An’ Rosasharn oughta get milk.
Think Ma’s gonna wanta starve that baby jus’ ’cause a bunch a fellas is yellin’ outside a gate?”
Casy said sadly,
“I wisht they could see it.
I wisht they could see the on’y way they can depen’ on their meat—Oh, the hell!
Get tar’d sometimes.
God-awful tar’d.
I knowed a fella.
Brang ’im in while I was in the jail house. Been tryin’ to start a union.
Got one started.
An’ then them vigilantes bust it up.
An’ know what?
Them very folks he been tryin’ to help tossed him out. Wouldn’ have nothin’ to do with ’im.
Scared they’d get saw in his comp’ny.
Says, ‘Git out.
You’re a danger on us.’
Well, sir, it hurt his feelin’s purty bad.
But then he says, ‘It ain’t so bad if you know.’ He says, ‘French Revolution—all them fellas that figgered her out got their heads chopped off.
Always that way,’ he says. ‘Jus’ as natural as rain. You didn’ do it for fun no way.
Doin’ it ’cause you have to. ’Cause it’s you.
Look a Washington,’ he says.
‘Fit the Revolution, an’ after, them sons-a-bitches turned on him.
An’ Lincoln the same. Same folks yellin’ to kill ’em. Natural as rain.”’
“Don’t soun’ like no fun,” said Tom.
“No, it don’t.
This fella in jail, he says,
‘Anyways, you do what you can.
An’,’ he says, ‘the on’y thing you got to look at is that ever’ time they’s a little step fo’ward, she may slip back a little, but she never slips clear back.
You can prove that,’ he says, ‘an’ that makes the whole thing right.
An’ that means they wasn’t no waste even if it seemed like they was.”’
“Talkin’,” said Tom. “Always talkin’.
Take my brother Al.
He’s out lookin’ for a girl.
He don’t care ’bout nothin’ else.
Couple days he’ll get him a girl.
Think about it all day an’ do it all night.
He don’t give a damn ’bout steps up or down or sideways.”
“Sure,” said Casy. “Sure.
He’s jus’ doin’ what he’s got to do.
All of us like that.”
The man seated outside pulled the tent flap wide.
“Goddamn it, I don’ like it,” he said.
Casy looked out at him.
“What’s the matter?”
“I don’ know.
I jus’ itch all over.
Nervous as a cat.”
“Well, what’s the matter?”
“I don’ know.
Seems like I hear somepin, an’ then I listen an’ they ain’t nothin’ to hear.”