \u2019im and have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNow, Lum, you know dat mule ain\u2019t aimin\u2019 tuh let hisself be caught. Less watch you<\/span> do it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

When the mule was in front of the store, Lum went out and tackled him. The brute jerked up his head, laid back his ears and rushed to the attack. Lum had to run for safety. Five or six more men left the porch and surrounded the fractious beast, goosing him in the sides and making him show his temper. But he had more spirit left than body. He was soon panting and heaving from the effort of spinning his old carcass about. Everybody was having fun at the mule-baiting. All but Janie.<\/p>\r\n

She snatched her head away from the spectacle and began muttering to herself. \u201cThey oughta be shamed uh theyselves! Teasin\u2019 dat poor brute beast lak they is! Done been worked tuh death; done had his disposition ruint wid mistreatment, and now they got tuh finish devilin\u2019 \u2019im tuh death. Wisht Ah had mah way wid \u2019em all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

She walked away from the porch and found something to busy herself with in the back of the store so she did not hear Jody when he stopped laughing. She didn\u2019t know that he had heard her, but she did hear him yell out, \u201cLum, I god, dat\u2019s enough! Y\u2019all done had yo\u2019 fun now. Stop yo\u2019 foolishness and go tell Matt Bonner Ah wants tuh have uh talk wid him right away.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Janie came back out front and sat down. She didn\u2019t say anything and neither did Joe. But after a while he looked down at his feet and said, \u201cJanie, Ah reckon you better go fetch me dem old black gaiters. Dese tan shoes sets mah feet on fire. Plenty room in \u2019em, but they hurts regardless.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

She got up without a word and went off for the shoes. A little war of defense for helpless things was going on inside her. People ought to have some regard for helpless things. She wanted to fight about it. \u201cBut Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh git along.\u201d She didn\u2019t hurry back. She fumbled around long enough to get her face straight. When she got back, Joe was talking with Matt.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cFifteen dollars? I god you\u2019se as crazy as uh betsy bug! Five dollars.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cL-l-less we strack uh compermise, Brother Mayor. Less m-make it ten.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cFive dollars.\u201d Joe rolled his cigar in his mouth and rolled his eyes away indifferently.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf dat mule is wuth somethin\u2019 tuh you<\/span>, Brother Mayor, he\u2019s wuth mo\u2019 tuh me. More special when Ah got uh job uh work tuhmorrow.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cFive dollars.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAll right, Brother Mayor. If you wants tuh rob uh poor man lak me uh everything he got tuh make uh livin\u2019 wid, Ah\u2019ll take de five dollars. Dat mule been wid me twenty-three years. It\u2019s mighty hard.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Mayor Starks deliberately changed his shoes before he reached into his pocket for the money. By that time Matt was wringing and twisting like a hen on a hot brick. But as soon as his hand closed on the money his face broke into a grin.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBeatyuh tradin\u2019 dat time, Starks! Dat mule is liable tuh be dead befo\u2019 de week is out. You won\u2019t git no work outa him.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t buy \u2019im fuh no work. I god, Ah bought dat varmint tuh let \u2019im rest. You didn\u2019t have gumption enough tuh do it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

A respectful silence fell on the place. Sam looked at Joe and said, \u201cDat\u2019s uh new idea \u2019bout varmints, Mayor Starks. But Ah laks it mah ownself. It\u2019s uh noble thing you done.\u201d Everybody agreed with that.<\/p>\r\n

Janie stood still while they all made comments. When it was all done she stood in front of Joe and said, \u201cJody, dat wuz uh mighty fine thing fuh you tuh do. \u2019Tain\u2019t everybody would have thought of it, \u2019cause it ain\u2019t no everyday thought. Freein\u2019 dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you. Something like George Washington and Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, he had de whole United States tuh rule so he freed de Negroes. You got uh town so you freed uh mule. You have tuh have power tuh free things and dat makes you lak uh king uh something.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Hambo said, \u201cYo\u2019 wife is uh born orator, Starks. Us never knowed dat befo\u2019. She put jus\u2019 de right words tuh our thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Joe bit down hard on his cigar and beamed all around, but he never said a word. The town talked it for three days and said that\u2019s just what they would have done if they had been rich men like Joe Starks. Anyhow a free-mule in town was something new to talk about. Starks piled fodder under the big tree near the porch and the mule was usually around the store like the other citizens. Nearly everybody took the habit of fetching along a handful of fodder to throw on the pile. He almost got fat and they took a great pride in him. New lies sprung up about his free-mule doings. How he pushed open Lindsay\u2019s kitchen door and slept in the place one night and fought until they made coffee for his breakfast; how he stuck his head in the Pearsons\u2019 window while the family was at the table and Mrs. Pearson mistook him for Rev. Pearson and handed him a plate; he ran Mrs. Tully off of the croquet ground for having such an ugly shape; he ran and caught up with Becky Anderson on the way to Maitland so as to keep his head out of the sun under her umbrella; he got tired of listening to Redmond\u2019s long-winded prayer, and went inside the Baptist church and broke up the meeting. He did everything but let himself be bridled and visit Matt Bonner.<\/p>\r\n

But way after a while he died. Lum found him under the big tree on his rawbony back with all four feet up in the air. That wasn\u2019t natural and it didn\u2019t look right, but Sam said it would have been more unnatural for him to have laid down on his side and died like any other beast. He had seen Death coming and had stood his ground and fought it like a natural man. He had fought it to the last breath. Naturally he didn\u2019t have time to straighten himself out. Death had to take him like it found him.<\/p>\r\n

When the news got around, it was like the end of a war or something like that. Everybody that could knocked off from work to stand around and talk. But finally there was nothing to do but drag him out like all other dead brutes. Drag him out to the edge of the hammock which was far enough off to satisfy sanitary conditions in the town. The rest was up to the buzzards. Everybody was going to the dragging-out. The news had got Mayor Starks out of bed before time. His pair of gray horses was out under the tree and the men were fooling with the gear when Janie arrived at the store with Joe\u2019s breakfast.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI god, Lum, you fasten up dis store good befo\u2019 you leave, you hear me?\u201d He was eating fast and talking with one eye out of the door on the operations.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut you tellin\u2019 \u2019im tuh fasten up for, Jody?\u201d Janie asked, surprised.<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Cause it won\u2019t be nobody heah tuh look after de store. Ah\u2019m goin\u2019 tuh de draggin\u2019-out mahself.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 so important Ah got tuh do tuhday, Jody. How come Ah can\u2019t go long wid you tuh de draggin\u2019-out?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Joe was struck speechless for a minute. \u201cWhy, Janie! You wouldn\u2019t be seen at uh draggin\u2019-out, wouldja? Wid any and everybody in uh passle pushin\u2019 and shovin\u2019 wid they no-manners selves? Naw, naw!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou would be dere wid me, wouldn\u2019t yuh?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s right, but Ah\u2019m uh man even if Ah is de Mayor. But de mayor\u2019s wife is somethin\u2019 different again. Anyhow they\u2019s liable tuh need me tuh say uh few words over de carcass, dis bein\u2019 uh special case. But you<\/span> ain\u2019t goin\u2019 off in all dat mess uh commonness. Ah\u2019m surprised at yuh fuh askin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

He wiped his lips of ham gravy and put on his hat. \u201cShet de door behind yuh, Janie. Lum is too busy wid de hawses.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

After more shouting of advice and orders and useless comments, the town escorted the carcass off. No, the carcass moved off with the town, and left Janie standing in the doorway.<\/p>\r\n

Out in the swamp they made great ceremony over the mule. They mocked everything human in death. Starks led off with a great eulogy on our departed citizen, our most distinguished citizen and the grief he left behind him, and the people loved the speech. It made him more solid than building the schoolhouse had done. He stood on the distended belly of the mule for a platform and made gestures. When he stepped down, they hoisted Sam up and he talked about the mule as a school teacher first. Then he set his hat like John Pearson and imitated his preaching. He spoke of the joys of mule-heaven to which the dear brother had departed this valley of sorrow; the mule-angels flying around; the miles of green corn and cool water, a pasture of pure bran with a river of molasses running through it; and most glorious of all, No<\/span> Matt Bonner with plow lines and halters to come in and corrupt. Up there, mule-angels would have people to ride on and from his place beside the glittering throne, the dear departed brother would look down into hell and see the devil plowing Matt Bonner all day long in a hell-hot sun and laying the raw-hide to his back.<\/p>\r\n

With that the sisters got mock-happy and shouted and had to be held up by the menfolks. Everybody enjoyed themselves to the highest and then finally the mule was left to the already impatient buzzards. They were holding a great flying-meet way up over the heads of the mourners and some of the nearby trees were already peopled with the stoop-shouldered forms.<\/p>\r\n

As soon as the crowd was out of sight they closed in circles. The near ones got nearer and the far ones got near. A circle, a swoop and a hop with spread-out wings. Close in, close in till some of the more hungry or daring perched on the carcass. They wanted to begin, but the Parson wasn\u2019t there, so a messenger was sent to the ruler in a tree where he sat.<\/p>\r\n

The flock had to wait for the white-headed leader, but it was hard. They jostled each other and pecked at heads in hungry irritation. Some walked up and down the beast from head to tail, tail to head. The Parson sat motionless in a dead pine tree about two miles off. He had scented the matter as quickly as any of the rest, but decorum demanded that he sit oblivious until he was notified. Then he took off with ponderous flight and circled and lowered, circled and lowered until the others danced in joy and hunger at his approach.<\/p>\r\n

