He said slowly,
“Yeah, I’m goin’ with you.
An’ when your folks start out on the road I’m goin’ with them.
An’ where folks are on the road, I’m gonna be with them.”
“You’re welcome,” said Joad. “Ma always favored you.
Said you was a preacher to trust.
Rosasharn wasn’t growed up then.” He turned his head. “Muley, you gonna walk on over with us?” Muley was looking toward the road over which they had come. “Think you’ll come along, Muley?” Joad repeated.
“Huh?
No.
I don’t go no place, an’ I don’t leave no place.
See that glow over there, jerkin’ up an’ down?
That’s prob’ly the super’ntendent of this stretch a cotton.
Somebody maybe seen our fire.”
Tom looked.
The glow of light was nearing over the hill.
“We ain’t doin’ no harm,” he said. “We’ll jus’ set here.
We ain’t doin’ nothin’.”
Muley cackled.
“Yeah!
We’re doin’ somepin jus’ bein’ here.
We’re trespassin’.
We can’t stay.
They been tryin’ to catch me for two months.
Now you look. If that’s a car comin’ we go out in the cotton an’ lay down.
Don’t have to go far.
Then by God let ’em try to fin’ us!
Have to look up an’ down ever’ row.
Jus’ keep your head down.”
Joad demanded, “What’s come over you, Muley? You wasn’t never no run-an’-hide fella.
You was mean.”
Muley watched the approaching lights.
“Yeah!” he said. “I was mean like a wolf.
Now I’m mean like a weasel.
When you’re huntin’ somepin you’re a hunter, an’ you’re strong.
Can’t nobody beat a hunter.
But when you get hunted—that’s different.
Somepin happens to you.
You ain’t strong; maybe you’re fierce, but you ain’t strong.
I been hunted now for a long time.
I ain’t a hunter no more.
I’d maybe shoot a fella in the dark, but I don’t maul nobody with a fence stake no more.
It don’t do no good to fool you or me.
That’s how it is.”
“Well, you go out an’ hide,” said Joad. “Leave me an’ Casy tell these bastards a few things.”
The beam of light was closer now, and it bounced into the sky and then disappeared, and then bounced up again.
All three men watched.
Muley said,
“There’s one more thing about bein’ hunted. You get to thinkin’ about all the dangerous things.
If you’re huntin’ you don’t think about ’em, an’ you ain’t scared.
Like you says to me, if you get in any trouble they’ll sen’ you back to McAlester to finish your time.”