Rawley said, “I was asleep when you came last night. Lucky we had a place for you.” His voice was warm.
Ma said simply, “It’s nice. ’Specially them wash tubs.”
“You wait till the women get to washing. Pretty soon now. You never heard such a fuss. Like a meeting. Know what they did yesterday, Mrs. Joad? They had a chorus. Singing a hymn tune and rubbing the clothes all in time. That was something to hear, I tell you.”
The suspicion was going out of Ma’s face. “Must a been nice. You’re the boss?”
“No.” he said. “The people here worked me out of a job. They keep the camp clean, they keep order, they do everything. I never saw such people. They’re making clothes in the meeting hall. And they’re making toys. Never saw such people.”
Ma looked down at her dirty dress. “We ain’t clean yet,” she said. “You jus’ can’t keep clean a-travelin’.”
“Don’t I know it,” he said. He sniffed the air. “Say—is that your coffee smells so good?”
Ma smiled. “Does smell nice, don’t it? Outside it always smells nice.” And she said proudly, “We’d take it in honor ’f you’d have some breakfus’ with us.”
He came to the fire and squatted on his hams, and the last of Ma’s resistance went down. “We’d be proud to have ya,” she said. “We ain’t got much that’s nice, but you’re welcome.”
The little man grinned at her. “I had my breakfast. But I’d sure like a cup of that coffee. Smells so good.”