Read "The Eatonville Anthology" by Zora Neale Hurston online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Mrs. Tony Roberts is the pleading woman. She just loves to ask for / things. Her husband gives her all he can rake and scrape, which is / considerably more than most wives get for their housekeeping, but she / goes from door to door begging for things.
She starts at the store. "Mist' Clarke," she sing-songs in a high / keening voice, "gimme lil' piece uh meat tuh boil a pot uh greens wid. / Lawd knows me an' mah chillen is SO hongry! Hits uh SHAME! Tony don't / fee-ee-eee-ed me!"