With the slab of salt pork as a foundation, she visits various homes until she has collected all she wants for the day. At the Piersons, for instance: “Sister Pierson, plee-ee-ease gimme uh han’ful uh collard greens fuh me an’ mah po’ chillen! ’Deed, me an’ mah chillen is SO hongry. Tony doan’ fee-ee-eed me!”
Mrs. Pierson picks a bunch of greens for her, but she springs away from them as if they were poison. “Lawd a mussy, Mis’ Pierson, you ain’t gonna gimme dat lil’ eye-full uh greens fuh me an’ mah chillen, is you? Don’t be so graspin’; Gawd won’t bless yuh. Gimme uh han’full mo’. Lawd, some folks is got everything, an’ theys jes’ as gripin’ an stingy!”
Mrs. Pierson raises the ante, and the pleading woman moves on to the next place, and on and on. The next day, it commences all over.
II
Turpentine Love
Jim Merchant is always in good humor—even with his wife. He says he fell in love with her at first sight. That was some years ago. She has had all her teeth pulled out, but they still get along splendidly.
He says the first time he called on her he found out that she was subject to fits. This didn’t cool his love, however. She had several in his presence.
One Sunday, while he was there, she had one, and her mother tried to give her a dose of turpentine to stop it. Accidently, she spilled it in her eye and it cured her. She never had another fit, so they got married and have kept each other in good humor ever since.
III
Becky Moore has eleven children of assorted colors and sizes. She has never been married, but that is not her fault. She has never stopped any of the fathers of her children from proposing, so if she has no father for her children it’s not her fault. The men round about are entirely to blame.
The other mothers of the town are afraid that it is catching. They won’t let their children play with hers.