Well, if she must eat out of a long-handled spoon, she must A long-handled spoon has a long history in the English language. Chaucer uses it in The Squire's Tale: "Therfore bihooeth hire ful loong spoon/That shall ete with a feend." It also occurs in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors: "He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil." Joe has become almost evil in his illness, and Janie must treat him with all caution — with a long-handled spoon, something that she would use if she were to dine with the devil. References to a long-handled spoon are treated in most standard books of quotations.
de big fuss in de store dat Joe was 'fixed' and you wuz de one dat did it Here again, the busybodies are at work, suggesting that Janie has put some sort of spell on Joe. Joe is terminally ill, and the people do not understand the illness. It is much easier for them to accuse Janie of putting a voodoo spell on Joe to hasten his death than it is for them to understand that Joe's condition is helpless.
Ah been feelin' dat somethin' set for still-bait In other words, she is saying that she's feeling like she's the target of the community disapproval, like a bait on a hook that can't move or wriggle as a worm might do.
Last summer dat multiplied cock-roach wuz round heah tryin' tuh sell gophers Janie and Pheoby have no time for the charlatan, the "two-headed" doctor, the scheming, self-serving quack. Note the hyperbole "multiplied cock-roach." Note also that "gopher" could be a mispronunciation of "goopher," a well-known conjure mixture. It is usually an herb-root mixture alleged to have great power to do whatever the two-headed doctor said it would do.
He'd be all right just as soon as the two-headed man found what had been buried against him Hurston discusses this phrase of conjure in Mules and Men. If indeed Janie has "fixed" Joe, then the conjure man has to find out what the "fix" is and where it is buried. His next task would be to concoct something that would counteract the "fix." All of this was done for a fee, of course, preferably paid in advance.
