the lottery and other stories by shirley jackson

Because so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded, Mr. Summers had stirred the papers thoroughly with his hand.

Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, held the black box securely on the stool until Mr. The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done. There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” Old Man Warner was saying, 'Come on, come on, everyone.' Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles. You'll have to go ahead and I'll catch up with you.' Dunbar had small stones in both hands, and she said, gasping for breath, 'I can't run at all. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs.

The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box. 'Let's finish quickly.'Īlthough the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. Bill Hutchinson held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office. It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand.

The lottery and other stories by shirley jackson