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+Project Gutenberg's The heart of happy hollow, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The heart of happy hollow
+       A collection of stories
+
+Author: Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
+Release Date: February 29, 2008 [EBook #24716]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART OF HAPPY HOLLOW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Bergquist, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Dialect and inconsistent spelling have been preserved.
+
+In The Scapegoat, Part II, text appears to be missing between
+"hard" and "brought" in the sentence "The school-teacher is
+giving you a pretty hard brought the school-children in for
+chorus singing, secured an able orator, and the best essayist
+in town."
+
+
+
+
+  THE HEART OF
+  HAPPY HOLLOW
+
+  _A Collection of Stories_
+
+  PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
+
+  Reprint, 1904
+  Dodd, Mead and Co., New York.
+
+
+
+
+_Contents_
+
+
+  _Foreword_  3
+
+  _One_: THE SCAPEGOAT  5
+
+  _Two_: ONE CHRISTMAS AT SHILOH  21
+
+  _Three_: THE MISSION OF MR. SCATTERS  29
+
+  _Four_: A MATTER OF DOCTRINE  45
+
+  _Five_: OLD ABE'S CONVERSION  53
+
+  _Six_: THE RACE QUESTION  63
+
+  _Seven_: A DEFENDER OF THE FAITH  67
+
+  _Eight_: CAHOOTS  73
+
+  _Nine_: THE PROMOTER  81
+
+  _Ten_: THE WISDOM OF SILENCE  95
+
+  _Eleven_: THE TRIUMPH OF OL' MIS' PEASE  103
+
+  _Twelve_: THE LYNCHING OF JUBE BENSON  111
+
+  _Thirteen_: SCHWALLIGER'S PHILANTHROPY  121
+
+  _Fourteen_: THE INTERFERENCE OF PATSY ANN  129
+
+  _Fifteen_: THE HOME-COMING OF 'RASTUS SMITH  137
+
+  _Sixteen_: THE BOY AND THE BAYONET  145
+
+
+
+
+To My Friend
+Ezra M. Kuhns
+
+
+
+
+_Foreword_
+
+
+Happy Hollow; are you wondering where it is? Wherever Negroes colonise
+in the cities or villages, north or south, wherever the hod carrier, the
+porter, and the waiter are the society men of the town; wherever the
+picnic and the excursion are the chief summer diversion, and the revival
+the winter time of repentance, wherever the cheese cloth veil obtains at
+a wedding, and the little white hearse goes by with black mourners in
+the one carriage behind, there--there--is Happy Hollow. Wherever
+laughter and tears rub elbows day by day, and the spirit of labour and
+laziness shake hands, there--there--is Happy Hollow, and of some of it
+may the following pages show the heart.
+
+The Author.
+
+
+
+
+_One_
+
+THE SCAPEGOAT
+
+
+I
+
+The law is usually supposed to be a stern mistress, not to be lightly
+wooed, and yielding only to the most ardent pursuit. But even law, like
+love, sits more easily on some natures than on others.
+
+This was the case with Mr. Robinson Asbury. Mr. Asbury had started life
+as a bootblack in the growing town of Cadgers. From this he had risen
+one step and become porter and messenger in a barber-shop. This rise
+fired his ambition, and he was not content until he had learned to use
+the shears and the razor and had a chair of his own. From this, in a man
+of Robinson's temperament, it was only a step to a shop of his own, and
+he placed it where it would do the most good.
+
+Fully one-half of the population of Cadgers was composed of Negroes, and
+with their usual tendency to colonise, a tendency encouraged, and in
+fact compelled, by circumstances, they had gathered into one part of
+the town. Here in alleys, and streets as dirty and hardly wider, they
+thronged like ants.
+
+It was in this place that Mr. Asbury set up his shop, and he won the
+hearts of his prospective customers by putting up the significant sign,
+"Equal Rights Barber-Shop." This legend was quite unnecessary, because
+there was only one race about, to patronise the place. But it was a
+delicate sop to the people's vanity, and it served its purpose.
+
+Asbury came to be known as a clever fellow, and his business grew. The
+shop really became a sort of club, and, on Saturday nights especially,
+was the gathering-place of the men of the whole Negro quarter. He kept
+the illustrated and race journals there, and those who cared neither to
+talk nor listen to someone else might see pictured the doings of high
+society in very short skirts or read in the Negro papers how Miss Boston
+had entertained Miss Blueford to tea on such and such an afternoon.
+Also, he kept the policy returns, which was wise, if not moral.
