Answer:
Her brother's remarks ("You scared, Lizabeth?") and Lizabeth's effort to conceal the real reason of her not picking up the stones motivate her curse and spit on the ground.
Explanation:
The question is from Eugenia W. Collier's (born 1928) most famous short story "Marigolds".
The narrator of the story is Lizabeth and it is narrated in first person point of view.
Once Lizabeth's brother Joey, Lizabeth and their other teenage friends decide to go to an old woman's house and tease her by throwing stones her marigold flowers. All the children pick up stones. But Lizabeth does not, because she is now almost 14 years, and considers herself a bit grown up. She has started to consider such activities as foolish as she think herself not a child anymore but a woman. Her brother scornfully asks her, if she was scared. This remark by her brother, and because she does not want to tell her brother the real reason for not picking up the stone motivate her to curse and spit on the ground. She says "I cursed and spat on the ground-my favorite gesture of phony bravado."Y'all children git the stones. I'll show you how to use 'em".
