“So they got mad. An’ one kid grabbed her Cracker Jack box…. So Ruthie got mad an’ chase ’em, an’ she fit one, an’ then she fit another, an’ then one big girl up an’ licked her… So then Ruthie cried, an’ she said she’d git her big brother, an’ he’d kill that big girl….. An’ then- an’ the, Ruthie said our brother already kil’t two fellas….”(455)
Today at camp Pa bought Winfiel’ an’ me a lil’ box of Cracker Jack. Then when I was eating some kids they see and want some. But I didn’t give ’em none, I worked good for them lil’ box. But then them mean kids come and stoled my Cracker Jack from my hands. So then I chased ’em and hit them. Then this big girl, this stupid big girl, she hit me hard, an’ I telled her, my brother, he killed two men, and he’d kill her if she didn’t gimme my Cracker Jack. An’ then she laughed at me an’ calls me a liar. If only Tom were here then I’d show her! I wist’ there weren’t no kids, jus’ me and Winfiel’… I tell ya, them kids at camp ain’t no good, they stoled my Cracker Jack. I worked all day pickin’ cotton to get that box, it ain’t fair! One day, I will get that stupid girl…. Ruthie
Lil’ Ruthie got in a fight with some kids today. She tol’ em ’bout Tom an’ how he kil’t two men an’ how he’s a-hidin’. It fri’ened me, and I had to go warn Tom. I tol’ him to go far away, so no one would catch ‘im. But that Ruthie, it ain’t her fault’, she just wanted her box o’ Cracker Jack. No use for me hittin’ her-she didn’t know what she was a-doin. I can’t let anger tear apart this famby now, I must keep lovin’. Oh, how I miss dear Tom, how we need him now… Ma
Ma came to see me an’ brought some good cookin’. We sat in my dark cave an’ talked. Then she tol’t me about Ruthie an’ her fight with the other kids. Ma said Ruthie tol’ one girl she ha’t a brother that would kil’ her ’cause he’d already kil’t two men. I don’t think that girl believed Ruthie, them kids is always jokin’. But Ma seemed awful worried, an’ she tol’t me to leave the area befor’ them people find me. I tried to tell Ma its jus’ kid talk, but Ma was scart for me, so I tol’ her I would leave. Tonight, after it gits dark enough I will move on north. I will live the life of ol’ Casy, do what Casy done-try an’ help the starving people. Tom
Today I saw a girl standin’ there eatin a big, big box of Cracker Jack. Pa didn’t get no work today, so we was eatin’ fried fat agin. So me an’ my friends, we ast’ her if she would give a piece to nibble on. We was certain she would give us some- Ma always saying to me share with others. But she shooked her head an’ didn’t give us none. We was mad so we took it from ‘er. Then she scremed and tried to kick me, so I hit ‘er a big on’. Then she says to me her big bro’er will kill me, and he’d kil’t two men already. That big liar! First, she don’t give us some o’ her Cracker Jack, then she says her bro’er kil’t two men. That girl, she was crazy, talkin’ trash like that. Her Ma need’a give her a big ol’ spankin’!