The Essential Faulkner by William Faulkner Read Free Book Online

Orleans, he said, “And I’ll tell you something else. From now on, my name is not Ikkemotubbe. It’s David Callicoat. And some day I’m going to own asteamboat, too.” That was the kind of man that Doom was, Herman Basket said.
    So after seven years he sent them the written stick and Herman Basket and pappy took the wagon and went to meet Doom at the Big River, and Doom got off the steamboat with the six black people. “I won them on the steamboat,” Doom said. “You and Craw-ford (my pappy’s name was Crawfish-ford, but usually it was Craw-ford) can divide them.”
    “I don’t want them,” Herman Basket said that pappy said.
    “Then Herman can have them all,” Doom said.
    “I don’t want them either,” Herman Basket said.
    “All right,” Doom said. Then Herman Basket said he asked Doom if his name was still David Callicoat, but instead of answering, Doom told one of the black people something in the white man’s talk, and the black man lit a pine knot. Then Herman Basket said they were watching Doom take the puppy from the box and make the bullet of bread and the New Orleans salt which Doom had in the little gold box, when he said that pappy said:
    “I believe you said that Herman and I were to divide these black people.”
    Then Herman Basket said he saw that one of the black people was a woman.
    “You and Herman don’t want them,” Doom said.
    “I wasn’t thinking when I said that,” pappy said. “I will take the lot with the woman in it. Herman can have the other three.”
    “I don’t want them,” Herman Basket said.
    “You can have four, then,” pappy said. “I will take the woman and one other.”
    “I don’t want them,” Herman Basket said.
    “I will take only the woman,” pappy said. “You can have the other five.”
    “I don’t want them,” Herman Basket said.
    “You don’t want them, either,” Doom said to pappy. “You said so yourself.”
    Then Herman Basket said that the puppy was dead. “You didn’t tell us your new name,” he said to Doom.
    “My name is Doom now,” Doom said. “It was given me by a French chief in New Orleans. In French talking, Doo-um; in our talking, Doom.”
    “What does it mean?” Herman Basket said.
    He said how Doom looked at him for a while. “It means, the Man,” Doom said.
    Herman Basket told how they thought about that. He said they stood there in the dark, with the other puppies in the box, the ones that Doom hadn’t used, whimpering and scuffing, and the light of the pine knot shining on the eyeballs of the black people and on Doom’s gold coat and on the puppy that had died.
    “You cannot be the Man,” Herman Basket said. “You are only on the sister’s side. And the Man has a brother and a son.”
    “That’s right,” Doom said. “But if I were the Man, I would give Craw-ford those black people. I would give Herman something, too. For every black man I gave Craw-ford, I would give Herman a horse, if I were Man.”
    “Craw-ford only wants this woman,” Herman Basket said.
    “I would give Herman six horses, anyway,” Doom said. “But maybe the Man has already given Herman a horse.”
    “No,” Herman Basket said. “My ghost is still walking.”
    It took them three days to reach the Plantation. They camped on the road at night. Herman Basket said that they did not talk.
    They reached the Plantation on the third day. He said that the Man was not very glad to see Doom, even though Doom brought a present of candy for the Man’s son. Doom had something for all his kinsfolk, even for the Man’s brother. The Man’s brother lived by himself in acabin by the creek. His name was Sometimes-Wakeup. Sometimes the People took him food. The rest of the time they didn’t see him. Herman Basket told how he and pappy went with Doom to visit Sometimes-Wakeup in his cabin. It was at night, and Doom told Herman Basket to close the door. Then Doom took the puppy from pappy and set it on the floor and made a bullet of bread and