“You’re a negro, ain’t you, Little Bit?” he asked, speaking in a softly apologetic tone, as if fearing to cause offense4.
“Suttin!” Little Bit laughed. “I’s a black Affikin nigger. Anybody dat looks how dark complected I is kin1 see dat.”
“I never saw many colored persons in my life,” Org explained.
“You ain’t had no eyes ef you ain’t seed no niggers,” Little Bit chuckled5. “Niggers is eve’ywhar. Gawd made ’em in de night, made ’em in a hurry an’ fergot to make ’em white. Dar’s niggers in heaven, an’ dars even plenty niggers in hell.”
At the Shin Bone eating-house, Mustard helped Popsy Spout6 down from the wagon and the two boys jumped to the ground. Popsy entered the restaurant, walked feebly over to a table and seated himself with a thankful sigh. He took out his pipe and placed it upon the table at his elbow, then spread a red bandana handkerchief over his head to keep the flies from disturbing him. Then he sank into a restful state of dreamy inanity7, his mind just as near empty as it is possible for anything to be, considering the fact that nature abhors8 a vacuum.
In one corner of the room, the proprietor9, Shin Bone, was engaged in some interesting experiments with loaded dice10. He seemed never weary of his task as he rolled the cubes across the table, retrieved11 them again, and repeated. He tried to familiarize himself with their vagaries12, to study their oddities and eccentricities13, and in his imagination he planned many victories and great winnings through the aid of these pet bones.
The process was absorbing to him. His eyes popped out, the whites showing in a wide ring. His breathing was quick and husky as he shook the dice, and he muttered prayers and imprecations and incantations. Sometimes he threw the dice with one hand, sometimes with the other; he used certain luck charms, changing them from one pocket to the other, practising and experimenting with every sort of “conjure,” for he expected those little white cubes with the black spots to bring him the money with which to make a loud noise in Tickfall colored society.
Popsy roused himself from his dreamy vacuity14 and felt in his pocket for his tobacco-pouch. He would take a little smoke before dinner. He found the tobacco-pouch, also something else.
He brought forth15 a green-plush box and looked at it curiously16. He opened it with hands which shook from senile palsy and examined its contents. It was a rabbit-foot surmounted17 with a silver cap on one end. He wondered where he had acquired the thing.
“Come here, Shinny!” he called. “Look whut I done found on myse’f.”
“Whar did you git dis rabbit-foot?” he inquired suspiciously.
“I dunno, Shinny,” the old man replied in a complaining voice. “Whut is it fur?”
“Lots of folks has rabbit-foots,” Shin said. “I don’t b’lieve in ’em. I got four, an’ dey don’t fotch me no luck. Whar did you git dis’n?”
“I dunno.”
“Whar you been at to-day?” Shin asked.
“Well, suh, early dis mawnin’ I went to de Shoofly chu’ch an’ conversed19 de Revun Vinegar Atts a little; atter dat, I went out to de Nigger-Heel wid Mustard Prophet—ah—dat’s whar I got dis here foot. Mustard gib it to me. He esplained a whole lot about it an’ tole me dat Marse Tom gib it to him, an’ he passed it on.”
“Whut yo gwine do wid it?” Shin asked.
“’Tain’t no good to me,” Popsy whined20, working at his tobacco-pouch and shaking some tobacco in his hand. “De only luck-charm I b’lieves in is de chu’ch. Ef de good Lawd is on yo’ side, who kin be agin you?”
Shin Bone knew better than to get Popsy started in a discussion of religion. His conversation on that theme was interminable. Besides, the plush box lying on the table between them had awakened21 several interesting trains of thought:
First, he knew Popsy had a trick of putting things into his pocket and walking off with them, forgetting where he acquired them, and even failing to remember what they were for. Second, he remembered that Mustard Prophet had often attributed much of his good fortune to the possession of a rabbit-foot. Thirdly, he knew that Colonel Gaitskill also had a rabbit-foot, for he had often heard him refer to it in his hearing and in the presence of the other negroes.
