The Essential Faulkner by William Faulkner Read Free Book Online Page A

the New Orleans salt for Sometimes-Wakeup to see how it worked. When they left, Herman Basket said how Sometimes-Wakeup burned a stick and covered his head with the blanket.
    That was the first night that Doom was at home. On the next day Herman Basket told how the Man began to act strange at his food, and died before the doctor could get there and burn sticks. When the Willow-Bearer went to fetch the Man’s son and tell him that he was to be the Man, they found that he had acted strange and then died too.
    “Now Sometimes-Wakeup will have to be the Man,” pappy said.
    So the Willow-Bearer went to fetch Sometimes-Wakeup to come and be the Man. The Willow-Bearer came back soon. “Sometimes-Wakeup does not want to be the Man,” the Willow-Bearer said. “He is sitting in his cabin with his head in his blanket.”
    “Then Ikkemotubbe will have to be the Man,” pappy said.
    So Doom was the Man. But Herman Basket said that pappy’s ghost would not be easy. Herman Basket said he told pappy to give Doom a little time. “I am still walking,” Herman Basket said.
    “But this is a serious matter with me,” pappy said.
    He said that at last pappy went to Doom, before the Man and his son had entered the earth, before the eating and the horse-racing were over. “What woman?” Doom said.
    “You said that when you were the Man,” pappy said. Herman Basket said that Doom looked at pappy but that pappy was not looking at Doom.
    “I think you don’t trust me,” Doom said. Herman Basket said how pappy did not look at Doom. “I think you still believe that that puppy was sick,” Doom said. “Think about it.”
    Herman Basket said that pappy thought.
    “What do you think now?” Doom said.
    But Herman Basket said that pappy still did not look at Doom. “I think it was a well dog,” pappy said.
III
    At last the eating and the horse-racing were over and the Man and his son had entered the earth. Then Doom said, “Tomorrow we will go and fetch the steamboat.” Herman Basket told how Doom had been talking about the steamboat ever since he became Man, and about how the House was not big enough. So that evening Doom said, “Tomorrow we will go and fetch the steamboat that died in the river.”
    Herman Basket said how the steamboat was twelve miles away, and that it could not even swim in the water. So the next morning there was no one in the Plantation except Doom and the black people. He told how it took Doom all that day to find the People. Doom used the dogs, and he found some of the People in hollow logs in the creek bottom. That night he made all the men sleep in the House. He kept the dogs in the House, too.
    Herman Basket told how he heard Doom and pappy talking in the dark. “I don’t think you trust me,” Doom said.
    “I trust you,” pappy said.
    “That is what I would advise,” Doom said.
    “I wish you could advise that to my ghost,” pappy said.
    The next morning they went to the steamboat. Thewomen and the black people walked. The men rode in the wagons, with Doom following behind with the dogs.
    The steamboat was lying on its side on the sand-bar. When they came to it, there were three white men on it. “Now we can go back home,” pappy said.
    But Doom talked to the white men. “Does this steamboat belong to you?” Doom said.
    “It does not belong to you,” the white men said. And though they had guns, Herman Basket said they did not look like men who would own a boat.
    “Shall we kill them?” he said to Doom. But he said that Doom was still talking to the men on the steamboat.
    “What will you take for it?” Doom said.
    “What will you give for it?” the white men said.
    “It is dead,” Doom said. “It’s not worth much.”
    “Will you give ten black people?” the white men said.
    “All right,” Doom said. “Let the black people who came with me from the Big River come forward.” They came forward, the five men and the woman. “Let four more black people come forward.” Four more