1.5
Frony and T.P. were playing in the dirt by the door. T.P. had lightning bugs in a bottle.
"How did you all get back out." Frony said.
"We've got company." Caddy said. "Father said for us to mind me tonight. I expect you and T.P. will have to mind me too."
"I'm not going to mind you." Jason said. "Frony and T.P. dont have to either.""They will if I say so." Caddy said. "Maybe I wont say for them to."
"T.P. dont mind nobody." Frony said. "Is they started the funeral yet."
"What's a funeral." Jason said.
"Didn't mammy tell you not to tell them." Versh said.
"Where they moans." Frony said. "They moaned two days on Sis Beulah Clay."
18.1
They moaned at Dilsey's house. Dilsey was moaning. When Dilsey moaned Luster said, Hush, and we hushed, and then I began to cry and Blue howled under the kitchen steps. Then Dilsey stopped and we stopped.
1.6
"Oh." Caddy said. "That's niggers. White folks dont have funerals."
"Mammy said us not to tell them, Frony." Versh said.
"Tell them what." Caddy said.
18.2
Dilsey moaned, and when it got to the place I began to cry and Blue howled under the steps. Luster, Frony said in the window. Take them down to the barn. I cant get no cooking done with all that racket. That hound too. Get them outen here.
I aint going down there, Luster said. I might meet pappy down there. I seen him last night, waving his arms in the barn.
1.7
"I like to know why not." Frony said. "White folks dies too. Your grandmammy dead as any nigger can get, I reckon."
"Dogs are dead." Caddy said. "And when Nancy fell in the ditch and Roskus shot her and the buzzards came and undressed her."
15.3
The bones rounded out of the ditch, where the dark vines were in the black ditch, into the moonlight, like some of the shapes had stopped. Then they all stopped and it was dark, and when I stopped to start again I could hear Mother, and feet walking fast away, and I could smell it. Then the room came, but my eyes went shut. I didn't stop. I could smell it. T.P. unpinned the bed clothes.
"Hush." he said. "Shhhhhhhh."
But I could smell it. T.P. pulled me up and he put on my clothes fast.
"Hush, Benjy." he said. "We going down to our house. You want to go down to our house, where Frony is. Hush. Shhhhh."
He laced my shoes and put my cap on and we went out. There was a light in the hall. Across the hall we could hear Mother.
"Shhhhhh, Benjy." T.P. said. "We'll be out in a minute." A door opened and I could smell it more than ever, and a head came out. It wasn't Father. Father was sick there.
"Can you take him out of the house."
"That's where we going." T.P. said. Dilsey came up the stairs.
"Hush." she said. "Hush. Take him down home, T.P. Frony fixing him a bed. You all look after him, now. Hush, Benjy. Go on with T.P."
She went where we could hear Mother.
"Better keep him there." It wasn't Father. He shut the door, but I could still smell it.
We went down stairs. The stairs went down into the dark and T.P. took my hand, and we went out the door, out of the dark. Dan was sitting in the back yard, howling.
"He smell it." T.P. said. "Is that the way you found it out."
We went down the steps, where our shadows were.
"I forgot your coat." T.P. said. "You ought to had it. But I aint going back."
Dan howled.
"Hush now." T.P. said. Our shadows moved, but Dan's shadow didn't move except to howl when he did.
"I cant take you down home, bellering like you is." T.P. said. "You was bad enough before you got that bullfrog voice. Come on."
We went along the brick walk, with our shadows. The pig pen smelled like pigs. The cow stood in the lot, chewing at us. Dan howled.
"You going to wake the whole town up." T.P. said. "Cant you hush." We saw Fancy, eating by the branch. The moon shone on the water when we got there.
"Naw, sir." T.P. said. "This too close. We cant stop here. Come on. Now, just look at you. Got your whole leg wet. Come on, here." Dan howled.
The ditch came up out of the buzzing grass. The bones rounded out of the black vines.
"Now." T.P. said. "BelIer your head off if you want to. You got the whole night and a twenty acre pasture to belIer in."
T.P. lay down in the ditch and I sat down, watching the bones where the buzzards ate Nancy, flapping hlack and slow and heavy out of the ditch.
19.9
I had it when we was down here before, Luster said. I showed it to you. Didn't you see it. I took it out of my pocket right here and showed it to you.
1.8
"Do you think buzzards are going to undress Damuddy." Caddy said. "You're crazy."
"You're a skizzard." Jason said. He began to cry.
"You're a knobnut." Caddy said. Jason cried. His hands were in his pockets.
"Jason going to be rich man." Versh said. "He holding his money all the time."
Jason cried.
"Now you've got him started." Caddy said. "Hush up, Jason. How can buzzards get in where Damuddy is. Father wouldn't let them. Would you let a buzzard undress you. Hush up, now."
Jason hushed. "Frony said it was a funeral." he said.
"Well it's not." Caddy said. "It's a party. Frony dont know anything about it. He wants your lightning bugs, T.P. Let him hold it a while."
T.P. gave me the bottle of lightning bugs.
"I bet if we go around to the parlor window we can see something." Caddy said. "Then you'll believe me."
"I already knows." Frony said. "I dont need to see.
"You better hush your mouth, Frony." Versh said. "Mammy going whip you."
"What is it." Caddy said.
"I knows what I knows." Frony said.
"Come on." Caddy said. "Let's go around to the front."
We started to go.
"T P. wants his lightning bugs." Frony said.
"Let him hold it a while longer, T.P." Caddy said. "We'll bring it back."
"You all never caught them." Frony said.
"If I say you and T.P. can come too, will you let him hold it." Caddy said.
"Aint nobody said me and T.P. got to mind you." Frony said.
"If I say you dont have to, will you let him hold it." Caddy said. "All right." Frony said. "Let him hold it, T.P. We going to watch them moaning."
"They aint moaning." Caddy said. "I tell you it's a party. Are they moaning, Versh."
"We aint going to know what they doing, standing here." Versh said.
"Come on." Caddy said. "Frony and T.P. dont have to mind me. But the rest of us do. You better carry him, Versh. It's getting dark."
Versh took me up and we went on around the kitchen.
10.2
When we looked around the corner we could see the lights coming up the drive. T.P. went back to the cellar door and opened it.
You know what's down there, T.P. said. Soda water. I seen Mr Jason come up with both hands full of them. Wait here a minute.
T.P. went and looked in the kitchen door. Dilsey said, What are you peeping in here for. Where's Benjy.
He out here, T.P. said.
Go on and watch him, Dilsey said. Keep him out the house now.
Yessum, T.P. said. Is they started yet.
You go on and keep that boy out of sight, Dilsey said. I got all I can tend to.
1.9
A snake crawled out from under the house. Jason said he wasn't afraid of snakes and Caddy said he was but she wasn't and Versh said they both were and Caddy said to be quiet, like Father said.