"Ah'll tell you," said Will boastingly. "Goin' to de Union Depot, to see what we kin pick up."
"Mother, will you let yo' boys rob cars?"
"Shut up, won't you?" Ed injected savagely.
Stella looked helpless. "You boys'll be careful, won't you? Yo' pappy got caught.... Babe's too little."
"You know that that 'Banjo' Strickland is a regular criminal, ma—even his brother Tom says so."
Stella closed her mouth. "Dey kin look after dey-selves, Ah reckon. Dey's growed up."
To belong to a family of day-laborers and common thieves! In passionate rebellion she told herself that it was more than she could bear.
For several days she studied the poison labels in the Judson medicine chest. If she only knew which would be painless....
She picked her dark way, a few nights later, over the rough planking across the nearest ramp—the excavating had begun, which meant better pay for the boys, and a mountain full of white and negro workers. The chill breathing of the Autumn wind drove her limp calico skirts swirling around her body. As she entered the darker tree-shadows beyond, she stopped suddenly, a chiller fear shaking her. A dark figure stood squarely in front, a figure that made no motion of stepping out of her way.
"Where you goin', nigger?"