up! You walk like dead lice
droppin' off you! (He exits right while Lum crosses stage towards
left)

SISTER TAYLOR
Lum, Elder Simms been huntin' you--he's gone on down bout de barn.
(She gestures.)

LUM
I reckon I'll overtake him. (Exit left)

SISTER THOMAS
I better go put dese greens on--my husband will kill me if he don't
find no supper ready. Here come Mrs. Blunt. She oughter feel like a
penny's worth of have-mercy wid all dis stink behind her daughter.

SISTER TAYLOR
Chile, some folks don't keer. They don't raise they chillen, they
drags 'em up. God knows if dat Daisy was mine, I'd throw her down and
put a hundred lashes on her back wid a plow-line. Here she come in de
store Sat'day night (acts coy and coquettish, burlesques Daisy's walk)
a wringing and a twisting!

(Enter Mrs. Blunt left.)

MRS. BLUNT
How y'all sisters?

SISTER THOMAS
Very well, Miz Blunt, how you?

MRS. BLUNT
Oh so-so.

SISTER TAYLOR
I'm kickin' but not high.

MRS. BLUNT
Well, thank God you still on prayin' ground and in a Bible
Country--Me, I ain't many today. De niggers got my Daisy's name all
mixed up in diss mess.

SISTER TAYLOR
You musn't mind dat, Sister Blunt. People just _will_ talk. They's
talkin' in New York and they's talkin' in Georgy and they's talkin' in
Italy.

SISTER THOMAS
Chile, if you talk after niggers they'll have you in de graveyard or
in Chattahoochee one. You can't pay no tention to talk.

MRS. BLUNT
Well, I know one thing--de man or woman, chick or child, grizzly or
gray that tells me to my face anything wrong bout _my_ chile--I'm
going to take _my_ fist (rolls up right sleeve and gestures with right
fist) and knock they teeth down they throat. (She looks ferocious.)
Cause y'll know I raised my Daisy right round my feet till I let her
go up north last year wid them white folks. I'd ruther her to be in de
white folks kitchen than walkin' de streets like some of dese girls
round here. If I do say so, I done raised a lady. She can't help it if
all dese men get stuck on her.

SISTER TAYLOR
You'se telling de truth, Sister Blunt--that's what I always say--Don't
confidence dese niggers, do they'll sho put you in de street.

SISTER THOMAS
Naw indeed. Never syndicate wid niggers--do--they will distriminate
you. They'll be an _anybody_. You goin to de trial, ain't you?

MRS. BLUNT
Just as sho as you snore, and they better leave Daisy's name outer dis
too. I done told her and told her to come strai