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

202/260coon-can. Then it was dice. Not for money. This was a show-off game.Everybody posing his fancy shots. As always it broiled down to TeaCake and Motor Boat. Tea Cake with his shy grin and Motor Boat withhis face like a little black cherubim just from a church tower doingamazing things with anybody’s dice. The others forgot the work andthe weather watching them throw. It was art. A thousand dollars athrow in Madison Square Garden wouldn’t have gotten any morebreathless suspense. It would have just been more people holding in.After a while somebody looked out and said, “It ain’t gitting nofairer out dere. B’lieve Ah’ll git on over tuh mah shack.” Motor Boatand Tea Cake were still playing so everybody left them at it.Sometime that night the winds came back. Everything in the worldhad a strong rattle, sharp and short like Stew Beef vibrating the drumhead near the edge with his fingers. By morning Gabriel was playingthe deep tones in the center of the drum. So when Janie looked out ofher door she saw the drifting mists gathered in the west—that cloudfield of the sky—to arm themselves with thunders and march forthagainst the world. Louder and higher and lower and wider the soundand motion spread, mounting, sinking, darking.It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed.Began to roll and complain like a peevish world on a grumble. Thefolks in the quarters and the people in the big houses further aroundthe shore heard the big lake and wondered. The people felt uncomfortablebut safe because there were the seawalls to chain the senselessmonster in his bed. The folks let the people do the thinking. If thecastles thought themselves secure, the cabins needn’t worry. Their decisionwas already made as always. Chink up your cracks, shiver inyour wet beds and wait on the mercy of the Lord. The bossman mighthave the thing stopped before morning anyway. It is so easy to behopeful in the day time when you can see the things you wish on. But