851 I'll walk back. 852 - Evening. - Who are you? 853 - Just going past. - Know anybody around here? 854 No. Just going past, I tell you. 855 - Casy! - Well, if it ain't Tom Joad. Hiya, boy. 856 - I thought you was in jail. - No. They just run me out of town. 857 Come on in. Tom Joad. 858 - This the fella you been talking about? - That's him. What are you doing? 859 Working, picking peaches. 860 I heard fellas shouting when we come in. I came to find out what's going on. 861 - What's it about? - This here's a strike. 862 Five cents a box ain't much, but a fella can eat. 863 - Five cents? They paying you five cents? - Sure. We made a buck since midday. 864 Looky, Tom. We come here to work. 865 They tell us it's gonna be five cents, but there's a whole lot of us. 866 So the man says two and a half cents. 867 A fella can't even eat on that and if he's got kids... 868 So we says we won't take it. 869 So they drive us off. Now they're paying you five cents. 870 If they bust this strike, you think they'll pay five? 871 Dunno. Paying five now. 872 They'll get two and a half cents just the minute we're gone. 873 You know what that is. 874 One ton of peaches, picked and carried for a dollar. 875 That way you can't even buy enough food to keep you alive. 876 Tell 'em to come out with us, Tom. Them peaches is ripe. 877 Two days out and they'll pay us all five. Maybe seven. 878 They won't. They're getting five now. That's all they care about. 879 But the moment they ain't strike-breaking, they won't get no five. 880 Next thing you know you'll be out. They got it all fixed down to a T. 881 Soon as the harvest is in you're a migrant worker. Afterwards, just a bum. 882 Five they're getting now. That's all they're interested in. 883 I know what Pa would say. He'd say it's none of his business. 884 That's right. He'll have to take a beating before he'll know. 885 Take a beating? We was out of food. 886 Tonight we had meat - not much, but we had it. 887 You think Pa's gonna give up his meat on account of some other fellas? 888 Rosasharn needs milk. 889 You think Ma's gonna starve that baby just on account of fellas yelling outside a gate? 890 Tom, you gotta learn like I'm learning. 891 I don't know what's right yet myself, but I'm trying to find out. 892 That's why I can't ever be a preacher again. 893 Preacher's got to know. 894 I don't know. 895 I got to ask. 896 - I don't like it. - What's the matter? 897 I can't tell. Seems as though I hear something and when I listen there ain't nothing to hear. 898 - It ain't out of the question, you know. - We're all a little itchy. 899 Cops been telling us how they gonna beat us up and run us out. 900 Not them regular deputies, but them tin-seal men. The ones they got for guards.
|