482
PARTISAN REVIEW
"You mean," Mary Fortune said after a minute, "the lawn?"
"Yes mam!" he said. "I mean the lawn," and he slapped his
knee.
She did not say anything and he turned and looked up at her.
There in the little rectangular opening of hair was his face looking
back at him, but
it
was a reflection not of his present expression
but of the darker one that indicated his displeasure. "That's where
we play," she muttered.
"Well there's plenty of other places you can play," he said,
irked by this lack of enthusiasm.
"We won't be able to see the woods across the road," she said.
The old man stared at her. "The woods across the road?" he
repeated.
"We won't be able to see the view," she said.
"The view?" he repeated.
"The woods," she said; "we won't be able to see the woods from
the porch."
"The woods
fro~
the porch?" he repeated.
Then she said, "My daddy grazes his calves on that lot."
The old man's wrath was delayed an instant by shock. Then
it exploded in a roar. He jumped up and turned and slammed his
fist on the hood of the car. "He can graze them somewheres else!"
"You fall off that embankment and you'll wish you hadn't,"
she said.
He moved from in front of the car around to the side, keeping
his eye on her all the time. "Do you think I care where he grazes
his calves! Do you think I'll let a calf interfere with my bidnis?
Do you think I give a damn hoot where that fool grazes his calves?"
She sat, her red face darker than her hair, exactly reflecting
his expression now. "He who calls his brother a fool is subject to
hell fire," she said.
"Jedge not," he shouted, "lest ye be not jedged!" The tinge
of his face was a shade more purple than hers. "You!" he said.
"You let him beat you any time he wants to and don't do a thing
but blubber a little and jump up and down!"
"He nor nobody else has ever touched me," she said, measuring
off each word in a deadly flat tone. "Nobody's ever put a hand on
me and if anybody did, I'd kill him."