+
+It was his wisdom rather more than his morality that made the party
+managers after a while cast their glances toward him as a man who might
+be useful to their interests. It would be well to have a man--a shrewd,
+powerful man--down in that part of the town who could carry his people's
+vote in his vest pocket, and who at any time its delivery might be
+needed, could hand it over without hesitation. Asbury seemed that man,
+and they settled upon him. They gave him money, and they gave him power
+and patronage. He took it all silently and he carried out his bargain
+faithfully. His hands and his lips alike closed tightly when there was
+anything within them. It was not long before he found himself the big
+Negro of the district and, of necessity, of the town. The time came
+when, at a critical moment, the managers saw that they had not reckoned
+without their host in choosing this barber of the black district as the
+leader of his people.
+
+Now, so much success must have satisfied any other man. But in many
+ways Mr. Asbury was unique. For a long time he himself had done very
+little shaving--except of notes, to keep his hand in. His time had been
+otherwise employed. In the evening hours he had been wooing the
+coquettish Dame Law, and, wonderful to say, she had yielded easily to
+his advances.
+
+It was against the advice of his friends that he asked for admission to
+the bar. They felt that he could do more good in the place where he was.
+
+"You see, Robinson," said old Judge Davis, "it's just like this: If
+you're not admitted, it'll hurt you with the people; if you are
+admitted, you'll move uptown to an office and get out of touch with
+them."
+
+Asbury smiled an inscrutable smile. Then he whispered something into the
+judge's ear that made the old man wrinkle from his neck up with
+appreciative smiles.
+
+"Asbury," he said, "you are--you are--well, you ought to be white,
+that's all. When we find a black man like you we send him to State's
+prison. If you were white, you'd go to the Senate."
+
+The Negro laughed confidently.
+
+He was admitted to the bar soon after, whether by merit or by connivance
+is not to be told.
+
+"Now he will move uptown," said the black community. "Well, that's the
+way with a coloured man when he gets a start."
+
+But they did not know Asbury Robinson yet. He was a man of surprises,
+and they were destined to disappointment. He did not move uptown. He
+built an office in a small open space next his shop, and there hung out
+his shingle.
+
+"I will never desert the people who have done so much to elevate me,"
+said Mr. Asbury.
+
+"I will live among them and I will die among them."
+
+This was a strong card for the barber-lawyer. The people seized upon the
+statement as expressing a nobility of an altogether unique brand.
+
+They held a mass meeting and indorsed him. They made resolutions that
+extolled him, and the Negro band came around and serenaded him, playing
+various things in varied time.
+
+All this was very sweet to Mr. Asbury, and the party managers chuckled
+with satisfaction and said, "That Asbury, that Asbury!"
+
+Now there is a fable extant of a man who tried to please everybody, and
+his failure is a matter of record. Robinson Asbury was not more
+successful. But be it said that his ill success was due to no fault or
+shortcoming of his.
+
+For a long time his growing power had been looked upon with disfavour by
+the coloured law firm of Bingo & Latchett. Both Mr. Bingo and Mr.
+Latchett themselves aspired to be Negro leaders in Cadgers, and they
+were delivering Emancipation Day orations and riding at the head of
+processions when Mr. Asbury was blacking boots. Is it any wonder, then,
+that they viewed with alarm his sudden rise? They kept their counsel,
+however, and treated with him, for it was best. They allowed him his
+scope without open revolt until the day upon which he hung out his
+shingle. This was the last straw. They could stand no more. Asbury had
+stolen their other chances from them, and now he was poaching upon the
+last of their preserves. So Mr. Bingo and Mr. Latchett put their heads
+together to plan the downfall of their common enemy.
+
+The plot was deep and embraced the formation of an opposing faction made
+up of the best Negroes of the town. It would have looked too much like
+what it was for the gentlemen to show themselves in the matter, and so
+they took into their confidence Mr. Isaac Morton, the principal of the
+coloured school, and it was under his ostensible leadership that the new
+faction finally came into being.
+
+Mr. Morton was really an innocent young man, and he had ideals which
+should never have been exposed to the air. When the wily confederates
+came to him with their plan he believed that his worth had been
+recognised, and at last he was to be what Nature destined him for--a
+leader.
+
+The better class of Negroes--by that is meant those who were
+particularly envious of Asbury's success--flocked to the new man's
+standard. But whether the race be white or black, political virtue is
+always in a minority, so Asbury could afford to smile at the force
+arrayed against him.
