Wash Jones had moved many of the benches out of the building and had placed them under trees and in the groves3. He had made sawdust trails from the tabernacle to the edge of the lake, to the Shin Bone eating-house, and to all other places where a little money could be coaxed4 from the pocket of the pleasure-seeker.
He had made a dancing-floor in a part of the tabernacle, arranging seats around it for the sightseers. He had erected5 refreshment-booths in other portions of the building, and also a band-stand, where the sweating, hard-worked black Tickfall brass6 band was having the most hilarious7 time of their lives.
Negroes had come in from the plantations8 for miles around. Horses were tied to all the trees, wagons9 and buggies were sheltered in the woods, and a great mob of folks moved up and down the sawdust avenues or tramped the woods, shouting, laughing, cutting monkey-shines, and eating popcorn10 balls, hot dogs, and sandwiches made of fried catfish11.
It was a noisy, boisterous12, rollicking place which Skeeter entered.
Ordinarily Skeeter would have been the center of the whole thing. But this affair had slipped up on him and had suddenly developed business complications and his mind was too occupied with his troubles to enjoy the fun going on around him.
Soon after entering the grounds he found Pap Curtain. Pap was entertaining himself by paying five cents for three baseballs. He would then try to throw each ball so it would stay in a bucket about twenty feet away. Whenever he placed one to stay, the proprietor14 of the amusement feature would give Pap a cigar. The cigars sold three for a nickel in Tickfall and as Pap never succeeded in placing more than two balls in the bucket, the proprietor of the place always made a fair profit in the transaction. Pap had his pocket stuffed full of cheap cigars and promptly15 offered a handful to Skeeter.
“I don’t smoke garbage,” Skeeter said impatiently, waving aside the offer.
“I figger I done acquired enough of dese cabbage-leaves. Less move on an’ git some fun somewhere else.”
A short distance down the sawdust trail they ran into something new. The diminutive16 darky named Little Bit was standing17 on a frail18 platform erected over a hogshead full of water. There was a trigger shaped like a skiff-paddle about fifty feet away, and men were throwing baseballs at this paddle. If someone hit the trigger, the platform, on which Little Bit was standing, fell and ducked the diminutive darky in the hogshead of water. Little Bit was well known in Tickfall and this particular attraction was a riot. Sometimes thirty baseballs would be flying toward that paddle-shaped trigger at one time, and the hapless Little Bit spent more time in the hogshead of water than he did on the platform.
“Lawd, Skeeter!” Pap exclaimed when he had laughed himself nearly to exhaustion19. “I’d druther be de owner of dis Coon Island dan de’ pres’dunt of de Europe war. I feels like I’s jes’ nachelly cut out fer a job like dis. I been huntin’ fer somepin I been fitten fer all my life an’ dis am it.”
“I wish you had dis job, Pap,” Skeeter replied. “I stopped by to ax you a question.”
“I’ll answer yes or no, like de gram jury always tells me to do,” Pap grinned.
“Word is done been sont to me dat you is fixin’ to start a saloon. Is dat so?”
“Yep.”
“Whar you gwine git de money at?”
“A fat widder woman’s husbunt is kicked de bucket an’ lef’ her a wad of dough20,” Pap chuckled21. “I’s gwine marrify de widder, mix dat dough wid my brains an’ start me a place of bizzness.”
“I thought you wus done through wid marrin’ womens,” Skeeter wailed22. “You done been kotched fo’ times already.”
“Yas, suh, but in all dem fo’ times I never married no widder. My edgycation is been neglected. Dey wus all young an’ foolish gals23. Dis here is a sottled woman—so dang fat dat when she sottles down it takes a block an’ tackle to h’ist her agin.”
“Fer five hundred dollars!” Pap said.
Skeeter turned away with a troubled face. Pap looked after him a moment, then purchased three more baseballs to throw at the trigger-paddle.
At the far end of the grounds, Skeeter found Wash Jones.
“Wash,” he said after a little conversation, “I understands dat you is got a prize widder in dis show.”
The big black eyed Skeeter for a moment with suspicion. He took the time to help himself to a big chew of tobacco before he answered, watching Skeeter covertly25 all the time. At last he said:
“I ain’t heerd tell about dat. But I ain’t supprized none. I got all de attrackshuns on dis Coon Island whut is.”
“Dey tells me dis widder is got a dead husbunt an’ five hundred dollars,” Skeeter continued.
Wash dropped his plug of tobacco and stooped to pick it up. That Skeeter had this information was not a surprise to him; it was a shock.
“Who mought dat widder be?” Wash asked.
“Sister Solly Skaggs,” Skeeter informed him.
