DuBose Heyward

“ Porgy sat with a large myrtle bush in one hand, with which he brushed flies from several sleeping infants. The sun lay heavy and comforting upon him. One of the children stirred and whimpered. He hummed a low, bumbling song to it. There was a new contentment in his face. After a while he commenced to nod.
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"I go an' git some palmettuh leaf fuh tablecloth," Bess told Maria; and, without waiting for an answer, she took a knife from a basket, and entered the dense tangle of palm and vine that walled the clearing. ”

“ Yet these improvisations returned always to the eternal boom, boom, boom of an underlying rhythm, and met with others in the sudden weaving and ravelling of amazing chords. An ecstasy of wild young bodies beat living into the blasts that shook the windows of the solemn houses. ”

“ Finally Bess emerged into a small clearing, in the centre of which stood a low hut with sides of plaited twigs and roof of palmetto leaves laid on top of each other in regular rows like shingles.
Crown was close behind her. At the low door of the hut she paused and turned toward him. He laughed suddenly and hotly at what he saw in her face.
"I know yuh ain't change," he said. "Wid yuh an' me it always goin' tuh be de same. See?" ”

“ Maria replied. "But w'en I look in Bess's eye las' night, I sho ob two t'ing: one, dat he is dey, an' two, dat she been wid um."
"Yuh b'lieb she still run wid dat nigger?"
"Dem sort ob mens ain't need tuh worry 'bout habin' 'omen," Maria told her. "Dey kin lay de lash on um, an' kick um in de street; den dey kin whistle w'en dey ready, an' dere dey is ag'in lickin' dey han'."
"She goin' stay wid Porgy, ef she know wut good fuh she."
"She know all right, an' she lub Porgy. But ef dat nigger come attuh she, dey ain't goin' tuh be noboddy roun' hyuh but Porgy an' de goat." ”

“ Earth had cared for him well. The marshes had provided eggs of wild fowl, and many young birds. The creek had given him fish, crabs and oysters in abundance, and the forest had fed him with its many berries, and succulent palmetto cabbage.
"I seen yuh land," he said, "an' I been waitin' fuh yuh. I mos' dead ob lonesome on dis damn island, wid not one Gawd's person to swap a word wid. Yuh gots any happy-dus' wid yuh?"
"No," she said; then with an effort, "Crown, I gots somethin' tuh tell yuh. ”

“ A smile of pleased anticipation grew about Maria's wide mouth. She dried her hands upon her apron.
"Jus' like I been tellin' yuh!" she remarked to Serena. "T'ank Gawd, Jedus ain't gots me yit wuh he gots you; an' I still mens enough tuh straighten out a crooked nigger. See dat yalluh snake wrigglin' in de do'way? He de one wut sell Bess dat happy-dus'." ”

“ The sun was so low that its level rays shot through the tunnels of the forest and bronzed its ceiling of woven leaves when Bess returned to the clearing. She paused for a moment. Behind her, screened by the underbrush, stood Crown.
"Now 'member wut I tells yuh," he said. "Yuh kin stay wid de cripple 'til de cotton come. Den I comin'. Davy will hide we on de ribber boat fur as Sawannah. Den soon de cotton will be comin' in fas', an' libbin will be easy. Yuh gits dat?" ”