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Show pa?e 19 the x»7ay he did when he downed a half pint of his ox>m liauor. "High John says you got to be for one or the other," said Cato. He had the message now; High John was working. "You a man but you don't x^7alk like a man," he continued. "How come you here to my door, in my house? High John'11 reach you, even if you in the swamp, or hid over in that big field of f i r e ants. How come you come to me and High John?" Junior began to feel the r o o t ' s power; Cato's fine, high-sounding t a l k brought back the picture of himself as a teenager on the front porch of Lacy Acklin's country store on the Daphne road. There he x«7as, drinking a real lemon soda poo, in new overalls, barefooted but laughing a l l the time at the g i r ls and p a r t i c u l a r l y at Lacy's young wife Janie. Edith McFall, in her secondhand Ford, parked under the big oak in front of Cato's shack. She came bouncing down the weedgrox-m path to his door. "Wind is short today," Cato said, listening carefully to all movement. Junior sat on the upturned nail keg timidly, looking at High John one moment then toward the open door. Cato got across to Junior another message before Edith reached the door. " I t ' s good to have a woman crazy gone over you," he said, his hand on the root as though receiving the message from i t . "But a man got to know the shade and size of his shadow. A man can make a long shadow, a x^orthwhile shadow, if he want." Cato looked toward the door. "Yes, Miss, what can I do for |