Page:The New Negro.pdf/208

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176
THE NEW NEGRO


JANE

Ah told you once Ah didn't have no hard feelin's against you.

CARTER

Maybe you ain't, but your boy, Alec, acts like he is. He never speaks to me on the road, and when he looks at me seems like he hates me.

JANE

You can't expect Alec to go around smilin' at you after what's happened.

CARTER

He might act a little more friendly.

JANE

Maybe he might and maybe he mightn't. There's a lots o' things about us you don't know, Ben Carter, and never dreamed of. Ah'm goin' to tell you one of 'em now.

[She goes just outside the door which leads to the stairway and brings back a gun.]

See this gun?

CARTER

Yes.

JANE

This gun's been loaded for seven years, ever since Joe was killed. Alec was fourteen then, and he wanted to go out and shoot you.

CARTER

Shoot me for somethin' I couldn't help?

JANE

He didn't see it the way you see it. He thought you could 'a' helped it.