The day of the locust by Nathanael West

always played with her. She used to ride piggy-back and they would roll on the floor and laugh and laugh.
    Mary's sobs made Faye speed up her own and they both began to get out of hand.
    There was a knock on the door. Tod answered it and found Mrs. Johnson, the janitress. Faye shook her head for him not to let her in.
    "Come back later," Tod said.
    He shut the door in her face. A minute later it opened again and Mrs. Johnson entered boldly. She had used a pass-key.

"Get out," he said.
    She tried to push past him, but he held her until Faye told him to let her go.
    He disliked Mrs. Johnson intensely. She was an officious, bustling woman with a face like a baked apple, soft and blotched. Later he found out that her hobby was funerals. Her preoccupation with them wasn't morbid; it was formal. She was interested in the arrangement of the flowers, the order of the procession, the clothing and deportment of the mourners.
    She went straight to Faye and stopped her sobs with a firm, "Now, Miss Greener."
    There was so much authority in her voice and manner that she succeeded where Mary and Tod had failed. Faye looked up at her respectfully.
    "First, my dear," Mrs. Johnson said, counting one with the thumb of her right hand on the index finger of her left, "first, I want you to understand that my sole desire in this matter is to help you."
    She looked hard at Mary, then at Tod.
    "I don't get anything out of it, and it's just a lot of trouble."
    "Yes," Faye said.
    "All right. There are several things I have to know, if I'm to help you. Did the deceased leave any money or insurance?"
    "No."
    "Have you any money?"
    "No."
    "Can you borrow any?"
    "I don't think so."
    Mrs. Johnson sighed.
    "Then the city will have to bury him."
    Faye didn't comment.
    "Don't you understand, child, the city will have to bury him in a pauper's grave?"
    She put so much contempt into "city" and horror into "pauper" that Faye flushed and began to sob again.
    Mrs. Johnson made as though to walk out, even took several steps in the direction of the door, then changed her mind and came back.
    "How much does a funeral cost?" Faye asked.
    "Two hundred dollars. But you can pay on the installment plan--fifty dollars down and twenty-five a month."
    Mary and Tod both spoke together.
    "I'll get the money."
    "I've got some."
    "That's fine," Mrs. Johnson said. "You'll need at least fifty more for incidental expenses. I'll go ahead and take care of everything. Mr. Holsepp will bury your father. He'll do it right."
    She shook hands with Faye, as though she were congratulating her, and hurried out of the room.
    Mrs. Johnson's little business talk had apparently done Faye some good. Her lips were set and her eyes dry. "Don't worry," Tod said. "I can raise the money."
    "No, thanks," she said.
    Mary opened her purse and took out a roll of bills. "Here's some."
    "No," she said, pushing it away.
    She sat thinking for a while, then went to the dressing table and began to fix her tear-stained face. She wore a hard smile as she worked. Suddenly she turned, lipstick in air, and spoke to Mary.
    "Can you get me into Mrs. Jenning's?"
    "What for?" Tod demanded. "I'll get the money." Both girls ignored him.
    "Sure," said Mary, "you ought to done that long ago. It's a soft touch."
    Faye laughed.
    "I was saving it."
    The change that had come over both of them startled Tod. They had suddenly become very tough.
    "For a punkola like that Earle. Get smart, girlie, and lay off the cheapies. Let him ride a horse, he's a cowboy, ain't he?"
    They laughed shrilly and went into the bathroom with their arms around each other.
    Tod thought he understood their sudden change to slang. It made them feel worldly and realistic, and so more able to cope with serious things.
    He knocked on the bathroom door.
    "What do you want?" Faye called out.
    "Listen, kid," he said, trying to imitate them. "Why go on the turf? I can get the dough."
    "Oh, yeah! No, thanks," Faye said.
    "But listen..." he began again.
    "Go