Now, did Popsy inadvertently take possession of Gaitskill’s rabbit-foot? Or did he absent-mindedly walk off with Mustard’s foot? Or did Mustard give his famous luck-charm away? Shin doubted this last supposition. If a luck-charm is good, it is very, very good. Or did Mustard steal Gaitskill’s rabbit-foot and Popsy take it from Mustard?
Popsy lighted his pipe and began to smoke. Shin Bone decided22 that he could make nothing of the mystery. A rabbit-foot was no good to him. He had tried them before. But loaded dice, now—he pulled the “bones” from his pocket and renewed his former operations.
In the kitchen a bell rang. A number of patrons who had been lingering outside came through the door and seated themselves at the table. Shin Bone arose to bring in the dinner. Popsy knocked the ashes from his pipe and got ready to eat.
As for Org and Little Bit, they did not get back to the Gaitskill home until the sun had sunk below the line of the tree-tops. And not until Orren Randolph Gaitskill beheld23 his sister sitting upon the porch did he think of the errand on which she had sent him ten hours before.
His small hand investigated his trouser-pocket, to see if he was still in possession of the fifty-cent piece. He might have lost it when he tossed aside his garments on the banks of the Cooley bayou.
“Org!” Virginia called sharply. “Where are those stamps?”
Org’s nervous fingers caressed24 the half-dollar in his pocket. His mind reached out like the tentacles25 of an octopus26, grasping after an excuse.
“Where are my stamps?” she repeated.
“Er—ah—I went down-town,” Org began. “I went down-town—and—er—ah—Miss Paunee, that mustang woman in the post-office—she told me—she said——”
“Well?” Virginia’s tone was icy.
“Miss Paunee—she told me—ah—she said she didn’t have no two-cent stamps; she had sold out.”
If the glance of a sister’s eye could kill, most brothers would now be dead. Org survived the look she gave him, and sheepishly offered her the fifty-cent piece.
“You don’t need no stamps, Gince,” Org said soothingly27. “Them guys you left behind ain’t worth writing letters to.”
“Please keep your opinions to yourself,” his sister advised. “Where have you spent the day?”
“I have been to the Nigger-Heel plantation28 with Little Bit. Little Bit is a colored person and a very good friend. A colored man named Mustard took me out in a wagon and brought me back,” Org informed her. Then eagerly: “Say, Gince, do you know that a negro is black all over his body, even under his clothes?”
“Where did you meet these blacks?” Virginia asked, avoiding Org’s question as to the color-line.
“I met Little Bit at the foot of the hill. He told me he was the captain’s white negro. I met Mustard Prophet in front of the Hen-Scratch saloon in Dirty-Six. We picked up Popsy Spout at Shin Bone’s hot-cat stand in Hell’s Half-Acre!”
“No doubt,” she said weakly.
“If you want to save stamps, Gince,” Org suggested eagerly, “you better write to Little Bit’s captain and let me carry the notes for you. I saw the captain when we were coming home. He’s got a’ automobile30 as big as a street-car. He was in the army and a German shot him——”
A slight flush appeared on Miss Virginia’s cheek. It spread slowly, like the unfurling of some flag—the star-spangled banner for instance.
“I don’t care to hear the personal history of the acquaintances you have made to-day,” Miss Virginia interrupted.
“His name is Captain Kerley Kerlerac, Gince,” Org persisted. “Little Bit told me. Little Bit, my colored friend, is the captain’s pet coon.”
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收听单词发音
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1
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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2
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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4
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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5
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
spout
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| v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱 | |
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7
inanity
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| n.无意义，无聊 | |
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8
abhors
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| v.憎恶( abhor的第三人称单数 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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10
dice
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| n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险 | |
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11
retrieved
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| v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息） | |
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12
vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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13
eccentricities
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| n.古怪行为( eccentricity的名词复数 )；反常；怪癖 | |
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14
vacuity
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| n.(想象力等)贫乏，无聊，空白 | |
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15
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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16
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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17
surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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18
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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19
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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20
whined
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| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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21
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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22
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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23
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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24
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
tentacles
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| n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛 | |
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26
octopus
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| n.章鱼 | |
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27
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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28
plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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29
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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