+
+The new faction met together and resolved. They resolved, among other
+things, that Mr. Asbury was an enemy to his race and a menace to
+civilisation. They decided that he should be abolished; but, as they
+couldn't get out an injunction against him, and as he had the whole
+undignified but still voting black belt behind him, he went serenely on
+his way.
+
+"They're after you hot and heavy, Asbury," said one of his friends to
+him.
+
+"Oh, yes," was the reply, "they're after me, but after a while I'll get
+so far away that they'll be running in front."
+
+"It's all the best people, they say."
+
+"Yes. Well, it's good to be one of the best people, but your vote only
+counts one just the same."
+
+The time came, however, when Mr. Asbury's theory was put to the test.
+The Cadgerites celebrated the first of January as Emancipation Day. On
+this day there was a large procession, with speechmaking in the
+afternoon and fireworks at night. It was the custom to concede the
+leadership of the coloured people of the town to the man who managed to
+lead the procession. For two years past this honour had fallen, of
+course, to Robinson Asbury, and there had been no disposition on the
+part of anybody to try conclusions with him.
+
+Mr. Morton's faction changed all this. When Asbury went to work to
+solicit contributions for the celebration, he suddenly became aware that
+he had a fight upon his hands. All the better-class Negroes were
+staying out of it. The next thing he knew was that plans were on foot
+for a rival demonstration.
+
+"Oh," he said to himself, "that's it, is it? Well, if they want a fight
+they can have it."
+
+He had a talk with the party managers, and he had another with Judge
+Davis.
+
+"All I want is a little lift, judge," he said, "and I'll make 'em think
+the sky has turned loose and is vomiting niggers."
+
+The judge believed that he could do it. So did the party managers.
+Asbury got his lift. Emancipation Day came.
+
+There were two parades. At least, there was one parade and the shadow of
+another. Asbury's, however, was not the shadow. There was a great deal
+of substance about it--substance made up of many people, many banners,
+and numerous bands. He did not have the best people. Indeed, among his
+cohorts there were a good many of the pronounced rag-tag and bobtail.
+But he had noise and numbers. In such cases, nothing more is needed. The
+success of Asbury's side of the affair did everything to confirm his
+friends in their good opinion of him.
+
+When he found himself defeated, Mr. Silas Bingo saw that it would be
+policy to placate his rival's just anger against him. He called upon him
+at his office the day after the celebration.
+
+"Well, Asbury," he said, "you beat us, didn't you?"
+
+"It wasn't a question of beating," said the other calmly. "It was only
+an inquiry as to who were the people--the few or the many."
+
+"Well, it was well done, and you've shown that you are a manager. I
+confess that I haven't always thought that you were doing the wisest
+thing in living down here and catering to this class of people when you
+might, with your ability, to be much more to the better class."
+
+"What do they base their claims of being better on?"
+
+"Oh, there ain't any use discussing that. We can't get along without
+you, we see that. So I, for one, have decided to work with you for
+harmony."
+
+"Harmony. Yes, that's what we want."
+
+"If I can do anything to help you at any time, why you have only to
+command me."
+
+"I am glad to find such a friend in you. Be sure, if I ever need you,
+Bingo, I'll call on you."
+
+"And I'll be ready to serve you."
+
+Asbury smiled when his visitor was gone. He smiled, and knitted his
+brow. "I wonder what Bingo's got up his sleeve," he said. "He'll bear
+watching."
+
+It may have been pride at his triumph, it may have been gratitude at his
+helpers, but Asbury went into the ensuing campaign with reckless
+enthusiasm. He did the most daring things for the party's sake. Bingo,
+true to his promise, was ever at his side ready to serve him. Finally,
+association and immunity made danger less fearsome; the rival no longer
+appeared a menace.
+
+With the generosity born of obstacles overcome, Asbury determined to
+forgive Bingo and give him a chance. He let him in on a deal, and from
+that time they worked amicably together until the election came and
+passed.
+
+It was a close election and many things had had to be done, but there
+were men there ready and waiting to do them. They were successful, and
+then the first cry of the defeated party was, as usual, "Fraud! Fraud!"
+The cry was taken up by the jealous, the disgruntled, and the virtuous.
+
+Someone remembered how two years ago the registration books had been
+stolen. It was known upon good authority that money had been freely
+used. Men held up their hands in horror at the suggestion that the Negro
+vote had been juggled with, as if that were a new thing. From their
+pulpits ministers denounced the machine and bade their hearers rise and
+throw off the yoke of a corrupt municipal government. One of those
+sudden fevers of reform had taken possession of the town and threatened
+to destroy the successful party.