He finally lit on the ground and walked around the body to see if it were really dead. Peered into its nose and mouth. Examined it well from end to end and leaped upon it and bowed, and the others danced a response. That being over, he balanced and asked:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat killed this man?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The chorus answered, \u201cBare, bare fat.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat killed this man?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBare, bare fat.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat killed this man?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBare, bare fat.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWho\u2019ll stand his funeral?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe!!!!!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, all right now.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

So he picked out the eyes in the ceremonial way and the feast went on. The yaller mule was gone from the town except for the porch talk, and for the children visiting his bleaching bones now and then in the spirit of adventure.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Joe returned to the store full of pleasure and good humor but he didn\u2019t want Janie to notice it because he saw that she was sullen and he resented that. She had no right to be, the way he thought things out. She wasn\u2019t even appreciative of his efforts and she had plenty cause to be. Here he was just pouring honor all over her; building a high chair for her to sit in and overlook the world and she here pouting over it! Not that he wanted anybody else, but just too many women would be glad to be in her place. He ought to box her jaws! But he didn\u2019t feel like fighting today, so he made an attack upon her position backhand.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh had tuh laugh at de people out dere in de woods dis mornin\u2019, Janie. You can\u2019t help but laugh at de capers they cuts. But all the same, Ah wish mah people would git mo\u2019 business in \u2019em and not spend so much time on foolishness.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cEverybody can\u2019t be lak you, Jody. Somebody is bound tuh want tuh laugh and play.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWho don\u2019t love tuh laugh and play?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou make out like you don\u2019t, anyhow.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI god, Ah don\u2019t make out no such uh lie! But it\u2019s uh time fuh all things. But it\u2019s awful tuh see so many people don\u2019t want nothin\u2019 but uh full belly and uh place tuh lay down and sleep afterwards. It makes me sad sometimes and then agin it makes me mad. They say things sometimes that tickles me nearly tuh death, but Ah won\u2019t laugh jus\u2019 tuh dis-incourage \u2019em.\u201d Janie took the easy way away from a fuss. She didn\u2019t change her mind but she agreed with her mouth. Her heart said, \u201cEven so, but you don\u2019t have to cry about it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

But sometimes Sam Watson and Lige Moss forced a belly laugh out of Joe himself with their eternal arguments. It never ended because there was no end to reach. It was a contest in hyperbole and carried on for no other reason.<\/p>\r\n

Maybe Sam would be sitting on the porch when Lige walked up. If nobody was there to speak of, nothing happened. But if the town was there like on Saturday night, Lige would come up with a very grave air. Couldn\u2019t even pass the time of day, for being so busy thinking. Then when he was asked what was the matter in order to start him off, he\u2019d say, \u201cDis question done \u2019bout drove me crazy. And Sam, he know so much into things, Ah wants some information on de subject.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Walter Thomas was due to speak up and egg the matter on. \u201cYeah, Sam always got more information than he know what to do wid. He\u2019s bound to tell yuh whatever it is you wants tuh know.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Sam begins an elaborate show of avoiding the struggle. That draws everybody on the porch into it.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHow come you want me tuh<\/span> tell yuh? You always claim God done met you round de corner and talked His inside business wid yuh. \u2019Tain\u2019t no use in you askin\u2019 me<\/span> nothin\u2019. Ah\u2019m questionizin\u2019 you<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHow you gointuh do dat, Sam, when Ah arrived dis conversation mahself? Ah\u2019m askin\u2019 you<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAskin\u2019 me what? You ain\u2019t told me de subjick yit.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDon\u2019t aim tuh tell yuh! Ah aims tuh keep yuh in de dark all de time. If you\u2019se smart lak you let on you is, you kin find out.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYuh skeered to lemme know whut it is, \u2019cause yuh know Ah\u2019ll tear it tuh pieces. You got to have a subjick tuh talk from, do yuh can\u2019t talk. If uh man ain\u2019t got no bounds, he ain\u2019t got no place tuh stop.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

By this time, they are the center of the world.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell all right then. Since you own up you ain\u2019t smart enough tuh find out whut Ah\u2019m talkin\u2019 \u2019bout, Ah\u2019ll tell you. Whut is it dat keeps uh man from gettin\u2019 burnt on uh red-hot stove\u2014caution or nature?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cShucks! Ah thought you had somethin\u2019 hard tuh ast me. Walter kin tell yuh dat.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf de conversation is too deep for yuh, how come yuh don\u2019t tell me so, and hush up? Walter can\u2019t tell me nothin\u2019 uh de kind. Ah\u2019m uh educated man, Ah keeps mah arrangements in mah hands, and if it kept me up all night long studyin\u2019 \u2019bout it, Walter ain\u2019t liable tuh be no help to me. Ah needs uh man lak you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnd then agin, Lige, Ah\u2019m gointuh tell yuh. Ah\u2019m gointuh run dis conversation from uh gnat heel to uh lice. It\u2019s nature dat keeps uh man off of uh red-hot stove.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cUuh huuh! Ah knowed you would going tuh crawl up in dat holler! But Ah aims tuh smoke yuh right out. \u2019Tain\u2019t no nature at all, it\u2019s caution, Sam.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t no sich uh thing! Nature tells yuh not tuh fool wid no red-hot stove, and you don\u2019t do it neither.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cListen, Sam, if it was nature, nobody wouldn\u2019t have tuh look out for babies touchin\u2019 stoves, would they? \u2019Cause dey just naturally wouldn\u2019t touch it. But dey sho will. So it\u2019s caution.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw it ain\u2019t, it\u2019s nature, cause nature makes caution. It\u2019s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it\u2019s de onliest thing God ever made. He made nature and nature made everything else.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw nature didn\u2019t neither. A whole heap of things ain\u2019t even been made yit.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cTell me somethin\u2019 you know of dat nature ain\u2019t made.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cShe ain\u2019t made it so you kin ride uh butt-headed cow and hold on tuh de horns.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah, but dat ain\u2019t yo\u2019 point.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah it is too.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw it ain\u2019t neither.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell what is<\/span> mah point?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou ain\u2019t got none, so far.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah he is too,\u201d Walter cut in. \u201cDe red-hot stove is his point.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHe know mighty much, but he ain\u2019t proved it yit.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSam, Ah say it\u2019s caution, not nature dat keeps folks off uh red-hot stove.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHow is de son gointuh be before his paw? Nature is de first of everything. Ever since self was self, nature been keepin\u2019 folks off of red-hot stoves. Dat caution you talkin\u2019 \u2019bout ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but uh humbug. He\u2019s uh inseck dat nothin\u2019 he got belongs to him. He got eyes, lak somethin\u2019 else; wings lak somethin\u2019 else\u2014everything! Even his hum is de sound of somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMan, whut you talkin\u2019 \u2019bout? Caution is de greatest thing in de world. If it wasn\u2019t for caution\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cShow me somethin\u2019 dat caution ever made! Look whut nature took and done. Nature got so high in uh black hen she got tuh lay uh white egg. Now you tell me, how come, whut got intuh man dat he got tuh have hair round his mouth? Nature!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat ain\u2019t\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The porch was boiling now. Starks left the store to Hezekiah Potts, the delivery boy, and come took a seat in his high chair.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLook at dat great big ole scoundrel-beast up dere at Hall\u2019s fillin\u2019 station\u2014uh great big old scoundrel. He eats up all de folks outa de house and den eat de house.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw \u2019tain\u2019t no sich a varmint nowhere dat kin eat no house! Dat\u2019s uh lie. Ah wuz dere yiste\u2019ddy and Ah ain\u2019t seen nothin\u2019 lak dat. Where is he?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh didn\u2019t see him but Ah reckon he is in de back-yard some place. But dey got his picture out front dere. They was nailin\u2019 it up when Ah come pass dere dis evenin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell all right now, if he eats up houses how come he don\u2019t eat up de fillin\u2019 station?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s \u2019cause dey got him tied up so he can\u2019t. Dey got uh great big picture tellin\u2019 how many gallons of dat Sinclair high-compression gas he drink at one time and how he\u2019s more\u2019n uh million years old.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019<\/span> no million years old!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDe picture is right up dere where anybody kin see it. Dey can\u2019t make de picture till dey see de thing, kin dey?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHow dey goin\u2019 to tell he\u2019s uh million years old? Nobody wasn\u2019t born dat fur back.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBy de rings on his tail Ah reckon. Man, dese white folks got ways for tellin\u2019 anything dey wants tuh know.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, where he been at all dis time, then?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDey caught him over dere in Egypt. Seem lak he used tuh hang round dere and eat up dem Pharaohs\u2019 tombstones. Dey got de picture of him doin\u2019 it. Nature is high in uh varmint lak dat. Nature and salt. Dat\u2019s whut makes up strong man lak Big John de Conquer. He was uh man wid salt in him. He could give uh flavor to anything<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah, but he was uh man dat wuz more\u2019n man. \u2019Tain\u2019t no mo\u2019 lak him. He wouldn\u2019t dig potatoes, and he wouldn\u2019t rake hay: He wouldn\u2019t take a whipping, and he wouldn\u2019t run away.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOh yeah, somebody else could if dey tried hard enough. Me mahself, Ah got salt in me<\/span>. If Ah like man flesh, Ah could eat some man every day, some of \u2019em is so trashy they\u2019d let me eat \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLawd, Ah loves to talk about Big John. Less we tell lies on Ole John.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

