“Sure.
Anybody own this place, that we got to see ’fore we can camp?”
The bearded man squinted one eye nearly closed and studied Pa.
“You wanta camp here?”
Pa’s irritation arose.
The gray woman peered out of the burlap shack.
“What you think I’m a-sayin’?”
Pa said. “Well, if you wanta camp here, why don’t ya?
I ain’t a-stoppin’ you.”
Tom laughed.
“He got it.”
Pa gathered his temper.
“I jus’ wanted to know does anybody own it?
Do we got to pay?”
The bearded man thrust out his jaw.
“Who owns it?” he demanded.
Pa turned away.
“The hell with it,” he said.
The woman’s head popped back in the tent.
The bearded man stepped forward menacingly.
“Who owns it?” he demanded. “Who’s gonna kick us outa here?
You tell me.”
Tom stepped in front of Pa.
“You better go take a good long sleep,” he said.
The bearded man dropped his mouth open and put a dirty finger against his lower gums.
For a moment he continued to look wisely, speculatively at Tom, and then he turned on his heel and popped into the shack after the gray woman.
Tom turned on Pa.
“What the hell was that?” he asked.
Pa shrugged his shoulders.
He was looking across the camp.
In front of a tent stood an old Buick, and the head was off.
A young man was grinding the valves, and as he twisted back and forth, back and forth, on the tool, he looked up at the Joad truck.
They could see that he was laughing to himself.
When the bearded man had gone, the young man left his work and sauntered over.
“H’are ya?” he said, and his blue eyes were shiny with amusement. “I seen you just met the Mayor.”
“What the hell’s the matter with ’im?” Tom demanded.
The young man chuckled.
“He’s jus’ nuts like you an’ me.
Maybe he’s a little nutser’n me, I don’ know.”
Pa said,
“I jus’ ast him if we could camp here.”
The young man wiped his greasy hands on his trousers.
“Sure. Why not?
You folks jus’ come acrost?”
“Yeah,” said Tom. “Jus’ got in this mornin’.”
“Never been in Hooverville before?”
“Where’s Hooverville?”
“This here’s her.”
“Oh!” said Tom. “We jus’ got in.”
Winfield and Ruthie came back, carrying a bucket of water between them.