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“It’s coming right out of some rocks.”
“Go fill up the water barrel. We’ll pay you for it,” he said.
“What with?”
“I got three bucks hid in the barracks.”
“That ain’t enough.”
“The sonofabitch is riding you,” Billy Jo said. “Don’t pay him no mind.”
“It’s coming out of some rocks with moss on them.’
“I believe him,” Jeffry said. “This is hill country There’s always springs where there’s hills.”
“You’re in barracks two, ain’t you?” Billy Jo said to the trusty. “Well, I got buddies in there, so you better forget about sleeping for the next few nights unless you want to get operated on. It takes one swipe with a knife and your whoring days are over. Now get the fuck out of here, punk.”
“It’s a long day without no water,” the trusty said and lifted the barrel and moved down the ditch.
“You shouldn’t ought to get him mad,” Daddy Claxton said. “Maybe he won’t bring the water back.’
“He’s got to,” Billy Jo said. “Evans will make him We can’t do no work without water.”
“I reckon you’re right,” Daddy Claxton said.
“I don’t give a fuck for punks like that, anyway.’
“I wouldn’t mind making trusty,” the old man said.
“That’s for punks and ass kissers.”
“You think there’s a spring around here somewhere?” Jeffry said.
“There ain’t no water in ten miles of here that don’t have scum or mosquito eggs in it.”
“I thought we might get some clean water.”
“They might bring us some oranges with lunch. You can drink the juice.”
“You think they will?”
“Today’s Friday. Carp and fruit for lunch,” Brother Samuel said.
“I seen some carp and garfish eating off a drowned cow once,” Daddy Claxton said.
Evans walked over to the embankment of dirt and squatted on his haunches, looking down at the men. Small clods rolled from around his boots into the ditch.
“The captain wants a new latrine dug,” he said.
“We dug the last one. It’s gang six’s turn,” Billy Jo said.
“The captain likes the way we dig latrines. We do a good job. He might even let us keep digging them from now on. Boudreaux and what’s your name, get up here.”
Toussaint and Avery climbed out of the ditch.
“You see that line of scrub over there? Dig a trench fifteen feet long and three deep.”
“We ain’t got a shovel.”
