as far as Mr. Ball is consoined it’s my own bizness’(hah! hah! hah! Y’know that’s wat I tol’him…. Jeez: it handed him a laugh, y’know!)—’An afteh five o’clock,’I says,’I'm my own boss…. At duh same time,’I says,’deh’s duh psychological side to be considehed.’”
And with the sweet accent of maternal tribulation, it admitted, “Sure! I hit her! I did! Oh, I hit her very hahd! Jeez! It was an awful crack I gave her, honestleh! My hand was boinin’f’r a half-oueh aftehwads!… I just blow up, y’know!… Dat’s my on’y reason f’r dat! I jus’blow up! Dis fellah’s in duh bathroom callin’f’r his eggs, duh baby’s yellin’f’r his bottle, an’I jus’blow up!… Dat’s my on’y reason f’r dat! Dat’s duh on’y reason dat I hit her, see! I’m afraid she’ll hoit duh baby, see? She bends its fingehs back. So I says,’F'r God’s sake, please, don’t do dat!… I gotta headache’… an’then, I jus’blow up! Sure! I hit her hahd!… Duh trouble is I can’t stop wit’one slap, see!… Jeez! I hit her! My hand was boining f’r a half-oueh aftehwads!”
Hot with its sense of outraged decency, it said, “I went upstairs an’pounded on dat doeh!…’Come out of dere, you s. of a b.,’I says—Sure, I’m tellin’yuh! Dat’s what I said to her, y’know!…’Come out of dere,’I says,’before I t’row you out,’” and regretfully it added, “Sure! I hate to do dese t’ings—it makes me feel bad lateh—but I won’t have dem in my place. Dat’s duh one t’ing I refuse t’do,” it said. And with a passionate emotion, it asserted, “Sure!… Dat’s what I’m tellin’yuh!… Yuh know how dat was, don’t cha? Duh foist guy—her husban’—was passin’out duh sugah an’duh otheh guy—duh boy-friend—was layin’her. Can yuh ima-a-gine it?” it said.
Amazed, in tones of stupefaction, it would say “No kiddin’! No!” And with solemn reprehension it would add, “Oh, yuh know I think that’s te-e-ri-bul! I think that’s aw-w-ful!”—the voice of unbelieving horror would reply.
Finally, friendly and familiar, the great Voice of the city said, “Well, so long, Eddy. I’m goin’t’ketch some sleep,” it said, and answered, “Well, so long, Joe, I’ll be seem’yuh.” “So long, Grace,” it added with an accent of soft tenderness and love, and the huge Voice of the city murmured, “O.K. kid! Eight o’clock—no kiddin’—I’ll be deh!”
Such were some of the million tongues of that huge single Voice, as he had heard them speak a thousand times, and as now instantly, incredibly, as soon as he came back to them, they spoke again.
And as he listened, as he heard them, their speech could not have been more strange to him had they been people from the planet Mars. He
