Good Earth, The - Pearl S. Buck [91]
Then Wang Lung said, beseeching her,
"Think and remember a little slight young lad, tall for his years, but not yet a man, and I did not dream he dared to try a woman."
And she, remembering, answered,
"Were there two, and was one a young fellow with his turned to the sky at the end and a look in his eye of knowing everything, and his hat over one ear? And the other, as you say, a tall big lad, but eager to be a man!"
And Wang Lung said, "Yes---yes---that is he---that is my son!"
"And what of your son?" said the woman.
Then Wang Lung said earnestly,
"This: if he ever comes again, put him off---say you desire men only---say what you will---but every time you put him off I will give you twice the fee of silver on your palm!"
The woman laughed then and carelessly and she said in sudden good humor,
"And who would not say aye to this, to be paid for not working? And so I say aye also. It is true enough that I desire men and little boys are small pleasure." And she nodded at Wang Lung as she spoke and leered at him and he was sickened at her coarse face and he said hastily,
"So be it, then."
He turned quickly and he walked home, and as he walked he spat and spat again to rid him of his sickness at the memory of the woman.
On this day, therefore, he said to Cuckoo,
"Let it be as you said. Go to the grain merchant and arrange the matter. Let the dowry be good but not too great if the girl is suitable and if it can be arranged."
When he had said this to Cuckoo he went back to the room and he sat beside his sleeping son and he brooded, for he saw how fair and young the boy lay there, and he saw the quiet face, asleep and smooth with its youth. Then when he thought of the weary painted woman and her thick lips, his heart swelled with sickness and anger and he sat there muttering to himself.
And as he sat O-lan came in and stood looking at the boy, and she saw the clear sweat standing on his skin and she brought vinegar in warm water and washed the sweat away gently, as they used to wash the young lords in the great house when they drank too heavily. Then seeing the delicate childish face and the drunken sleep that even the washing would not awaken, Wang Lung rose and went in his anger to his uncle's room, and he forgot the brother of his father and he remembered only that this man was father to the idle, impudent young man who had spoiled his own fair son, and he went in and he shouted,
"Now I have harbored an ungrateful nest of snakes and they have bitten me!"
His uncle was sitting leaning over a table eating his breakfast, for he never rose until midday, seeing there was no work he had to do, and he looked up at these words and he said lazily,
"How now?"
Then Wang Lung told him, half-choking, what had happened, but his uncle only laughed and he said,
"Well, and can you keep a boy from becoming a man? And can you keep a young dog from a stray bitch?"
When Wang Lung heard this laughter he remembered in one crowded space of time all that he had endured because of his uncle; how of old his uncle had tried to force him to the selling of his land, and how they lived here, these three, eating and drinking and idle, and how his uncle's wife ate of the expensive foods Cuckoo bought for Lotus, and now how his uncle's son had spoiled his own fair lad, and he bit his tongue between his teeth and he said,
"Now out of my house, you and yours, and no more rice will there be for any of you from this hour, and I will burn the house down rather than have it shelter you, who have no gratitude even in your idleness!"
But his uncle sat where he was and ate on, now from this bowl and now from that, and Wang Lung stood there bursting with his blood, and when he saw his uncle paid no heed to him, he stepped forward with his arm upraised. Then the uncle turned and said,
"Drive me out if you dare."
And when Wang Lung stammered and blustered, not understanding, "Well---and what---well and what---" his uncle opened his coat and showed him what was against its lining.
Then Wang Lung stood still and rigid, for he saw there a false beard