Introduction

So they rested at the table, for the way they ate their meals, this summer, was in rounds: they would eat awhile and then let the food have a chance to spread out and settle inside their stomachs, a little later they would start in again. F. Jasmine crossed her knife and fork on her empty plate, and began to question Berenice about a matter that had bothered her.

“Tell me. Is it just us who call this hopping-john? Or is it known by that name through all the country? It seems a strange name somehow.”

“Well, I have heard it called various things,” said Berenice.

“What?”

“Well, I have heard it called peas and rice. Or rice and peas and pot-liquor. Or hopping-john. You can vary and take your pick.”

“But I’m not talking about this town,” F. Jasmine said. “I mean in other places. I mean through all the world. I wonder what the French call it.”

Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding