boys who had laughed stood nearby, and were joined by others, until soon there was quite a group.
Presently here issued from the shop the loud voice of the proprietor: “Oh, Mary, come quick, and bring the broom. Something has died again.” Then followed the sound of boxes being overturned, while dust from a prodigious sweeping bellied in clouds from the door. Then the apothecary, very red in the face, came out for air, and found the goat. The burst of laughter that greeted him increased his irritation. Brandishing the broom, and in no uncertain language, he drove Porgy from his door.
But the bystanders had so enjoyed the{48} joke at the apothecary’s expense, and were feeling in such high good humor, that when Porgy had an opportunity to appraise his collections, he found that they amounted to more than he frequently got from a whole day of patient waiting.
{48}
§
It is impossible to conceive of a more radical change than that brought about in Porgy’s life by his new emancipation. From his old circumstances which had conspired to anchor him always to one spot, he was now in the grip of new forces that as inevitably resulted in constant change of scene. Soon he became quite a metropolitan, and might have been seen in any part of the city, either sitting in his wagon at the curb, or, if the residents of the locality seemed lenient in their attitude toward goats, disembarking, and trying his luck in the strip of shade along the wall.
In those days, everyone tolerated Porgy—for a while. He had become “a character.” The other beggars gnashed their teeth, but were powerless.
On certain days he would turn to the south when he left the court, and soon would emerge into a land of such beauty that he{49} never lost the illusion that it was unreal. No one seemed to work in that country, except the happy, well-clothed negroes who frequently came to back gates when he passed, and gave him tender morsels from the white folks’ kitchens. The great, gleaming houses looked out at him with kindly eyes that peered between solid walls of climbing roses. Ladies on the deep piazzas would frequently send a servant running out to give him a coin and speed him on his way.
{49}
Before the houses and the rose-trellises stretched a broad drive, and beyond its dazzling belt of crushed shell the harbor lay between its tawny islands, like a sapphire upon
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