But here come Bootsie, and Teadi and Big \u2019oman down the street making out they are pretty by the way they walk. They have got that fresh, new taste about them like young mustard greens in the spring, and the young men on the porch are just bound to tell them about it and buy them some treats.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHeah come mah order right now,\u201d Charlie Jones announces and scrambles off the porch to meet them. But he has plenty of competition. A pushing, shoving show of gallantry. They all beg the girls to just buy anything they can think of. Please let them pay for it. Joe is begged to wrap up all the candy in the store and order more. All the peanuts and soda water\u2014everything!<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGal, Ah\u2019m crazy \u2019bout you,\u201d Charlie goes on to the entertainment of everybody. \u201cAh\u2019ll do anything in the world except work for you and give you mah money.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The girls and everybody else help laugh. They know it\u2019s not courtship. It\u2019s acting-out courtship and everybody is in the play. The three girls hold the center of the stage till Daisy Blunt comes walking down the street in the moonlight.<\/p>\r\n

Daisy is walking a drum tune. You can almost hear it by looking at the way she walks. She is black and she knows that white clothes look good on her, so she wears them for dress up. She\u2019s got those big black eyes with plenty shiny white in them that makes them shine like brand new money and she knows what God gave women eyelashes for, too. Her hair is not what you might call straight. It\u2019s negro hair, but it\u2019s got a kind of white flavor. Like the piece of string out of a ham. It\u2019s not ham at all, but it\u2019s been around ham and got the flavor. It was spread down thick and heavy over her shoulders and looked just right under a big white hat.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLawd, Lawd, Lawd,\u201d that same Charlie Jones exclaims rushing over to Daisy. \u201cIt must be uh recess in heben if St. Peter is lettin\u2019 his angels out lak dis. You got three men already layin\u2019 at de point uh death \u2019bout yuh, and heah\u2019s uhnother fool dat\u2019s willin\u2019 tuh make time on yo\u2019 gang.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

All the rest of the single men have crowded around Daisy by this time. She is parading and blushing at the same time.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf you know anybody dat\u2019s \u2019bout tuh die \u2019bout me, yuh know more\u2019n Ah do,\u201d Daisy bridled. \u201cWisht Ah knowed who it is.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNow, Daisy, you<\/span> know Jim, and Dave and Lum is \u2019bout tuh kill one \u2019nother \u2019bout you. Don\u2019t stand up here and tell dat big ole got-dat-wrong.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDey a mighty hush-mouf about it if dey is. Dey ain\u2019t never told me nothin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cUnhhunh, you talked too fast. Heah, Jim and Dave is right upon de porch and Lum is inside de store.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

A big burst of laughter at Daisy\u2019s discomfiture. The boys had to act out their rivalry too. Only this time, everybody knew they meant some of it. But all the same the porch enjoyed the play and helped out whenever extras were needed.<\/p>\r\n

David said, \u201cJim don\u2019t love Daisy. He don\u2019t love yuh lak Ah do.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Jim bellowed indignantly, \u201cWho don\u2019t love Daisy? Ah know you ain\u2019t talkin\u2019 \u2019bout me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Dave: \u201cWell all right, less prove dis thing right now. We\u2019ll prove right now who love dis gal de best. How much time is you willin\u2019 tuh make fuh Daisy?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Jim: \u201cTwenty yeahs!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Dave: \u201cSee? Ah told yuh dat nigger didn\u2019t love yuh. Me, Ah\u2019ll beg de Judge tuh hang me, and wouldn\u2019t take nothin\u2019 less than life.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

There was a big long laugh from the porch. Then Jim had to demand a test.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDave, how much would you be willin\u2019 tuh do for Daisy if she was to turn fool enough tuh marry yuh?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMe and Daisy done talked dat over, but if you just got tuh know, Ah\u2019d buy Daisy uh passenger train and give it tuh her.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHumph! Is dat all? Ah\u2019d buy her uh steamship and then Ah\u2019d hire some mens tuh run it fur her.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDaisy, don\u2019t let Jim fool you wid his talk. He don\u2019t aim tuh do nothin\u2019 fuh yuh. Uh lil ole steamship! Daisy, Ah\u2019ll take uh job cleanin\u2019 out de Atlantic Ocean fuh you any time you say you so desire.\u201d There was a great laugh and then they hushed to listen.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDaisy,\u201d Jim began, \u201cyou know mah heart and all de ranges uh mah mind. And you know if Ah wuz ridin\u2019 up in uh earoplane way up in de sky and Ah looked down and seen you walkin\u2019 and knowed you\u2019d have tuh walk ten miles tuh git home, Ah\u2019d step backward offa dat earoplane just to walk home wid you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

There was one of those big blow-out laughs and Janie was wallowing in it. Then Jody ruined it all for her.<\/p>\r\n

Mrs. Bogle came walking down the street towards the porch. Mrs. Bogle who was many times a grandmother, but had a blushing air of coquetry about her that cloaked her sunken cheeks. You saw a fluttering fan before her face and magnolia blooms and sleepy lakes under the moonlight when she walked. There was no obvious reason for it, it was just so. Her first husband had been a coachman but \u201cstudied jury\u201d to win her. He had finally become a preacher to hold her till his death. Her second husband worked in Fohnes orange grove\u2014but tried to preach when he caught her eye. He never got any further than a class leader, but that was something to offer her. It proved his love and pride. She was a wind on the ocean. She moved men, but the helm determined the port. Now, this night she mounted the steps and the men noticed her until she passed inside the door.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI god, Janie,\u201d Starks said impatiently, \u201cwhy don\u2019t you go on and see whut Mrs. Bogle want? Whut you waitin\u2019 on?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Janie wanted to hear the rest of the play-acting and how it ended, but she got up sullenly and went inside. She came back to the porch with her bristles sticking out all over her and with dissatisfaction written all over her face. Joe saw it and lifted his own hackles a bit.<\/p>\r\n

Jim Weston had secretly borrowed a dime and soon he was loudly beseeching Daisy to have a treat on him. Finally she consented to take a pickled pig foot on him. Janie was getting up a large order when they came in, so Lum waited on them. That is, he went back to the keg but came back without the pig foot.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMist\u2019 Starks, de pig feets is all gone!\u201d he called out.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw naw dey ain\u2019t, Lum. Ah bought uh whole new kag of \u2019em wid dat last order from Jacksonville. It come in yistiddy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Joe came and helped Lum look but he couldn\u2019t find the new keg either, so he went to the nail over his desk that he used for a file to search for the order.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cJanie, where\u2019s dat last bill uh ladin\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt\u2019s right dere on de nail, ain\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw it ain\u2019t neither. You ain\u2019t put it where Ah told yuh tuh. If you\u2019d git yo\u2019 mind out de streets and keep it on yo\u2019 business maybe you could git somethin\u2019 straight sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw, look around dere, Jody. Dat bill ain\u2019t apt tuh be gone off nowheres. If it ain\u2019t hangin\u2019 on de nail, it\u2019s on yo\u2019 desk. You bound tuh find it if you look.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWid you heah, Ah oughtn\u2019t tuh hafta do all dat lookin\u2019 and searchin\u2019. Ah done told you time and time agin tuh stick all dem papers on dat nail! All you got tuh do is mind me. How come you can\u2019t do lak Ah tell yuh?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou sho loves to tell me whut to do, but Ah can\u2019t tell you nothin\u2019 Ah see!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s \u2019cause you need tellin\u2019,\u201d he rejoined hotly. \u201cIt would be pitiful if Ah didn\u2019t. Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don\u2019t think none theirselves.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh knows uh few things, and womenfolks thinks sometimes too!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw naw they don\u2019t. They just think they\u2019s thinkin\u2019. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don\u2019t understand one.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Times and scenes like that put Janie to thinking about the inside state of her marriage. Time came when she fought back with her tongue as best she could, but it didn\u2019t do her any good. It just made Joe do more. He wanted her submission and he\u2019d keep on fighting until he felt he had it.<\/p>\r\n

So gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush. The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again. So she put something in there to represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church. The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired.<\/p>\r\n

She wasn\u2019t petal-open anymore with him. She was twenty-four and seven years married when she knew. She found that out one day when he slapped her face in the kitchen. It happened over one of those dinners that chasten all women sometimes. They plan and they fix and they do, and then some kitchen-dwelling fiend slips a scorchy, soggy, tasteless mess into their pots and pans. Janie was a good cook, and Joe had looked forward to his dinner as a refuge from other things. So when the bread didn\u2019t rise, and the fish wasn\u2019t quite done at the bone, and the rice was scorched, he slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears and told her about her brains before he stalked on back to the store.<\/p>\r\n

Janie stood where he left her for unmeasured time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further. She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be. She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.<\/p>\r\n

She bathed and put on a fresh dress and head kerchief and went on to the store before Jody had time to send for her. That was a bow to the outside of things.<\/p>\r\n

Jody was on the porch and the porch was full of Eatonville as usual at this time of the day. He was baiting Mrs. Tony Robbins as he always did when she came to the store. Janie could see Jody watching her out of the corner of his eye while he joked roughly with Mrs. Robbins. He wanted to be friendly with her again. His big, big laugh was as much for her as for the baiting. He was longing for peace but on his own terms.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI god, Mrs. Robbins, whut make you come heah and worry me when you see Ah\u2019m readin\u2019 mah newspaper?\u201d Mayor Starks lowered the paper in pretended annoyance.<\/p>\r\n

