3

Alabama 3

"I's been married twice. The first one died with the flu. I's had 8
chillun, and they's all died 'cept 5." Now Luke closed up; he was looking
past a car that was parked; then he ran his eyes over the frame. I asked him
if he ever owned a car.

"No, I never did have no car. Back in good times I went to town to git
me one. I looked at a second-handed car, and the man I was farming fer tole
me he wouldn't buy no second-handed car, and he tole me to come back next week
and we'd buy a new one. I went home and I thought it all out. When I went to
town the next Satiday, I decided I didn't want no car. Them thangs won't run
without gas. And you has to be fixin' and fixin' on something nuther all the time."

I still stood by as he was silent, and he looked at me suspiciously. He
was still leery of his tongue.

"You wants to know 'bout my life. I can't tell you nothin' that would do
you no good. If that there sidewalk was life--he waved down the street toward
the postoffice with a calloused hand--"and I had to go through it, walk on
hit: I don't know just how I'd walk, if I loped, hopped, er crawled. If I
stopped and hung 'round an' made bad faces at people, er if I smiled at all
th' peoples. No, I can't tell you nothin' 'bout how to live. You couldn't
learn nothin' 'bout how to do hit, if I did tell you."

"Would you be religious as you walked down that street, turn the other

753

Alabama 3

"I's been married twice. The first one died with the flu. I's had 8
chillun, and they's all died 'cept 5." Now Luke closed up; he was looking
past a car that was parked; then he ran his eyes over the frame. I asked him
if he ever owned a car.

"No, I never did have no car. Back in good times I went to town to git
me one. I looked at a second-handed car, and the man I was farming fer tole
me he wouldn't buy no second-handed car, and he tole me to come back next week
and we'd buy a new one. I went home and I thought it all out. When I went to
town the next Satiday, I decided I didn't want no car. Them thangs won't run
without gas. And you has to be fixin' and fixin' on something nuther all the time."

I still stood by as he was silent, and he looked at me suspiciously. He
was still leery of his tongue.

"You wants to know 'bout my life. I can't tell you nothin' that would do
you no good. If that there sidewalk was life--he waved down the street toward
the postoffice with a calloused hand--"and I had to go through it, walk on
hit: I don't know just how I'd walk, if I loped, hopped, er crawled. If I
stopped and hung 'round an' made bad faces at people, er if I smiled at all
th' peoples. No, I can't tell you nothin' 'bout how to live. You couldn't
learn nothin' 'bout how to do hit, if I did tell you."

"Would you be religious as you walked down that street, turn the other

753