Book II, Chapter X

▻ FAIR

1.

Brothers
tend to

consider
ways and

means, to
share the land.

But a powerful
brother

keeps
the harvest.

2.

On every
barn door,

M drew
a reckoning.

His brothers
were all

there, with
their hands

in their
breenches.

3.

Penniless,
Jacob

approached.
Thus M

stripped
him. “Sell me.

Make
your mind

easy,” Jacob
maudled.

4.

Did Jacob
know

nothing
of interest?

M said, “Smile
friend.”

He had got
himself

a man
ready to follow.

5.

Jacob had
fallen. M

mounted. They
came

face to
face. The oxen

made
a loud guffaw

and almost
burst.

6.

“I had
to drain you,”

said M. “Go
to

the devil,” said
Jacob.

In, perhaps,
the fashion

of cat
and mouse.

7.

A bird
in the hand

is worth
Government

House.
That’s

worth
remembering.

M grunted,
inarticulate.

8.

Studying
the remains

of snow,
Jacob

whispered,
”Come again.”

M, standing
erect,

instantly
went down.

9.
His brothers
did

likewise,
could do

nothing
but that. And

all, much
gratified, began

to stretch
their legs.

10.

“It has
cost us,”

said Jacob,
”our own

flesh
and blood. We,

in the house
of our

father, lie
shipwrecked.”

11.

Like
sheep, they

huddled
together, with

looks of
amazement.

”Och!” cried
M.

”Stop that
grovelling.”

12.

And just as
sheep they

had huddled,
so he

swept them
out as

a pack of
asses.

What then? He
threw up.

To be continued…