Mrs. Robbins struck her pity-pose and assumed the voice.<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Cause Ah\u2019m hongry, Mist\u2019 Starks. \u2019Deed Ah is. Me and mah chillun is hongry. Tony don\u2019t fee-eed me!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

This was what the porch was waiting for. They burst into a laugh.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMrs. Robbins, how can you make out you\u2019se hongry when Tony comes in here every Satitday and buys groceries lak a man? Three weeks\u2019 shame on yuh!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf he buy all dat you talkin\u2019 \u2019bout, Mist\u2019 Starks, God knows whut he do wid it. He sho don\u2019t bring it home, and me and mah po\u2019 chillun is so<\/span> hongry! Mist\u2019 Starks, please gimme uh lil piece uh meat fur me and mah chillun.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh know you don\u2019t need it, but come on inside. You ain\u2019t goin\u2019 tuh lemme read till Ah give it to yuh.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Mrs. Tony\u2019s ecstasy was divine. \u201cThank you, Mist\u2019 Starks. You\u2019se noble! You\u2019se du most gentlemanfied man Ah ever did see. You\u2019se uh king!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The salt pork box was in the back of the store and during the walk Mrs. Tony was so eager she sometimes stepped on Joe\u2019s heels, sometimes she was a little before him. Something like a hungry cat when somebody approaches her pan with meat. Running a little, caressing a little and all the time making little urging-on cries.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYes, indeedy, Mist\u2019 Starks, you\u2019se noble. You got sympathy for me and mah po\u2019 chillun. Tony don\u2019t give us nothin\u2019 tuh eat and we\u2019se so<\/span> hongry. Tony don\u2019t fee-eed me!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

This brought them to the meat box. Joe took up the big meat knife and selected a piece of side-meat to cut. Mrs. Tony was all but dancing around him.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s right, Mist\u2019 Starks! Gimme uh lil piece \u2019bout dis wide.\u201d She indicated as wide as her wrist and hand. \u201cMe and mah chillun is so<\/span> hongry!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Starks hardly looked at her measurements. He had seen them too often. He marked off a piece much smaller and sunk the blade in. Mrs. Tony all but fell to the floor in her agony.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLawd a\u2019mussy! Mist\u2019 Starks, you ain\u2019t gointuh gimme dat lil tee-ninchy piece fuh me and all mah chillun, is yuh? Lawd, we\u2019se so<\/span> hongry!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Starks cut right on and reached for a piece of wrapping paper. Mrs. Tony leaped away from the proffered cut of meat as if it were a rattlesnake.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh wouldn\u2019t tetch it! Dat lil eyeful uh bacon for me and all mah chillun! Lawd, some folks is got everything and they\u2019s so gripin\u2019 and so mean!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Starks made as if to throw the meat back in the box and close it. Mrs. Tony swooped like lightning and seized it, and started towards the door.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSome folks ain\u2019t got no heart in dey bosom. They\u2019s willin\u2019 tuh see uh po\u2019 woman and her helpless chillun starve tuh death. God\u2019s gointuh put \u2019em under arrest, some uh dese days, wid dey stingy gripin\u2019 ways.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

She stepped from the store porch and marched off in high dudgeon! Some laughed and some got mad.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf dat wuz mah<\/span> wife,\u201d said Walter Thomas, \u201cAh\u2019d kill her cemetery dead.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMore special after Ah done bought her everything mah wages kin stand, lak Tony do,\u201d Coker said. \u201cIn de fust place Ah never would spend on no<\/span> woman whut Tony spend on her<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Starks came back and took his seat. He had to stop and add the meat to Tony\u2019s account.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, Tony tells me tuh humor her along. He moved here from up de State hopin\u2019 tuh change her, but it ain\u2019t. He say he can\u2019t bear tuh leave her and he hate to kill her, so \u2019tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 tuh do but put up wid her.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s \u2019cause Tony love her too good,\u201d said Coker. \u201cAh could break her if she wuz mine. Ah\u2019d break her or kill her. Makin\u2019 uh fool outa me in front of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cTony won\u2019t never hit her. He says beatin\u2019 women is just like steppin\u2019 on baby chickens. He claims \u2019tain\u2019t no place on uh woman tuh hit,\u201d Joe Lindsay said with scornful disapproval, \u201cbut Ah\u2019d kill uh baby just born dis mawnin\u2019 fuh uh thing lak dat. \u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but low-down spitefulness \u2019ginst her husband make her do it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat\u2019s de God\u2019s truth,\u201d Jim Stone agreed. \u201cDat\u2019s de very reason.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Janie did what she had never done before, that is, thrust herself into the conversation.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was \u2019bout y\u2019all turning out so smart after Him makin\u2019 yuh different; and how surprised y\u2019all is goin\u2019 tuh be if you ever find out you don\u2019t know half as much \u2019bout us as you think you do. It\u2019s so easy to make yo\u2019self out God Almighty when you ain\u2019t got nothin\u2019 tuh strain against but women and chickens.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou gettin\u2019 too moufy, Janie,\u201d Starks told her. \u201cGo fetch me de checker-board and<\/span> de checkers. Sam Watson, you\u2019se mah fish.\u201d<\/p>","rendered":"

<\/div>\n

Every<\/span> morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun. So Janie had another day. And every day had a store in it, except Sundays. The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn\u2019t have to sell things. When the people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see, it was nice. The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to.<\/p>\n

Take for instance the case of Matt Bonner\u2019s yellow mule. They had him up for conversation every day the Lord sent. Most especial if Matt was there himself to listen. Sam and Lige and Walter were the ringleaders of the mule-talkers. The others threw in whatever they could chance upon, but it seemed as if Sam and Lige and Walter could hear and see more about that mule than the whole county put together. All they needed was to see Matt\u2019s long spare shape coming down the street and by the time he got to the porch they were ready for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello, Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvenin\u2019, Sam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMighty glad you come \u2019long right now, Matt. Me and some others wuz jus\u2019 about tuh come hunt yuh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut fuh, Sam?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMighty serious matter, man. Serious!!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah man,\u201d Lige would cut in, dolefully. \u201cIt needs yo\u2019 strict attention. You ought not tuh lose no time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut is it then? You oughta hurry up and tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReckon we better not tell yuh heah at de store. It\u2019s too fur off tuh do any good. We better all walk on down by Lake Sabelia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut\u2019s wrong, man? Ah ain\u2019t after none uh y\u2019alls foolishness now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat mule uh yourn, Matt. You better go see \u2019bout him. He\u2019s bad off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere \u2019bouts? Did he wade in de lake and uh alligator ketch him?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorser\u2019n dat. De womenfolks got yo\u2019 mule. When Ah come round de lake \u2019bout noontime mah wife and some others had \u2019im flat on de ground usin\u2019 his sides fuh uh wash board.\u201d<\/p>\n

The great clap of laughter that they have been holding in, bursts out. Sam never cracks a smile. \u201cYeah, Matt, dat mule so skinny till de women is usin\u2019 his rib bones fuh uh rub-board, and hangin\u2019 things out on his hock-bones tuh dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt realizes that they have tricked him again and the laughter makes him mad and when he gets mad he stammers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019se uh stinkin\u2019 lie, Sam, and yo\u2019 feet ain\u2019t mates. Y-y-y-you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, man, \u2019tain\u2019t no use in you gittin\u2019 mad. Yuh know yuh don\u2019t feed de mule. How he gointuh git fat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh-ah-ah d-d-does feed \u2019im! Ah g-g-gived \u2019im uh full cup uh cawn every feedin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLige knows all about dat cup uh cawn. He hid round yo\u2019 barn and watched yuh. \u2019Tain\u2019t no feed cup you measures dat cawn outa. It\u2019s uh tea cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh does feed \u2019im. He\u2019s jus\u2019 too mean tuh git fat. He stay poor and rawbony jus\u2019 fuh spite. Skeered he\u2019ll hafta work some.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, you feeds \u2019im. Feeds \u2019im offa \u2018come up\u2019 and seasons it wid raw-hide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes feed de ornery varmint! Don\u2019t keer whut Ah do Ah can\u2019t git long wid \u2019im. He fights every inch in front uh de plow, and even lay back his ears tuh kick and bite when Ah go in de stall tuh feed \u2019im.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGit reconciled, Matt,\u201d Lige soothed. \u201cUs all knows he\u2019s mean. Ah seen \u2019im when he took after one uh dem Roberts chillun in de street and woulda caught \u2019im and maybe trompled \u2019im tuh death if de wind hadn\u2019t of changed all of a sudden. Yuh see de youngun wuz tryin\u2019 tuh make it tuh de fence uh Starks\u2019 onion patch and de mule wuz dead in behind \u2019im and gainin\u2019 on \u2019im every jump, when all of a sudden de wind changed and blowed de mule way off his course, him bein\u2019 so poor and everything, and before de ornery varmint could tack, de youngun had done got over de fence.\u201d The porch laughed and Matt got mad again.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe de mule takes out after everybody,\u201d Sam said, \u201c\u202f\u2019cause he thinks everybody he hear comin\u2019 is Matt Bonner comin\u2019 tuh work \u2019im on uh empty stomach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, naw, aw, naw. You stop dat right now,\u201d Walter objected. \u201cDat mule don\u2019t think Ah look lak no Matt Bonner. He ain\u2019t dat dumb. If Ah thought he didn\u2019t know no better Ah\u2019d have mah picture took and give it tuh dat mule so\u2019s he could learn better. Ah ain\u2019t gointuh \u2019low \u2019im tuh hold nothin\u2019 lak dat against me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt struggled to say something but his tongue failed him so he jumped down off the porch and walked away as mad as he could be. But that never halted the mule talk. There would be more stories about how poor the brute was; his age; his evil disposition and his latest caper. Everybody indulged in mule talk. He was next to the Mayor in prominence, and made better talking.<\/p>\n

Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge. He didn\u2019t want her talking after such trashy people. \u201cYou\u2019se Mrs. Mayor Starks, Janie. I god, Ah can\u2019t see what uh woman uh yo\u2019 stability would want tuh be treasurin\u2019 all dat gum-grease from folks dat don\u2019t even own de house dey sleep in. \u2019Tain\u2019t no earthly use. They\u2019s jus\u2019 some puny humans playin\u2019 round de toes uh Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janie noted that while he didn\u2019t talk the mule himself, he sat and laughed at it. Laughed his big heh, heh laugh too. But then when Lige or Sam or Walter or some of the other big picture talkers were using a side of the world for a canvas, Joe would hustle her off inside the store to sell something. Look like he took pleasure in doing it. Why couldn\u2019t he go himself sometimes? She had come to hate the inside of that store anyway. That Post Office too. People always coming and asking for mail at the wrong time. Just when she was trying to count up something or write in an account book. Get her so hackled she\u2019d make the wrong change for stamps. Then too, she couldn\u2019t read everybody\u2019s writing. Some folks wrote so funny and spelt things different from what she knew about. As a rule, Joe put up the mail himself, but sometimes when he was off she had to do it herself and it always ended up in a fuss.<\/p>\n

The store itself kept her with a sick headache. The labor of getting things down off of a shelf or out of a barrel was nothing. And so long as people wanted only a can of tomatoes or a pound of rice it was all right. But supposing they went on and said a pound and a half of bacon and a half pound of lard? The whole thing changed from a little walking and stretching to a mathematical dilemma. Or maybe cheese was thirty-seven cents a pound and somebody came and asked for a dime\u2019s worth. She went through many silent rebellions over things like that. Such a waste of life and time. But Joe kept saying that she could do it if she wanted to and he wanted her to use her privileges. That was the rock she was battered against.<\/p>\n

This business of the headrag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn\u2019t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it as she went about things in the store. And one night he had caught Walter standing behind Janie and brushing the back of his hand back and forth across the loose end of her braid ever so lightly so as to enjoy the feel of it without Janie knowing what he was doing. Joe was at the back of the store and Walter didn\u2019t see him. He felt like rushing forth with the meat knife and chopping off the offending hand. That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him<\/span> to look at, not those others. But he never said things like that. It just wasn\u2019t in him. Take the matter of the yellow mule, for instance.<\/p>\n

Late one afternoon Matt came from the west with a halter in his hand. \u201cBeen huntin\u2019 fuh mah mule. Anybody seen \u2019im?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeen \u2019im soon dis mornin\u2019 over behind de schoolhouse,\u201d Lum said. \u201c\u202f\u2019Bout ten o\u2019clock or so. He musta been out all night tuh be way over dere dat early.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wuz,\u201d Matt answered. \u201cSeen \u2019im last night but Ah couldn\u2019t ketch \u2019im. Ah\u2019m \u2019bliged tuh git \u2019im in tuhnight \u2019cause Ah got some plowin\u2019 fuh tuhmorrow. Done promised tuh plow Thompson\u2019s grove.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReckon you\u2019ll ever git through de job wid dat mule-frame?\u201d Lige asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAw dat mule is plenty strong. Jus\u2019 evil and don\u2019t want tuh be led.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s right. Dey tell me he brought you heah tuh dis town. Say you started tuh Miccanopy but de mule had better sense and brung yuh on heah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s uh l-l-lie! Ah set out fuh dis town when Ah left West Floridy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean tuh tell me you rode dat mule all de way from West Floridy down heah?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSho he did, Lige. But he didn\u2019t mean tuh. He wuz satisfied up dere, but de mule wuzn\u2019t. So one mornin\u2019 he got straddle uh de mule and he took and brought \u2019im on off. Mule had sense. Folks up dat way don\u2019t eat biscuit bread but once uh week.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was always a little seriousness behind the teasing of Matt, so when he got huffed and walked on off nobody minded. He was known to buy side-meat by the slice. Carried home little bags of meal and flour in his hand. He didn\u2019t seem to mind too much so long as it didn\u2019t cost him anything.<\/p>\n

About half an hour after he left they heard the braying of the mule at the edge of the woods. He was coming past the store very soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cLess ketch Matt\u2019s mule fuh \u2019im and have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, Lum, you know dat mule ain\u2019t aimin\u2019 tuh let hisself be caught. Less watch you<\/span> do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the mule was in front of the store, Lum went out and tackled him. The brute jerked up his head, laid back his ears and rushed to the attack. Lum had to run for safety. Five or six more men left the porch and surrounded the fractious beast, goosing him in the sides and making him show his temper. But he had more spirit left than body. He was soon panting and heaving from the effort of spinning his old carcass about. Everybody was having fun at the mule-baiting. All but Janie.<\/p>\n

She snatched her head away from the spectacle and began muttering to herself. \u201cThey oughta be shamed uh theyselves! Teasin\u2019 dat poor brute beast lak they is! Done been worked tuh death; done had his disposition ruint wid mistreatment, and now they got tuh finish devilin\u2019 \u2019im tuh death. Wisht Ah had mah way wid \u2019em all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She walked away from the porch and found something to busy herself with in the back of the store so she did not hear Jody when he stopped laughing. She didn\u2019t know that he had heard her, but she did hear him yell out, \u201cLum, I god, dat\u2019s enough! Y\u2019all done had yo\u2019 fun now. Stop yo\u2019 foolishness and go tell Matt Bonner Ah wants tuh have uh talk wid him right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janie came back out front and sat down. She didn\u2019t say anything and neither did Joe. But after a while he looked down at his feet and said, \u201cJanie, Ah reckon you better go fetch me dem old black gaiters. Dese tan shoes sets mah feet on fire. Plenty room in \u2019em, but they hurts regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

She got up without a word and went off for the shoes. A little war of defense for helpless things was going on inside her. People ought to have some regard for helpless things. She wanted to fight about it. \u201cBut Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh git along.\u201d She didn\u2019t hurry back. She fumbled around long enough to get her face straight. When she got back, Joe was talking with Matt.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifteen dollars? I god you\u2019se as crazy as uh betsy bug! Five dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cL-l-less we strack uh compermise, Brother Mayor. Less m-make it ten.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFive dollars.\u201d Joe rolled his cigar in his mouth and rolled his eyes away indifferently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf dat mule is wuth somethin\u2019 tuh you<\/span>, Brother Mayor, he\u2019s wuth mo\u2019 tuh me. More special when Ah got uh job uh work tuhmorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFive dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right, Brother Mayor. If you wants tuh rob uh poor man lak me uh everything he got tuh make uh livin\u2019 wid, Ah\u2019ll take de five dollars. Dat mule been wid me twenty-three years. It\u2019s mighty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Starks deliberately changed his shoes before he reached into his pocket for the money. By that time Matt was wringing and twisting like a hen on a hot brick. But as soon as his hand closed on the money his face broke into a grin.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeatyuh tradin\u2019 dat time, Starks! Dat mule is liable tuh be dead befo\u2019 de week is out. You won\u2019t git no work outa him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t buy \u2019im fuh no work. I god, Ah bought dat varmint tuh let \u2019im rest. You didn\u2019t have gumption enough tuh do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A respectful silence fell on the place. Sam looked at Joe and said, \u201cDat\u2019s uh new idea \u2019bout varmints, Mayor Starks. But Ah laks it mah ownself. It\u2019s uh noble thing you done.\u201d Everybody agreed with that.<\/p>\n

Janie stood still while they all made comments. When it was all done she stood in front of Joe and said, \u201cJody, dat wuz uh mighty fine thing fuh you tuh do. \u2019Tain\u2019t everybody would have thought of it, \u2019cause it ain\u2019t no everyday thought. Freein\u2019 dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you. Something like George Washington and Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, he had de whole United States tuh rule so he freed de Negroes. You got uh town so you freed uh mule. You have tuh have power tuh free things and dat makes you lak uh king uh something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hambo said, \u201cYo\u2019 wife is uh born orator, Starks. Us never knowed dat befo\u2019. She put jus\u2019 de right words tuh our thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe bit down hard on his cigar and beamed all around, but he never said a word. The town talked it for three days and said that\u2019s just what they would have done if they had been rich men like Joe Starks. Anyhow a free-mule in town was something new to talk about. Starks piled fodder under the big tree near the porch and the mule was usually around the store like the other citizens. Nearly everybody took the habit of fetching along a handful of fodder to throw on the pile. He almost got fat and they took a great pride in him. New lies sprung up about his free-mule doings. How he pushed open Lindsay\u2019s kitchen door and slept in the place one night and fought until they made coffee for his breakfast; how he stuck his head in the Pearsons\u2019 window while the family was at the table and Mrs. Pearson mistook him for Rev. Pearson and handed him a plate; he ran Mrs. Tully off of the croquet ground for having such an ugly shape; he ran and caught up with Becky Anderson on the way to Maitland so as to keep his head out of the sun under her umbrella; he got tired of listening to Redmond\u2019s long-winded prayer, and went inside the Baptist church and broke up the meeting. He did everything but let himself be bridled and visit Matt Bonner.<\/p>\n

