Read the excerpt from "Fern” in Cane . One evening I walked up the Pike on purpose, and stopped to say hello. Some of her family were about, but they moved away to make room for me . . . if I knew how to begin. Would you? Mr. and Miss So-and-So, people, the weather, the crops, the new preacher, the frolic, the church benefit, rabbit and possum hunting, the new soft drink they had at old Pap’s store, the schedule of trains, what kind of town Macon was, Negro’s migration north, boll-weevils, syrup, the Bible—to all these things she gave a yassur or nassur, without further comment. What is the effect of this long list of conversation topics in this excerpt?