Study Guide

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party Part 3, Chapter 2

Part 3, Chapter 2

From a dairy entry of some farmer in Acton, Massachusetts:
It's May 3, 1775; it's cloudy and wet.
The farmer is out in the fields when a N**** boy asks for work.
(The boy, by the way, is obviously Octavian, but the farmer doesn't know that.)
The farmer's trying to pull out stumps to make a new field, so he asks Octavian if he knows how.
Octavian says yes, but he clearly doesn't know what he's doing, so the farmer asks him if he can chop wood.
Octavian says yes again, but again he's obviously lying.
The farmer figures out that Octavian can't do anything outdoorsy, so he tells him to run or he'll whip Octavian.
Octavian just turns and walks slowly across the field.
The farmer concludes that he and John pulled the rest of the stumps out; that the Jersey's baby is sick; and that, even though the rain is hard, it loosened the mud and let him pull the stumps out more easily.

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