Summary

“The Eatonville Anthology” (1926) begins with Part I, “The Pleading Woman.” The titular woman, Mrs. Tony Roberts, “goes door to door begging” in the name of the Lord despite her husband’s healthy finances (142). She asks for free meat from the butcher, haggling for a larger portion. Then she moves on to “various homes” claiming her children are hungry and her husband does not feed them, chastising them for their stinginess (144).

Part II, “Turpentine Love,” begins with the happy marriage of Jim Merchant and his wife. Jim recalls to listeners that before their marriage his wife had been “subject to fits,” and she experienced one in his presence. When her mother tried to feed her “a dose of turpentine,” she missed, dropping it into her eye (145). It “cured her”—they married and she never had a fit again (145).

In Part III, Becky Moore...