'This is for last week,' I said, taking them. 'What about this week?'

'Aw, man, I'll give it to you Friday,' he grumbled. 'You raise more hell 'bout three lousy bucks-'

I mashed the starter and dug off without hearing the rest of it. Johnson had started beefing about the job, and now they all had it.

'How come it is we always got to get the hardest jobs?' Smitty asked. 'If somebody'd take a crap on deck Kelly'd come and get our gang to clean it up.'

'I been working in this yard two years-Bob'll tell you-and all I done yet is the jobs don't nobody else wanta do,' Conway said. 'I'm gonna quit this yard just as sure as I live and nothing don't happen and get me a job at Cal Ship.'

'They don't want you over there neither,' Pigmeat said.

'They don't even want a coloured man to go to the school here any more,' Homer put in. 'Bessie ask Kelly the other day 'bout going to school-she been here three months now-and he told her they still filled up. And a peck come right after-I was standing right there-and he signed him up right away.'

'You know they don't want no more nig-no more of us getting no mechanic's pay,' Pigmeat said. 'You know that in front. What she gotta do is keep on after him.'

'If I ever make up my mind to quit,' Johnson said, 'he the first sonabitch I'm gonna whup. I'm gonna whup his ass till it ropes like okra.'

Conway said, 'I ain't gonna let you. He mine. I been saving that red-faced peckerwood too long to give 'im up now. I'm gonna whip 'im till he puke; then I'm gonna let 'im get through puking; then I'm gonna light in on him and whip 'im till he poot…' He kept on as if it was getting good to him. 'Then I'm gonna let 'im get through pooting; then I'm gonna light in on 'im and whip 'im till he-' They were all laughing now.

'You can't whip him until you get him,' I called over my shoulder.

'You tell 'em, Bob,' Smitty said. 'We gonna see Kelly in a half-hour, then we gonna see what Conway do.'