But way after a while he died. Lum found him under the big tree on his rawbony back with all four feet up in the air. That wasn\u2019t natural and it didn\u2019t look right, but Sam said it would have been more unnatural for him to have laid down on his side and died like any other beast. He had seen Death coming and had stood his ground and fought it like a natural man. He had fought it to the last breath. Naturally he didn\u2019t have time to straighten himself out. Death had to take him like it found him.<\/p>\n

When the news got around, it was like the end of a war or something like that. Everybody that could knocked off from work to stand around and talk. But finally there was nothing to do but drag him out like all other dead brutes. Drag him out to the edge of the hammock which was far enough off to satisfy sanitary conditions in the town. The rest was up to the buzzards. Everybody was going to the dragging-out. The news had got Mayor Starks out of bed before time. His pair of gray horses was out under the tree and the men were fooling with the gear when Janie arrived at the store with Joe\u2019s breakfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI god, Lum, you fasten up dis store good befo\u2019 you leave, you hear me?\u201d He was eating fast and talking with one eye out of the door on the operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut you tellin\u2019 \u2019im tuh fasten up for, Jody?\u201d Janie asked, surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Cause it won\u2019t be nobody heah tuh look after de store. Ah\u2019m goin\u2019 tuh de draggin\u2019-out mahself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 so important Ah got tuh do tuhday, Jody. How come Ah can\u2019t go long wid you tuh de draggin\u2019-out?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe was struck speechless for a minute. \u201cWhy, Janie! You wouldn\u2019t be seen at uh draggin\u2019-out, wouldja? Wid any and everybody in uh passle pushin\u2019 and shovin\u2019 wid they no-manners selves? Naw, naw!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would be dere wid me, wouldn\u2019t yuh?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s right, but Ah\u2019m uh man even if Ah is de Mayor. But de mayor\u2019s wife is somethin\u2019 different again. Anyhow they\u2019s liable tuh need me tuh say uh few words over de carcass, dis bein\u2019 uh special case. But you<\/span> ain\u2019t goin\u2019 off in all dat mess uh commonness. Ah\u2019m surprised at yuh fuh askin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wiped his lips of ham gravy and put on his hat. \u201cShet de door behind yuh, Janie. Lum is too busy wid de hawses.\u201d<\/p>\n

After more shouting of advice and orders and useless comments, the town escorted the carcass off. No, the carcass moved off with the town, and left Janie standing in the doorway.<\/p>\n

Out in the swamp they made great ceremony over the mule. They mocked everything human in death. Starks led off with a great eulogy on our departed citizen, our most distinguished citizen and the grief he left behind him, and the people loved the speech. It made him more solid than building the schoolhouse had done. He stood on the distended belly of the mule for a platform and made gestures. When he stepped down, they hoisted Sam up and he talked about the mule as a school teacher first. Then he set his hat like John Pearson and imitated his preaching. He spoke of the joys of mule-heaven to which the dear brother had departed this valley of sorrow; the mule-angels flying around; the miles of green corn and cool water, a pasture of pure bran with a river of molasses running through it; and most glorious of all, No<\/span> Matt Bonner with plow lines and halters to come in and corrupt. Up there, mule-angels would have people to ride on and from his place beside the glittering throne, the dear departed brother would look down into hell and see the devil plowing Matt Bonner all day long in a hell-hot sun and laying the raw-hide to his back.<\/p>\n

With that the sisters got mock-happy and shouted and had to be held up by the menfolks. Everybody enjoyed themselves to the highest and then finally the mule was left to the already impatient buzzards. They were holding a great flying-meet way up over the heads of the mourners and some of the nearby trees were already peopled with the stoop-shouldered forms.<\/p>\n

As soon as the crowd was out of sight they closed in circles. The near ones got nearer and the far ones got near. A circle, a swoop and a hop with spread-out wings. Close in, close in till some of the more hungry or daring perched on the carcass. They wanted to begin, but the Parson wasn\u2019t there, so a messenger was sent to the ruler in a tree where he sat.<\/p>\n

The flock had to wait for the white-headed leader, but it was hard. They jostled each other and pecked at heads in hungry irritation. Some walked up and down the beast from head to tail, tail to head. The Parson sat motionless in a dead pine tree about two miles off. He had scented the matter as quickly as any of the rest, but decorum demanded that he sit oblivious until he was notified. Then he took off with ponderous flight and circled and lowered, circled and lowered until the others danced in joy and hunger at his approach.<\/p>\n

He finally lit on the ground and walked around the body to see if it were really dead. Peered into its nose and mouth. Examined it well from end to end and leaped upon it and bowed, and the others danced a response. That being over, he balanced and asked:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat killed this man?\u201d<\/p>\n

The chorus answered, \u201cBare, bare fat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat killed this man?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBare, bare fat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat killed this man?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBare, bare fat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019ll stand his funeral?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe!!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, all right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he picked out the eyes in the ceremonial way and the feast went on. The yaller mule was gone from the town except for the porch talk, and for the children visiting his bleaching bones now and then in the spirit of adventure.<\/p>\n

\n

Joe returned to the store full of pleasure and good humor but he didn\u2019t want Janie to notice it because he saw that she was sullen and he resented that. She had no right to be, the way he thought things out. She wasn\u2019t even appreciative of his efforts and she had plenty cause to be. Here he was just pouring honor all over her; building a high chair for her to sit in and overlook the world and she here pouting over it! Not that he wanted anybody else, but just too many women would be glad to be in her place. He ought to box her jaws! But he didn\u2019t feel like fighting today, so he made an attack upon her position backhand.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh had tuh laugh at de people out dere in de woods dis mornin\u2019, Janie. You can\u2019t help but laugh at de capers they cuts. But all the same, Ah wish mah people would git mo\u2019 business in \u2019em and not spend so much time on foolishness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody can\u2019t be lak you, Jody. Somebody is bound tuh want tuh laugh and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho don\u2019t love tuh laugh and play?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou make out like you don\u2019t, anyhow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI god, Ah don\u2019t make out no such uh lie! But it\u2019s uh time fuh all things. But it\u2019s awful tuh see so many people don\u2019t want nothin\u2019 but uh full belly and uh place tuh lay down and sleep afterwards. It makes me sad sometimes and then agin it makes me mad. They say things sometimes that tickles me nearly tuh death, but Ah won\u2019t laugh jus\u2019 tuh dis-incourage \u2019em.\u201d Janie took the easy way away from a fuss. She didn\u2019t change her mind but she agreed with her mouth. Her heart said, \u201cEven so, but you don\u2019t have to cry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But sometimes Sam Watson and Lige Moss forced a belly laugh out of Joe himself with their eternal arguments. It never ended because there was no end to reach. It was a contest in hyperbole and carried on for no other reason.<\/p>\n

Maybe Sam would be sitting on the porch when Lige walked up. If nobody was there to speak of, nothing happened. But if the town was there like on Saturday night, Lige would come up with a very grave air. Couldn\u2019t even pass the time of day, for being so busy thinking. Then when he was asked what was the matter in order to start him off, he\u2019d say, \u201cDis question done \u2019bout drove me crazy. And Sam, he know so much into things, Ah wants some information on de subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walter Thomas was due to speak up and egg the matter on. \u201cYeah, Sam always got more information than he know what to do wid. He\u2019s bound to tell yuh whatever it is you wants tuh know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam begins an elaborate show of avoiding the struggle. That draws everybody on the porch into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow come you want me tuh<\/span> tell yuh? You always claim God done met you round de corner and talked His inside business wid yuh. \u2019Tain\u2019t no use in you askin\u2019 me<\/span> nothin\u2019. Ah\u2019m questionizin\u2019 you<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow you gointuh do dat, Sam, when Ah arrived dis conversation mahself? Ah\u2019m askin\u2019 you<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAskin\u2019 me what? You ain\u2019t told me de subjick yit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t aim tuh tell yuh! Ah aims tuh keep yuh in de dark all de time. If you\u2019se smart lak you let on you is, you kin find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYuh skeered to lemme know whut it is, \u2019cause yuh know Ah\u2019ll tear it tuh pieces. You got to have a subjick tuh talk from, do yuh can\u2019t talk. If uh man ain\u2019t got no bounds, he ain\u2019t got no place tuh stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

