"Come on, Benjy," Luster said.
He went back down the steps and took Ben's arm.
He came obediently, wailing, that slow hoarse sound that ships make, that seems to begin before the sound itself has started, seems to cease before the sound itself has stopped.
"Run and git his cap," Dilsey said. "Dont make no noise Miss Cahline kin hear.
Hurry, now.
We already late."
"She gwine hear him anyhow, ef you dont stop him," Luster said.
"He stop when we git off de place," Dilsey said. "He smellin hit.
Dat's whut hit is."
"Smell whut, mammy?" Luster said.
"You go git dat cap," Dilsey said.
Luster went on.
They stood in the cellar door, Ben one step below her.
The sky was broken now into scudding patches that dragged their swift shadows up out of the shabby garden, over the broken fence and across the yard.
Dilsey stroked Ben's head, slowly and steadily, smoothing the bang upon his brow.
He wailed quietly, unhurriedly. "Hush," Dilsey said.
"Hush, now. We be gone in a minute.
Hush, now." He wailed quietly and steadily.
Luster returned, wearing a stiff new straw hat with a colored band and carrying a cloth cap.
The hat seemed to isolate Luster's skull, in the beholder's eye as a spotlight would, in all its individual planes and angles.
So peculiarly individual was its shape that at first glance the hat appeared to be on the head of someone standing immediately behind Luster.
Dilsey looked at the hat.
"Whyn't you wear yo old hat?" she said.
"Couldn't find hit," Luster said.
"I bet you couldn't.
I bet you fixed hit last night so you couldn't find hit.
You fixin to ruin dat un."
"Aw, mammy," Luster said. "Hit aint gwine rain."
"How you know?
You go git dat old hat en put dat new un away."
"Aw, mammy."
"Den you go git de umbreller."
"Aw, mammy."
"Take yo choice," Dilsey said. "Git yo old hat, er de umbreller.
I dont keer which."
Luster went to the cabin.
Ben wailed quietly.
"Come on," Dilsey said. "Dey kin ketch up wid us.
We "wine to hear de singin." They went around the house, toward the gate. "Hush," Dilsey said from time to time as they went down the drive.
They reached the gate.
Dilsey opened it.
Luster was coming down the drive behind them, carrying the umbrella.
A woman was with him. "Here dey come," Dilsey said.
They passed out the gate. "Now, den," she said. Ben ceased.
Luster and his mother overtook them.
Frony wore a dress of bright blue silk and a flowered hat. She was a thin woman, with a flat, pleasant face.
"You got six weeks' work right dar on yo back," Dilsey said. "Whut you gwine do ef hit rain?"
"Git wet, I reckon," Frony said. "I aint never stopped no rain yit."
"Mammy always talkin bout hit gwine rain," Luster said.
"Ef I dont worry bout y'all, I dont know who is," Dilsey said. "Come on, we already late."