Their-Eyes-Were-Watching-God-rmrju9

44 412P Zora Neale Hurston"I god, Ah don't see how come yuh can't. 'Tain't nothin'atall tuh hinder yuh if yuh got uh thimble full uh sense. You gottuh. Ah got too much else on mah hands as Mayor. Dis townneeds some light right now.""Unh hunh, it is uh little dark right long heah.""'Course it is. 'Tain't no use in scufflin' over all dese stumpsand roots in de dark. Ah'll call uh meetin' bout de dark and deroots right away. Ah'll sit on dis case first thing."The very next day with money out of his own pocket he sentoff to Sears, Roebuck and Company for the street lamp and toldthe town to meet the following Thursday night to vote on it.Nobody had ever thought of street lamps and some of them saidit was a useless notion. They went so far as to vote against it, butthe majority ruled.But the whole town got vain over it after it came. That wasbecause the Mayor didn't just take it out of the crate and stick itup on a post. He unwrapped it and had it wiped off carefully andput it up on a showcase for a week for everybody to see. Then heset a time for the lighting and sent word all around OrangeCounty for one and all to come to the lamplighting. He sent menout to the swamp to cut the finest and the straightest cypress postthey could find, and kept on sending them back to hunt anotherone until they found one that pleased him. He had talked to thepeople already about the hospitality of the occasion."Y'all know we can't invite people to our town just dry longso. I god, naw. We got tuh feed 'em something, and 'tain'tnothin' people laks better'n barbecue. Ah'll give one wholehawg mah ownself. Seem lak all de rest uh y'all put tuhgetheroughta be able tuh scrape up two mo'. Tell yo' womenfolkstuh do 'round 'bout some pies and cakes and sweet p'taterpone."That's the way it went, too. The women got together the