By this time, they are the center of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell all right then. Since you own up you ain\u2019t smart enough tuh find out whut Ah\u2019m talkin\u2019 \u2019bout, Ah\u2019ll tell you. Whut is it dat keeps uh man from gettin\u2019 burnt on uh red-hot stove\u2014caution or nature?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShucks! Ah thought you had somethin\u2019 hard tuh ast me. Walter kin tell yuh dat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf de conversation is too deep for yuh, how come yuh don\u2019t tell me so, and hush up? Walter can\u2019t tell me nothin\u2019 uh de kind. Ah\u2019m uh educated man, Ah keeps mah arrangements in mah hands, and if it kept me up all night long studyin\u2019 \u2019bout it, Walter ain\u2019t liable tuh be no help to me. Ah needs uh man lak you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then agin, Lige, Ah\u2019m gointuh tell yuh. Ah\u2019m gointuh run dis conversation from uh gnat heel to uh lice. It\u2019s nature dat keeps uh man off of uh red-hot stove.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUuh huuh! Ah knowed you would going tuh crawl up in dat holler! But Ah aims tuh smoke yuh right out. \u2019Tain\u2019t no nature at all, it\u2019s caution, Sam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t no sich uh thing! Nature tells yuh not tuh fool wid no red-hot stove, and you don\u2019t do it neither.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, Sam, if it was nature, nobody wouldn\u2019t have tuh look out for babies touchin\u2019 stoves, would they? \u2019Cause dey just naturally wouldn\u2019t touch it. But dey sho will. So it\u2019s caution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw it ain\u2019t, it\u2019s nature, cause nature makes caution. It\u2019s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it\u2019s de onliest thing God ever made. He made nature and nature made everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw nature didn\u2019t neither. A whole heap of things ain\u2019t even been made yit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me somethin\u2019 you know of dat nature ain\u2019t made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe ain\u2019t made it so you kin ride uh butt-headed cow and hold on tuh de horns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, but dat ain\u2019t yo\u2019 point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah it is too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw it ain\u2019t neither.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell what is<\/span> mah point?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ain\u2019t got none, so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah he is too,\u201d Walter cut in. \u201cDe red-hot stove is his point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe know mighty much, but he ain\u2019t proved it yit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSam, Ah say it\u2019s caution, not nature dat keeps folks off uh red-hot stove.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is de son gointuh be before his paw? Nature is de first of everything. Ever since self was self, nature been keepin\u2019 folks off of red-hot stoves. Dat caution you talkin\u2019 \u2019bout ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but uh humbug. He\u2019s uh inseck dat nothin\u2019 he got belongs to him. He got eyes, lak somethin\u2019 else; wings lak somethin\u2019 else\u2014everything! Even his hum is de sound of somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, whut you talkin\u2019 \u2019bout? Caution is de greatest thing in de world. If it wasn\u2019t for caution\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShow me somethin\u2019 dat caution ever made! Look whut nature took and done. Nature got so high in uh black hen she got tuh lay uh white egg. Now you tell me, how come, whut got intuh man dat he got tuh have hair round his mouth? Nature!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat ain\u2019t\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

The porch was boiling now. Starks left the store to Hezekiah Potts, the delivery boy, and come took a seat in his high chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at dat great big ole scoundrel-beast up dere at Hall\u2019s fillin\u2019 station\u2014uh great big old scoundrel. He eats up all de folks outa de house and den eat de house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw \u2019tain\u2019t no sich a varmint nowhere dat kin eat no house! Dat\u2019s uh lie. Ah wuz dere yiste\u2019ddy and Ah ain\u2019t seen nothin\u2019 lak dat. Where is he?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh didn\u2019t see him but Ah reckon he is in de back-yard some place. But dey got his picture out front dere. They was nailin\u2019 it up when Ah come pass dere dis evenin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell all right now, if he eats up houses how come he don\u2019t eat up de fillin\u2019 station?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s \u2019cause dey got him tied up so he can\u2019t. Dey got uh great big picture tellin\u2019 how many gallons of dat Sinclair high-compression gas he drink at one time and how he\u2019s more\u2019n uh million years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019<\/span> no million years old!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDe picture is right up dere where anybody kin see it. Dey can\u2019t make de picture till dey see de thing, kin dey?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow dey goin\u2019 to tell he\u2019s uh million years old? Nobody wasn\u2019t born dat fur back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy de rings on his tail Ah reckon. Man, dese white folks got ways for tellin\u2019 anything dey wants tuh know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, where he been at all dis time, then?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDey caught him over dere in Egypt. Seem lak he used tuh hang round dere and eat up dem Pharaohs\u2019 tombstones. Dey got de picture of him doin\u2019 it. Nature is high in uh varmint lak dat. Nature and salt. Dat\u2019s whut makes up strong man lak Big John de Conquer. He was uh man wid salt in him. He could give uh flavor to anything<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, but he was uh man dat wuz more\u2019n man. \u2019Tain\u2019t no mo\u2019 lak him. He wouldn\u2019t dig potatoes, and he wouldn\u2019t rake hay: He wouldn\u2019t take a whipping, and he wouldn\u2019t run away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, somebody else could if dey tried hard enough. Me mahself, Ah got salt in me<\/span>. If Ah like man flesh, Ah could eat some man every day, some of \u2019em is so trashy they\u2019d let me eat \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLawd, Ah loves to talk about Big John. Less we tell lies on Ole John.\u201d<\/p>\n

But here come Bootsie, and Teadi and Big \u2019oman down the street making out they are pretty by the way they walk. They have got that fresh, new taste about them like young mustard greens in the spring, and the young men on the porch are just bound to tell them about it and buy them some treats.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeah come mah order right now,\u201d Charlie Jones announces and scrambles off the porch to meet them. But he has plenty of competition. A pushing, shoving show of gallantry. They all beg the girls to just buy anything they can think of. Please let them pay for it. Joe is begged to wrap up all the candy in the store and order more. All the peanuts and soda water\u2014everything!<\/p>\n

\u201cGal, Ah\u2019m crazy \u2019bout you,\u201d Charlie goes on to the entertainment of everybody. \u201cAh\u2019ll do anything in the world except work for you and give you mah money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girls and everybody else help laugh. They know it\u2019s not courtship. It\u2019s acting-out courtship and everybody is in the play. The three girls hold the center of the stage till Daisy Blunt comes walking down the street in the moonlight.<\/p>\n

Daisy is walking a drum tune. You can almost hear it by looking at the way she walks. She is black and she knows that white clothes look good on her, so she wears them for dress up. She\u2019s got those big black eyes with plenty shiny white in them that makes them shine like brand new money and she knows what God gave women eyelashes for, too. Her hair is not what you might call straight. It\u2019s negro hair, but it\u2019s got a kind of white flavor. Like the piece of string out of a ham. It\u2019s not ham at all, but it\u2019s been around ham and got the flavor. It was spread down thick and heavy over her shoulders and looked just right under a big white hat.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawd, Lawd, Lawd,\u201d that same Charlie Jones exclaims rushing over to Daisy. \u201cIt must be uh recess in heben if St. Peter is lettin\u2019 his angels out lak dis. You got three men already layin\u2019 at de point uh death \u2019bout yuh, and heah\u2019s uhnother fool dat\u2019s willin\u2019 tuh make time on yo\u2019 gang.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the rest of the single men have crowded around Daisy by this time. She is parading and blushing at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know anybody dat\u2019s \u2019bout tuh die \u2019bout me, yuh know more\u2019n Ah do,\u201d Daisy bridled. \u201cWisht Ah knowed who it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, Daisy, you<\/span> know Jim, and Dave and Lum is \u2019bout tuh kill one \u2019nother \u2019bout you. Don\u2019t stand up here and tell dat big ole got-dat-wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDey a mighty hush-mouf about it if dey is. Dey ain\u2019t never told me nothin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnhhunh, you talked too fast. Heah, Jim and Dave is right upon de porch and Lum is inside de store.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big burst of laughter at Daisy\u2019s discomfiture. The boys had to act out their rivalry too. Only this time, everybody knew they meant some of it. But all the same the porch enjoyed the play and helped out whenever extras were needed.<\/p>\n

David said, \u201cJim don\u2019t love Daisy. He don\u2019t love yuh lak Ah do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim bellowed indignantly, \u201cWho don\u2019t love Daisy? Ah know you ain\u2019t talkin\u2019 \u2019bout me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave: \u201cWell all right, less prove dis thing right now. We\u2019ll prove right now who love dis gal de best. How much time is you willin\u2019 tuh make fuh Daisy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim: \u201cTwenty yeahs!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave: \u201cSee? Ah told yuh dat nigger didn\u2019t love yuh. Me, Ah\u2019ll beg de Judge tuh hang me, and wouldn\u2019t take nothin\u2019 less than life.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a big long laugh from the porch. Then Jim had to demand a test.<\/p>\n

\u201cDave, how much would you be willin\u2019 tuh do for Daisy if she was to turn fool enough tuh marry yuh?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Daisy done talked dat over, but if you just got tuh know, Ah\u2019d buy Daisy uh passenger train and give it tuh her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHumph! Is dat all? Ah\u2019d buy her uh steamship and then Ah\u2019d hire some mens tuh run it fur her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDaisy, don\u2019t let Jim fool you wid his talk. He don\u2019t aim tuh do nothin\u2019 fuh yuh. Uh lil ole steamship! Daisy, Ah\u2019ll take uh job cleanin\u2019 out de Atlantic Ocean fuh you any time you say you so desire.\u201d There was a great laugh and then they hushed to listen.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaisy,\u201d Jim began, \u201cyou know mah heart and all de ranges uh mah mind. And you know if Ah wuz ridin\u2019 up in uh earoplane way up in de sky and Ah looked down and seen you walkin\u2019 and knowed you\u2019d have tuh walk ten miles tuh git home, Ah\u2019d step backward offa dat earoplane just to walk home wid you.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was one of those big blow-out laughs and Janie was wallowing in it. Then Jody ruined it all for her.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Bogle came walking down the street towards the porch. Mrs. Bogle who was many times a grandmother, but had a blushing air of coquetry about her that cloaked her sunken cheeks. You saw a fluttering fan before her face and magnolia blooms and sleepy lakes under the moonlight when she walked. There was no obvious reason for it, it was just so. Her first husband had been a coachman but \u201cstudied jury\u201d to win her. He had finally become a preacher to hold her till his death. Her second husband worked in Fohnes orange grove\u2014but tried to preach when he caught her eye. He never got any further than a class leader, but that was something to offer her. It proved his love and pride. She was a wind on the ocean. She moved men, but the helm determined the port. Now, this night she mounted the steps and the men noticed her until she passed inside the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cI god, Janie,\u201d Starks said impatiently, \u201cwhy don\u2019t you go on and see whut Mrs. Bogle want? Whut you waitin\u2019 on?\u201d<\/p>\n

