The Lottery - Sample reading
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
South African (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
the Lottery by Shirley Jackson The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with a fresh warmth of a full summer day. The flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square between the post office and the bank around 10 o'clock. In some towns, there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to be started on June 26th. But in this village, where they were only about 300 people, the whole lottery took lists in two hours, so it could begin at 10 o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villages to get home for noon dinner. The Children assembled first, of course, school was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty set on easily on most of them. They tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and they talk with still of the classroom and the teacher of books and reprimands. Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Dellacqua. The villages pronounce his name. Delacroix eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys. The girls stood aside, talking among themselves, looking over their shoulders at the boys, and the very small Children rolled in the dust or clung to the hands of the older brothers or sisters. Soon the men began together, surveying their own Children. Speaking of planting and rain, tractors and Texas, they stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and the jokes were quiet, and they smiled rather than laughed. The woman, wearing faded house stresses and sweaters, came shortly after their menfolk. They greeted one another and exchange bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands. Soon the woman standing by their husbands began to call the Children, and the Children came reluctantly, having to be called four or five times. Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's grasping hand and ran, laughing back to the pile of stones. His father spoke sharply, and Bobby came quickly and took his place between his father and his oldest brother.