38
PARTISAN REVIEW
"You're below my attention," the Irishman said, "but twenty years
ago I would've pissed down your crooked nose."
"I'll spill your guts," the youth said without malice.
"Twenty years I would've pissed town your crooked nose."
"Twenty years ago you pissed in your bed."
A dark, sad laborer was scraping mud off his rubber boots. He had
a stubble of a few weeks' growth and he blew hairs of moustache from
the corner of his mouth. Large chunks of clay fell off the boots and he
picked at them with bare toes. At the sound of running water he 'peeled
off a few vests and sweaters. He was hairy all over with graying blade
patches. His eyes were dull brown. He cut a finger and carmine ran
over his thumb. He tore a piece of lining from one of the vests and tried
to stanch the flow. The blood soaked through and he watched the spot
growing larger.
No one touched the wall between me and the laborer but a small
,piece of brick crumbled to the Hoar.
"That's decay," I said.
"Got makings?" said the man at my left.
I took out a pouch and placed it in his lap. When he saw how full
it was he quickly threw his cap on it.
"They'll bum it off you in three shakes of a lamb's tail. I got
paper."
He had a little, black New Testament of India paper, already half
used, and he rolled a butt with one of the sheets. Then he passed it to
me and I read the title page. The other print was too small to read in
the gloom. I lit my pipe.
"I had a pipe like that in Chattanooga. I was knocking down a
pretty penny in that town," the man at my left said. His Adam's apple
WIlS
manoeuvering actively and I thought he would reminisce.
"What line of work?" I asked.
"Hosiery line. Used to be a maintenance epgineer in a factory and
the boss man fired me. Never did' fin,d out why. Did that ever happen
to you?"
"I don't get fired. I quit. All except this last job I had. The guy
called me into the office and said it was me or another fellow with a wife
and two kids. Maybe it was two wives and one kid."
"I wasn't fired myself, come to think of it," the man said.
He
laughed with a gurgling sound and spat shreds of tobacco. "Ha, I got
canned." He nodded solemnly to the trusty who was walking among
the benches telling us the showers were ready.