+
+They began to look around them. They must purify themselves. They must
+give the people some tangible evidence of their own yearnings after
+purity. They looked around them for a sacrifice to lay upon the altar of
+municipal reform. Their eyes fell upon Mr. Bingo. No, he was not big
+enough. His blood was too scant to wash away the political stains. Then
+they looked into each other's eyes and turned their gaze away to let it
+fall upon Mr. Asbury. They really hated to do it. But there must be a
+scapegoat. The god from the Machine commanded them to slay him.
+
+Robinson Asbury was charged with many crimes--with all that he had
+committed and some that he had not. When Mr. Bingo saw what was afoot he
+threw himself heart and soul into the work of his old rival's enemies.
+He was of incalculable use to them.
+
+Judge Davis refused to have anything to do with the matter. But in spite
+of his disapproval it went on. Asbury was indicted and tried. The
+evidence was all against him, and no one gave more damaging testimony
+than his friend, Mr. Bingo. The judge's charge was favourable to the
+defendant, but the current of popular opinion could not be entirely
+stemmed. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty.
+
+"Before I am sentenced, judge, I have a statement to make to the court.
+It will take less than ten minutes."
+
+"Go on, Robinson," said the judge kindly.
+
+Asbury started, in a monotonous tone, a recital that brought the
+prosecuting attorney to his feet in a minute. The judge waved him down,
+and sat transfixed by a sort of fascinated horror as the convicted man
+went on. The before-mentioned attorney drew a knife and started for the
+prisoner's dock. With difficulty he was restrained. A dozen faces in the
+court-room were red and pale by turns.
+
+"He ought to be killed," whispered Mr. Bingo audibly.
+
+Robinson Asbury looked at him and smiled, and then he told a few things
+of him. He gave the ins and outs of some of the misdemeanours of which
+he stood accused. He showed who were the men behind the throne. And
+still, pale and transfixed, Judge Davis waited for his own sentence.
+
+Never were ten minutes so well taken up. It was a tale of rottenness and
+corruption in high places told simply and with the stamp of truth upon
+it.
+
+He did not mention the judge's name. But he had torn the mask from the
+face of every other man who had been concerned in his downfall. They had
+shorn him of his strength, but they had forgotten that he was yet able
+to bring the roof and pillars tumbling about their heads.
+
+The judge's voice shook as he pronounced sentence upon his old ally--a
+year in State's prison.
+
+Some people said it was too light, but the judge knew what it was to
+wait for the sentence of doom, and he was grateful and sympathetic.
+
+When the sheriff led Asbury away the judge hastened to have a short talk
+with him.
+
+"I'm sorry, Robinson," he said, "and I want to tell you that you were no
+more guilty than the rest of us. But why did you spare me?"
+
+"Because I knew you were my friend," answered the convict.
+
+"I tried to be, but you were the first man that I've ever known since
+I've been in politics who ever gave me any decent return for
+friendship."
+
+"I reckon you're about right, judge."
+
+In politics, party reform usually lies in making a scapegoat of someone
+who is only as criminal as the rest, but a little weaker. Asbury's
+friends and enemies had succeeded in making him bear the burden of all
+the party's crimes, but their reform was hardly a success, and their
+protestations of a change of heart were received with doubt. Already
+there were those who began to pity the victim and to say that he had
+been hardly dealt with.
+
+Mr. Bingo was not of these; but he found, strange to say, that his
+opposition to the idea went but a little way, and that even with Asbury
+out of his path he was a smaller man than he was before. Fate was strong
+against him. His poor, prosperous humanity could not enter the lists
+against a martyr. Robinson Asbury was now a martyr.
+
+
+II
+
+A year is not a long time. It was short enough to prevent people from
+forgetting Robinson, and yet long enough for their pity to grow strong
+as they remembered. Indeed, he was not gone a year. Good behaviour cut
+two months off the time of his sentence, and by the time people had come
+around to the notion that he was really the greatest and smartest man in
+Cadgers he was at home again.
+
+He came back with no flourish of trumpets, but quietly, humbly. He went
+back again into the heart of the black district. His business had
+deteriorated during his absence, but he put new blood and new life into
+it. He did not go to work in the shop himself, but, taking down the
+shingle that had swung idly before his office door during his
+imprisonment, he opened the little room as a news- and cigar-stand.
