Free Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston Page A

take off. You ain’t nothin’ but uh big ole pan of fell bread. Now dat’s de word wid de bark on it.”
    John stepped back a few paces, balanced his rock, hurled it against the stump with all his might and started across the field to the creek.
    The involuntary beauty of sunset found him once again upon the plantation of his birth exulting among the herd, and finding Pheemy’s cabin good to be in.

CHAPTER 5
    H ello, John.”
    â€œHello, Bully.”
    â€œWhut you doin’ back over here?”
    â€œCome tuh git me uh job uh work again. Whuss de news?”
    â€œOh de white folks is still in de lead. Seen Mist’ Alf yit?”
    â€œNaw, goin’ up tuh de big house now.”
    â€œSoon’s yuh git back tuh de quarters Ah got uh bug tuh put in yo’ ear.”
    â€œAwright, be back tuhreckly.”
    There were more used suits in Alf Pearson’s clothes closet and John received them.
    â€œMy son, Mister Alfred’s, clothes don’t fit you now as well as they did last year, John. Too tight. Reckon I’ll have to give you mine from now on. By the way, John, I’ve lost two hogs since you’ve been gone. Get back on your same job. Can you read and write fairly well now, John?”
    â€œYes suh.”
    â€œThat’s fine. I want you to take this note book and keep up with the groceries and fertilizer and feed that the folks in the quarters draw. It’s hard for me to do it with running the bank and watching slick politicians. I had thought my son would have been home by now to help me, but it seems to take quite a long time to finish studying in Paris.”
    â€œYes suh.”
    â€œYou just take everybody’s name on a separate page and put down everything they get the moment you hand it to ’em.”
    â€œYes suh.”
    â€œAnd John, if you’ve been fooling around Duke’s wife, leave her alone. He’s been up here to me about it. Don’t start no fight about it. There’s plenty single girls around here.”
    â€œAh ain’t studyin’ ’bout his Exie, Mist’ Alf. He better talk tuh her. She de one come pullin’ on me.”
    Alf Pearson laughed heartily and gave John a playful shove.
    â€œGet along you rascal you! You’re a walking orgasm. A living exultation.”
    â€œWhut’s dat, Mist’ Alf?”
    â€œOh never mind about that. Keep up with the pigs.”
    That night M’haley and Big ’Oman and Bootsie got up a game of “Hide and Seek” but John counted and let the other boys hide. The game ended fairly early. John had been around behind the house to look at his writing and the chimney and found it all defaced, so he didn’t want to play. When the game was over he called Bully aside.
    â€œBully, Ah wrote some writin’ on de back uh An’ Pheemy’s chimbley.”
    â€œYeah, Ah know you did. Fack is, ev’rybody know yuh did, and dat’s de very crow Ah wants tuh pick wid yuh.”
    â€œIs you heard who took and scratched it, and put smut out de chimbley all over it and mommucked it all up?”
    â€œYou ain’t mad, is yuh?”
    â€œYeah, Ahm mad. Ahm jes’ ez hot ez Tucker when de mule kicked his mammy, and any man dat tell me tuh mah face dat he done it he got tuh smell mah fist. You know who done it, Bully?”
    â€œDon’t yuh say Ah tole yuh and when you go tuh git atter her, don’t you call my name, but M’haley took and done dat when she heered you wuz singin’ in de choir. Some of ’em say you jes’ done it so you could git a chance tuh see Lucy Potts.”
    â€œWhut M’haley got tuh do wid dat? Ah feel lak Ah could take and lam her wid lightnin’.”
    â€œWhy doncher do it, John? If ’twas me felt bad lak you do, Ah’d beat her jes’ ez long ez she last. Anyhow she takin’ de under currents on you.”
    â€œNaw, Ah don’t choose beatin’