“I knows her,” Wash groaned26. “Fat—O Lawd! Ef dat gal wuster drap dead, dey’d hab to git a mud-scow outen de river fer a coffin27, an’ de only hole in de groun’ big enough to put her in is Marse Tom’s sand pit. Dat five hundred dollars don’t int’rust my mind, naw, suh, not at all, not at all!”
“Don’t waste no time thinkin’ about it,” Skeeter sighed. “Pap Curtain is done spoke28 fer it—de fat’s in de fire.”
“Which?” Wash Jones exclaimed in a tone that popped like a gun. “Pap Curtain?”
“Pap done pulled de curtain down on de widder,” Skeeter assured him. “Nobody else needn’t look at her charms.”
Wash Jones turned around three times, as if looking for some place to go and practically undecided about what direction to choose.
Skeeter wandered on disconsolately29 and finally found himself beside the old tabernacle. An aged30 man approached him. Skeeter looked for a place to escape, but found no avenue of exit and stood his ground. The venerable man was Popsy Spout31.
“I don’t ketch on ’bout dis, Skeeter,” he said in the high, shrill32 complaining voice of senility. “Dis here ain’t de place whut I thought it wus. ’Tain’t de same place whut it uster be befo’ an’ endurin’ of de war. When do de religium exoncises begin?”
“I dunno,” Skeeter answered. “Ax Wash Jones.”
“I axed him. Wash said ef de people wanted religium doin’s dey could start ’em deyselfs,” Popsy whined33. “Wash said he wus jes’ de servunt of de people fer so much money per each people.”
“Dat’s right,” Skeeter laughed.
“I thought dey wus gwine hab preachin’ in dat ole tabernacle to-night,” Pap complained. “Instid of dat, dey’s gwine had a dance fer a prize! Yas, suh—whut do Gawd think of dat? A dance fer a prize?”
“I hopes dat Pap Curtain slips up an’ breaks bofe behime legs,” Skeeter remarked bitterly.
“’Tain’t no use hopin’,” the old man chuckled. “Pap is like me—spry on his legs fer a ole man. But Pap an’ me don’t favor dancin’. We been talkin’ it over. I deespise a nigger dat dances. Ef any of my kin13-folks cuts a shuffle34 on dat flo’ dis night, dey ain’t no kinnery of mine no more.”
“I ’speck I better go gib Figger a warnin’ right now,” Skeeter exclaimed eagerly, glad to find a reason for departure.
“Dat’s right!” Popsy exclaimed, in his high, cracked falsetto. “You warn him good!”
Skeeter wandered down to the shore of the little lake and sat down alone to think out some method of defeating Pap’s designs. After an hour Figger Bush found him by the glow of his cigarette, and came and sat beside him.
“Who’ll take her?” Figger inquired.
“It’ll hab to be somebody dat ain’t married already,” Skeeter said.
“You’s de only onmarried man I knows, excusin’ Pap,” Figger giggled36. “I guess you’ll hab to make de riffle.”
Skeeter considered this a moment in silence. Then he asked:
“Is she so awful fat as people says she is?”
“Ain’t you never seed her?” Figger exclaimed. “Honey, de half ain’t never yit been told! She’s been reg’lar to her meals ever since she wus borned, an’ her meals is been frequent an’ copious37, an’ her vittles is agreed wid her too well! Come on, Skeeter, lemme interjuice you to yo’ future wife!”
Figger rose to his feet with eagerness. Skeeter shook his head and sighed.
“I wouldn’t choose any, Figger. I’d druther Pap Curtain would rival me out of bizzness.”
“Mebbe we could wish her onto somebody else,” Figger proposed.
“I been tryin’ to think up some onmarried man,” Skeeter told him, “but I don’t see none in sight.”
They smoked for an hour longer without producing a spark of an idea. At last Skeeter said:
“All I kin do jes’ now, Figger, is to keep Pap away from dat gal ontil I finds a fitten secont husbunt fer her. Dar’s gwine be a prize-dance to-night an’ I nominates you to dance wid Sister Solly Skaggs.”
“Ef she trods on me I’ll be a squashed worm of de dust,” Figger wailed.
“Don’t talk back,” Skeeter replied sharply. “I’ll fix it so you an’ Sister Solly win de prize.”
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1
butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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3
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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4
coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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5
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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7
hilarious
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| adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed | |
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8
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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9
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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10
popcorn
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| n.爆米花 | |
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catfish
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| n.鲶鱼 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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13
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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14
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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15
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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16
diminutive
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| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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17
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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18
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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19
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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20
dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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21
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
gals
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| abbr.gallons （复数）加仑（液量单位）n.女孩，少女( gal的名词复数 ) | |
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24
gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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covertly
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| adv.偷偷摸摸地 | |
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26
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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27
coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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28
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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29
disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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30
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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31
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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32
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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33
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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34
shuffle
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| n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走 | |
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35
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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36
giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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