Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered

133/260he got he was reared back in Joe’s swivel chair trying to thrust out hislean belly into a paunch. She’d laugh quietly at his no-harm posingand pretend she didn’t see it. One day as she came in the back door ofthe store she heard him bawling at Tripp Crawford, “Naw indeed, wecan’t do nothin’ uh de kind! I god, you ain’t paid for dem last rationsyou done et up. I god, you won’t git no mo’ outa dis store than you gotmoney tuh pay for. I god, dis ain’t Gimme, Florida, dis is Eatonville.”Another time she overheard him using Joe’s favorite expression forpointing out the differences between himself and the careless-living,mouthy town. “Ah’m an educated man, Ah keep mah arrangements inmah hands.” She laughed outright at that. His acting didn’t hurtnobody and she wouldn’t know what to do without him. He sensedthat and came to treat her like baby-sister, as if to say “You poor littlething, give it to big brother. He’ll fix it for you.” His sense of ownershipmade him honest too, except for an occasional jaw-breaker, or a packetof sen-sen. The sen-sen was to let on to the other boys and thepullet-size girls that he had a liquor breath to cover. This business ofmanaging stores and women store-owners was trying on a man’snerves. He needed a drink of liquor now and then to keep up.When Janie emerged into her mourning white, she had hosts ofadmirers in and out of town. Everything open and frank. Men of propertytoo among the crowd, but nobody seemed to get any further thanthe store. She was always too busy to take them to the house to entertain.They were all so respectful and stiff with her, that she might havebeen the Empress of Japan. They felt that it was not fitting to mentiondesire to the widow of Joseph Starks. You spoke of honor and respect.And all that they said and did was refracted by her inattention andshot off towards the rim-bones of nothing. She and Pheoby Watsonvisited back and forth and once in awhile sat around the lakes andfished. She was just basking in freedom for the most part without theneed for thought. A Sanford undertaker was pressing his causethrough Pheoby, and Janie was listening pleasantly but undisturbed.