Could she believe her eyes? There was only one person to suspect, she told herself. And that person was Gussie. Nobody else had been in the kitchen since the cake was put on the table to cool.... To think he would do a mean, deceitful trick like that, after she was kind enough to let him come in out of the rain and sit by her stove to get dry.... And not a single piece left to offer her friends, after she just got through telling them about her good, rich duck-egg cake!... What would they think of her?
With a sudden resolve, she hurried over to Gussie and grabbed him by the shoulders with both hands.
“Wake up hyuh! You nasty, low-down rogue.... Befo’ I pound you ’bout de head wid a billet o’ wood!” She muttered with restrained passion, shaking him roughly. “W’at you mean, prowlin’ ’round my kitchen an’ puttin’ yo’ filt’y han’s on things w’at ain’ b’lonks to you?... Wake up an’ git out o’ hyuh, I tell you!”
Gussie opened his eyes and looked at her half dazed; wondering who she was, and what the rough treatment meant. His mind was not clear and he seemed uncertain of his whereabouts.
“Don’t you hyeah w’at I say?” Carmelite shouted, trying to pull him off the chair.
“Don’ play so rough,” Gussie pleaded, struggling to free himself. “I ain’ goin’ bother nobody, settin’ hyuh by de stove till I git dry.”
“You mus’ be a drunken fool!” Carmelite answered hotly. “After you done et up all my good cake,—thinkin’ I’m goin’ leave you stay hyuh comfatubble; an’ I gotta go younder befo’ all dem people in de room, wid a empty plate?... No’n deed, Lawd!” She vociferated, hearing the sound of footsteps approaching. “So you better come on an’ git off dis chair befo’ I make dem mens drag yo’ nasty body thoo dis house an’ th’ow you in de street unmerciful!... You hyeah?”
Soongy and Pinkey stood in the door looking on in blank amazement, wondering what the difficulty was, and asking how Gussie happened to come in without anybody seeing him.
Carmelite gave a dramatic recital of Gussie’s early arrival, his wretched condition, and her willingness to give him shelter on account of her pity for Aunt Fisky. She told how he promised to stay out of the room until after the raffle was over; how she came out to tell him that his number had won the quilt; how she went to cut the cake and made the startling discovery that Gussie had eaten all of it, leaving her nothing to offer her friends except “a pot full o’ black coffee an’ plain cistun water to drink widout nothin’ to eat.”
There was only one thing to do, Soongy declared emphatically. Carmelite was too foolish, wasting time multiplying words over ole no-count Gussie.... Nobody could do her a dirty trick like that and sit to his ease in front of her stove.... Who?... Talkin’ about it wouldn’t do no good.... “Hands was de inst’uments to start things movin’.” ... If one woman’s pair of hands couldn’t manage ole drunken Gussie, she bet three “wimmin’s six black hands wouldn’ miss takin’ charge of him to land him out-doors in de high road whah he could scuffle wid his cawnshunce aft’ he done come thoo.”