The Grapes of Wrath | Page 8

ouch. The hind feet kicked his shell along,
and it scraped on the grass, and on the gr avel. As the embankment grew steeper and
steeper, the more frantic were the efforts of the land turtle. Pushing hind legs strained
and slipped, boosting the shell along, and the horny head protruded as far as the neck
could stretch. Little by little th e shell slid up the embankment until at last a parapet cut
straight across its line of march, the shoulder of the road, a concrete wall four inches
high. As though they worked independently th e hind legs pushed the shell against the
wall. The head upraised and p eered over the wall to the broad smooth plain of cement.
Now the hands, braced on top of the wall, strained and lifted, and the shell came
slowly up and rested its front end on the wall. For a moment the turtle rested. A red ant
ran into the shell, into the soft skin inside the shell, and suddenly head and legs
snapped in, and the armored tail clampe d in sideways. The red ant was crushed
between body and legs. And one head of wild oats was clamped into the shell by a
front leg. For a long moment the turtle lay stil l, and then the neck crept out and the old
humorous frowning eyes looked about and the legs and tail came out. The back legs
went to work, straining like elephant legs, a nd the shell tipped to an angle so that the
front legs could not reach the level cemen t plain. But higher and higher the hind legs
boosted it, until at last the center of bala nce was reached, the front tipped down, the
front legs scratched at the pavement, and it was up. But the head of wild oats was held
by its stem around the front legs.
Now the going was easy, and all the legs worked, and the shell boosted a\
long,
waggling from side to side. A sedan driven by a forty-year-old woman approached.
She saw the turtle and swung to the right, off the highway, the wheels s\
creamed and a
cloud of dust boiled up. Two wheels lifted for a moment and then settled. The car
skidded back onto the road, and went on, but more slowly. The turtle had jerked into
its shell, but now it hurried on, for the highway was burning hot.
And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and
swerved to hit it. His front wheel struck the ed ge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a
tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway. The truck went back to
its course along the right side. Lying on its ba ck, the turtle was tight in its shell for a

long time. But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over.
Its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and
flopped upright. The wild oat head fell out and three of the spearhead s\
eeds stuck in
the ground. And as the turtle crawled on down the embankment, its shell dragged dirt
over the seeds. The turtle entered a dust ro ad and jerked itself along, drawing a wavy
shallow trench in the dust with its shell. The old humorous eyes looked ahead, and the
horny beak opened a little. His yellow toe nails slipped a fraction in the dust.
4
WHEN JOAD HEARD THE truck get under way, gear climbing up to gear and the
ground throbbing under the rubber beating of th e tires, he stopped and turned about
and watched it until it disappeared. When it was out of sight he still watched the
distance and the blue air-shimmer. Thoughtfully he t ook the pint from his pocket,
unscrewed the metal cap, and sipped the whis ky delicately, running his tongue inside
the bottle neck, and th en around his lips, to gather in any flavor that might have
escaped him. He said experimentally, "There we spied a nigger—" and that was all he
could remember. At last he turned about and faced the dusty side road that cut off at
right angles through the fiel ds. The sun was hot, and no wi nd stirred the sifted dust.
The road was cut with furrows where dust ha d slid and settled back into the wheel
tracks. Joad took a few steps, and the fl ourlike dust spurted up in front of his new
yellow shoes, and the yellowness was disappearing under gray dust.
He