grapes of wrath

Chapter Eight I" I 1HE SKY grayed among the stars, and the pale, late I quarter-moon was insubstantial and thin.

The cat crept along behind for a while, but in a dozen yards it arched its back to a strong taut bow and yawned, and came stealthily back toward the seated men.

After a while the faces of the watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard and angry and resistant.

They were silent, and gradually the skittering life of the ground, of holes and bur- rows, of the brush, began again; the gophers moved, and the rabbits crept to green things, the mice scampered over clods, and the winged hunters moved soundlessly

A flock of pigeons started from the deck of the tank house and flew around and settled again and strutted to the edge to look over; white pigeons and blue pigeons and grays, with iridescent wings.

Joad speeded his pace against the sun, and he started down the declivity.

Muley 's face was smooth and un- wrinkled, but it wore the truculent look of a bad child's, the mouth held tight and small, the little eyes half scowling, half petulant.

The cotton field scurried with waking life, the quick flutter of morning birds feeding on the ground, the scamper over the clods of disturbed rabbits.

From her position as healer, her hands had grown sure and cool and quiet; from her position as arbiter she had become as remote and faultless in judgment as a goddess.

He talked the smart listless language of the roadsides to her.

At the willow he knew there would be shade, at least one hard bar of absolute shade thrown by the trunk, since the sun had passed its zenith.

Two rangy shepherd dogs trotted up pleasantly, until they caught the scent of strangers, and then they backed cau- tiously away, watchful, their tails moving slowly and tenta- tively in the air, but their eyes and noses quick for animosity or danger.

Tom sauntered forward, sidled embarrassedly toward the truck.

Now that the sun was on the wane some of its im- pact was gone, and while the air was hot, the hammering rays were weaker.