Janie wanted to hear the rest of the play-acting and how it ended, but she got up sullenly and went inside. She came back to the porch with her bristles sticking out all over her and with dissatisfaction written all over her face. Joe saw it and lifted his own hackles a bit.<\/p>\n

Jim Weston had secretly borrowed a dime and soon he was loudly beseeching Daisy to have a treat on him. Finally she consented to take a pickled pig foot on him. Janie was getting up a large order when they came in, so Lum waited on them. That is, he went back to the keg but came back without the pig foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cMist\u2019 Starks, de pig feets is all gone!\u201d he called out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAw naw dey ain\u2019t, Lum. Ah bought uh whole new kag of \u2019em wid dat last order from Jacksonville. It come in yistiddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe came and helped Lum look but he couldn\u2019t find the new keg either, so he went to the nail over his desk that he used for a file to search for the order.<\/p>\n

\u201cJanie, where\u2019s dat last bill uh ladin\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s right dere on de nail, ain\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw it ain\u2019t neither. You ain\u2019t put it where Ah told yuh tuh. If you\u2019d git yo\u2019 mind out de streets and keep it on yo\u2019 business maybe you could git somethin\u2019 straight sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, look around dere, Jody. Dat bill ain\u2019t apt tuh be gone off nowheres. If it ain\u2019t hangin\u2019 on de nail, it\u2019s on yo\u2019 desk. You bound tuh find it if you look.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWid you heah, Ah oughtn\u2019t tuh hafta do all dat lookin\u2019 and searchin\u2019. Ah done told you time and time agin tuh stick all dem papers on dat nail! All you got tuh do is mind me. How come you can\u2019t do lak Ah tell yuh?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou sho loves to tell me whut to do, but Ah can\u2019t tell you nothin\u2019 Ah see!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s \u2019cause you need tellin\u2019,\u201d he rejoined hotly. \u201cIt would be pitiful if Ah didn\u2019t. Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don\u2019t think none theirselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh knows uh few things, and womenfolks thinks sometimes too!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw naw they don\u2019t. They just think they\u2019s thinkin\u2019. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don\u2019t understand one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times and scenes like that put Janie to thinking about the inside state of her marriage. Time came when she fought back with her tongue as best she could, but it didn\u2019t do her any good. It just made Joe do more. He wanted her submission and he\u2019d keep on fighting until he felt he had it.<\/p>\n

So gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush. The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again. So she put something in there to represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church. The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired.<\/p>\n

She wasn\u2019t petal-open anymore with him. She was twenty-four and seven years married when she knew. She found that out one day when he slapped her face in the kitchen. It happened over one of those dinners that chasten all women sometimes. They plan and they fix and they do, and then some kitchen-dwelling fiend slips a scorchy, soggy, tasteless mess into their pots and pans. Janie was a good cook, and Joe had looked forward to his dinner as a refuge from other things. So when the bread didn\u2019t rise, and the fish wasn\u2019t quite done at the bone, and the rice was scorched, he slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears and told her about her brains before he stalked on back to the store.<\/p>\n

Janie stood where he left her for unmeasured time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further. She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be. She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.<\/p>\n

She bathed and put on a fresh dress and head kerchief and went on to the store before Jody had time to send for her. That was a bow to the outside of things.<\/p>\n

Jody was on the porch and the porch was full of Eatonville as usual at this time of the day. He was baiting Mrs. Tony Robbins as he always did when she came to the store. Janie could see Jody watching her out of the corner of his eye while he joked roughly with Mrs. Robbins. He wanted to be friendly with her again. His big, big laugh was as much for her as for the baiting. He was longing for peace but on his own terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI god, Mrs. Robbins, whut make you come heah and worry me when you see Ah\u2019m readin\u2019 mah newspaper?\u201d Mayor Starks lowered the paper in pretended annoyance.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Robbins struck her pity-pose and assumed the voice.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Cause Ah\u2019m hongry, Mist\u2019 Starks. \u2019Deed Ah is. Me and mah chillun is hongry. Tony don\u2019t fee-eed me!\u201d<\/p>\n

This was what the porch was waiting for. They burst into a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. Robbins, how can you make out you\u2019se hongry when Tony comes in here every Satitday and buys groceries lak a man? Three weeks\u2019 shame on yuh!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he buy all dat you talkin\u2019 \u2019bout, Mist\u2019 Starks, God knows whut he do wid it. He sho don\u2019t bring it home, and me and mah po\u2019 chillun is so<\/span> hongry! Mist\u2019 Starks, please gimme uh lil piece uh meat fur me and mah chillun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh know you don\u2019t need it, but come on inside. You ain\u2019t goin\u2019 tuh lemme read till Ah give it to yuh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Tony\u2019s ecstasy was divine. \u201cThank you, Mist\u2019 Starks. You\u2019se noble! You\u2019se du most gentlemanfied man Ah ever did see. You\u2019se uh king!\u201d<\/p>\n

The salt pork box was in the back of the store and during the walk Mrs. Tony was so eager she sometimes stepped on Joe\u2019s heels, sometimes she was a little before him. Something like a hungry cat when somebody approaches her pan with meat. Running a little, caressing a little and all the time making little urging-on cries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, indeedy, Mist\u2019 Starks, you\u2019se noble. You got sympathy for me and mah po\u2019 chillun. Tony don\u2019t give us nothin\u2019 tuh eat and we\u2019se so<\/span> hongry. Tony don\u2019t fee-eed me!\u201d<\/p>\n

This brought them to the meat box. Joe took up the big meat knife and selected a piece of side-meat to cut. Mrs. Tony was all but dancing around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s right, Mist\u2019 Starks! Gimme uh lil piece \u2019bout dis wide.\u201d She indicated as wide as her wrist and hand. \u201cMe and mah chillun is so<\/span> hongry!\u201d<\/p>\n

Starks hardly looked at her measurements. He had seen them too often. He marked off a piece much smaller and sunk the blade in. Mrs. Tony all but fell to the floor in her agony.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawd a\u2019mussy! Mist\u2019 Starks, you ain\u2019t gointuh gimme dat lil tee-ninchy piece fuh me and all mah chillun, is yuh? Lawd, we\u2019se so<\/span> hongry!\u201d<\/p>\n

Starks cut right on and reached for a piece of wrapping paper. Mrs. Tony leaped away from the proffered cut of meat as if it were a rattlesnake.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh wouldn\u2019t tetch it! Dat lil eyeful uh bacon for me and all mah chillun! Lawd, some folks is got everything and they\u2019s so gripin\u2019 and so mean!\u201d<\/p>\n

Starks made as if to throw the meat back in the box and close it. Mrs. Tony swooped like lightning and seized it, and started towards the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome folks ain\u2019t got no heart in dey bosom. They\u2019s willin\u2019 tuh see uh po\u2019 woman and her helpless chillun starve tuh death. God\u2019s gointuh put \u2019em under arrest, some uh dese days, wid dey stingy gripin\u2019 ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

She stepped from the store porch and marched off in high dudgeon! Some laughed and some got mad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf dat wuz mah<\/span> wife,\u201d said Walter Thomas, \u201cAh\u2019d kill her cemetery dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore special after Ah done bought her everything mah wages kin stand, lak Tony do,\u201d Coker said. \u201cIn de fust place Ah never would spend on no<\/span> woman whut Tony spend on her<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starks came back and took his seat. He had to stop and add the meat to Tony\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Tony tells me tuh humor her along. He moved here from up de State hopin\u2019 tuh change her, but it ain\u2019t. He say he can\u2019t bear tuh leave her and he hate to kill her, so \u2019tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 tuh do but put up wid her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s \u2019cause Tony love her too good,\u201d said Coker. \u201cAh could break her if she wuz mine. Ah\u2019d break her or kill her. Makin\u2019 uh fool outa me in front of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTony won\u2019t never hit her. He says beatin\u2019 women is just like steppin\u2019 on baby chickens. He claims \u2019tain\u2019t no place on uh woman tuh hit,\u201d Joe Lindsay said with scornful disapproval, \u201cbut Ah\u2019d kill uh baby just born dis mawnin\u2019 fuh uh thing lak dat. \u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but low-down spitefulness \u2019ginst her husband make her do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat\u2019s de God\u2019s truth,\u201d Jim Stone agreed. \u201cDat\u2019s de very reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janie did what she had never done before, that is, thrust herself into the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was \u2019bout y\u2019all turning out so smart after Him makin\u2019 yuh different; and how surprised y\u2019all is goin\u2019 tuh be if you ever find out you don\u2019t know half as much \u2019bout us as you think you do. It\u2019s so easy to make yo\u2019self out God Almighty when you ain\u2019t got nothin\u2019 tuh strain against but women and chickens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gettin\u2019 too moufy, Janie,\u201d Starks told her. \u201cGo fetch me de checker-board and<\/span> de checkers. Sam Watson, you\u2019se mah fish.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-76","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/76\/revisions\/135"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/76\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}