U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [52]
-133-bedroom in a faded lilac sack with fril s on it, after they'd listened for a long time to the drawnout snort that ended in a little hiss of Popper's snores, Joe would slip off his chair and Janey would fol ow him without breathing into the front hal and out the front door. Once they'd closed it very careful y so that the knocker wouldn't bang, Joe would give her a slap, yel "You're it" and run off down the hil towards M Street, and she'd have to run after him, her heart pounding, her hands cold for fear he'd run away and leave her. Winters the brick sidewalks were icy and there were colored women out spreading cinders outside their doors when the children went to school mornings. Joe never would walk with the rest of them because they were girls, he lagged behind or ran ahead. Janey wished she could walk with him but she couldn't leave her little sisters who held tight onto her hands. One winter they got in the habit of walking up the hil with a little yal er girl who lived directly across the street and whose name was Pearl. Afternoons Janey and Pearl walked home together. Pearl usual y had a couple of pennies to buy bul seyes or candy bananas with at a little store on Wisconsin Avenue, and she always gave Janey half so Janey was very fond of her. One afternoon she asked Pearl to come in and they played dol s together under the big rose of sharon bush in the back yard. When Pearl had gone Mommer's voice cal ed from the kitchen. Mommer had
her sleeves rol ed up on her faded pale arms and a checked apron on and was rol ing piecrust for supper so that her hands were covered with flour.
" Janey, come here," she said. Janey knew from the cold quaver in her voice that something was wrong.
"Yes, Mommer." Janey stood in front of her mother shaking her head about so that the two stiff sandy pig-tails lashed from side to side. "Stand stil , child, for gracious sake . . . Jane, I want to talk to you about some--134-thing. That little colored girl you brought in this after-noon . . ." Janey's heart was dropping. She had a sick feeling and felt herself blushing, she hardly knew why.
"Now, don't misunderstand me; I like and respect the colored people; some of them are fine selfrespecting peo-ple in their place . . . But you mustn't bring that little colored girl in the house again. Treating colored people kindly and with respect is one of the signs of good breed-ing . . . You mustn't forget that your mother's people were wel born every inch of them . . . Georgetown was very different in those days. We lived in a big house with most lovely lawns . . . but you must never associate with colored people on an equal basis. Living in this neighbor-hood it's al the more important to be careful about those things . . . Neither the whites nor the blacks respect those who do . . . That's al , Janey, you understand; now run out and play, it'l soon be time for your supper." Janey tried to speak but she couldn't. She stood stiff in the middle of the yard on the grating that covered the drainpipe, staring at the back fence. "Niggerlover," yel ed Joe in her ear.
"Niggerlover ump-mya-mya . . . Nig-gerlover niggerlover ump-mya-mya." Janey began to cry. Joe was an untalkative sandyhaired boy who could pitch a mean outcurve when he was stil little. He learned to swim and dive in Rock Creek and used to say he wanted to be motorman on a streetcar when he grew up. For
several years his best friend was Alec McPherson whose father was a locomotive engineer on the B. and O. After that Joe wanted to be a locomotive engineer. Janey used to tag around after the two boys whenever they'd let her, to the carbarns at the head of Pennsylvania Avenue where they made friends with some of the conductors and motormen who used to let them ride on the platform a couple of blocks sometimes if there wasn't any inspector around, down along the canal or up Rock Creek where they caught
-135-tadpoles and fel in the water and splashed each other with mud. Summer evenings when the twilight was long after
supper they played lions and tigers with other kids from the neighborhood in the long grass of some empty lots near Oak Hil Cemetery. There were long periods when there was measles or scarlet fever around and Mommer wouldn't let them out. Then Alec would come down and they'd play three-o-cat in the back yard. Those were the times Janey liked best. Then the boys treated her as one of them. Summer dusk would come down on them sultry and ful of lightningbugs. If Popper was feeling in a good mood he'd send them up the hil to the drugstore on N