+
+Here anxious, pitying custom came to him and he prospered again. He was
+very quiet. Uptown hardly knew that he was again in Cadgers, and it knew
+nothing whatever of his doings.
+
+"I wonder why Asbury is so quiet," they said to one another. "It isn't
+like him to be quiet." And they felt vaguely uneasy about him.
+
+So many people had begun to say, "Well, he was a mighty good fellow
+after all."
+
+Mr. Bingo expressed the opinion that Asbury was quiet because he was
+crushed, but others expressed doubt as to this. There are calms and
+calms, some after and some before the storm. Which was this?
+
+They waited a while, and, as no storm came, concluded that this must be
+the after-quiet. Bingo, reassured, volunteered to go and seek
+confirmation of this conclusion.
+
+He went, and Asbury received him with an indifferent, not to say,
+impolite, demeanour.
+
+"Well, we're glad to see you back, Asbury," said Bingo patronisingly. He
+had variously demonstrated his inability to lead during his rival's
+absence and was proud of it. "What are you going to do?"
+
+"I'm going to work."
+
+"That's right. I reckon you'll stay out of politics."
+
+"What could I do even if I went in?"
+
+"Nothing now, of course; but I didn't know----"
+
+He did not see the gleam in Asbury's half shut eyes. He only marked his
+humility, and he went back swelling with the news.
+
+"Completely crushed--all the run taken out of him," was his report.
+
+The black district believed this, too, and a sullen, smouldering anger
+took possession of them. Here was a good man ruined. Some of the people
+whom he had helped in his former days--some of the rude, coarse people
+of the low quarter who were still sufficiently unenlightened to be
+grateful--talked among themselves and offered to get up a demonstration
+for him. But he denied them. No, he wanted nothing of the kind. It would
+only bring him into unfavourable notice. All he wanted was that they
+would always be his friends and would stick by him.
+
+They would to the death.
+
+There were again two factions in Cadgers. The school-master could not
+forget how once on a time he had been made a tool of by Mr. Bingo. So he
+revolted against his rule and set himself up as the leader of an
+opposing clique. The fight had been long and strong, but had ended with
+odds slightly in Bingo's favour.
+
+But Mr. Morton did not despair. As the first of January and Emancipation
+Day approached, he arrayed his hosts, and the fight for supremacy became
+fiercer than ever. The school-teacher is giving you a pretty hard
+brought the school-children in for chorus singing, secured an able
+orator, and the best essayist in town. With all this, he was formidable.
+
+Mr. Bingo knew that he had the fight of his life on his hands, and he
+entered with fear as well as zest. He, too, found an orator, but he was
+not sure that he was as good as Morton's. There was no doubt but that
+his essayist was not. He secured a band, but still he felt unsatisfied.
+He had hardly done enough, and for the school-master to beat him now
+meant his political destruction.
+
+It was in this state of mind that he was surprised to receive a visit
+from Mr. Asbury.
+
+"I reckon you're surprised to see me here," said Asbury, smiling.
+
+"I am pleased, I know." Bingo was astute.
+
+"Well, I just dropped in on business."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure, Asbury. What can I do for you?"
+
+"It's more what I can do for you that I came to talk about," was the
+reply.
+
+"I don't believe I understand you."
+
+"Well, it's plain enough. They say that the school-teacher is giving you
+a pretty hard fight."
+
+"Oh, not so hard."
+
+"No man can be too sure of winning, though. Mr. Morton once did me a
+mean turn when he started the faction against me."
+
+Bingo's heart gave a great leap, and then stopped for the fraction of a
+second.
+
+"You were in it, of course," pursued Asbury, "but I can look over your
+part in it in order to get even with the man who started it."
+
+It was true, then, thought Bingo gladly. He did not know. He wanted
+revenge for his wrongs and upon the wrong man. How well the schemer had
+covered his tracks! Asbury should have his revenge and Morton would be
+the sufferer.
+
+"Of course, Asbury, you know what I did I did innocently."
+
+"Oh, yes, in politics we are all lambs and the wolves are only to be
+found in the other party. We'll pass that, though. What I want to say is
+that I can help you to make your celebration an overwhelming success. I
+still have some influence down in my district."
+
+"Certainly, and very justly, too. Why, I should be delighted with your
+aid. I could give you a prominent place in the procession."
+
+"I don't want it; I don't want to appear in this at all. All I want is
+revenge. You can have all the credit, but let me down my enemy."
+
+Bingo was perfectly willing, and, with their heads close together, they
+had a long and close consultation. When Asbury was gone, Mr. Bingo lay
+back in his chair and laughed. "I'm a slick duck," he said.
+
+From that hour Mr. Bingo's cause began to take on the appearance of
+something very like a boom. More bands were hired. The interior of the
+State was called upon and a more eloquent orator secured. The crowd
+hastened to array itself on the growing side.
+
+With surprised eyes, the school-master beheld the wonder of it, but he
+kept to his own purpose with dogged insistence, even when he saw that he
+could not turn aside the overwhelming defeat that threatened him. But in
+spite of his obstinacy, his hours were dark and bitter. Asbury worked
+like a mole, all underground, but he was indefatigable. Two days before
+the celebration time everything was perfected for the biggest
+demonstration that Cadgers had ever known. All the next day and night he
+was busy among his allies.
+
+On the morning of the great day, Mr. Bingo, wonderfully caparisoned,
+rode down to the hall where the parade was to form. He was early. No one
+had yet come. In an hour a score of men all told had collected. Another
+hour passed, and no more had come. Then there smote upon his ear the
+sound of music. They were coming at last. Bringing his sword to his
+shoulder, he rode forward to the middle of the street. Ah, there they
+were. But--but--could he believe his eyes? They were going in another
+direction, and at their head rode--Morton! He gnashed his teeth in fury.
+He had been led into a trap and betrayed. The procession passing had
+been his--all his. He heard them cheering, and then, oh! climax of
+infidelity, he saw his own orator go past in a carriage, bowing and
+smiling to the crowd.
+
+There was no doubting who had done this thing. The hand of Asbury was
+apparent in it. He must have known the truth all along, thought Bingo.
+His allies left him one by one for the other hall, and he rode home in a
+humiliation deeper than he had ever known before.
+
+Asbury did not appear at the celebration. He was at his little
+news-stand all day.
+
+In a day or two the defeated aspirant had further cause to curse his
+false friend. He found that not only had the people defected from him,
+but that the thing had been so adroitly managed that he appeared to be
+in fault, and three-fourths of those who knew him were angry at some
+supposed grievance. His cup of bitterness was full when his partner, a
+quietly ambitious man, suggested that they dissolve their relations.
+
+His ruin was complete.
+
+The lawyer was not alone in seeing Asbury's hand in his downfall. The
+party managers saw it too, and they met together to discuss the
+dangerous factor which, while it appeared to slumber, was so terribly
+awake. They decided that he must be appeased, and they visited him.
+
+He was still busy at his news-stand. They talked to him adroitly, while
+he sorted papers and kept an impassive face. When they were all done, he
+looked up for a moment and replied, "You know, gentlemen, as an
+ex-convict I am not in politics."
+
+Some of them had the grace to flush.
+
+"But you can use your influence," they said.
+
+"I am not in politics," was his only reply.
+
+And the spring elections were coming on. Well, they worked hard, and he
+showed no sign. He treated with neither one party nor the other.
+"Perhaps," thought the managers, "he is out of politics," and they grew
+more confident.
+
+It was nearing eleven o'clock on the morning of election when a cloud no
+bigger than a man's hand appeared upon the horizon. It came from the
+direction of the black district. It grew, and the managers of the party
+in power looked at it, fascinated by an ominous dread. Finally it began
+to rain Negro voters, and as one man they voted against their former
+candidates. Their organisation was perfect. They simply came, voted, and
+left, but they overwhelmed everything. Not one of the party that had
+damned Robinson Asbury was left in power save old Judge Davis. His
+majority was overwhelming.
+
+The generalship that had engineered the thing was perfect. There were
+loud threats against the newsdealer. But no one bothered him except a
+reporter. The reporter called to see just how it was done. He found
+Asbury very busy sorting papers. To the newspaper man's questions he had
+only this reply, "I am not in politics, sir."
+
+But Cadgers had learned its lesson.
+
+
+
+
+_Two_
+
+ONE CHRISTMAS AT SHILOH
+
+
+Martha Maria Mixon was a "widder lady." So she described herself
+whenever anyone asked her as to her status in life. To her more intimate
+friends she confided that she was not a "weed widder," but one of the
+"grass" variety. The story of how her husband, Madison, had never been
+"No 'count, even befo' de wah," and of his rapid degeneration
+thereafter, was vividly told.
+
+"De fact of de mattah is," Mrs. Mixon was wont to say, "my man, Madison,
+was nevah no han' to wo'k. He was de settin'-downest man you evah seed.
+Hit wouldn't 'a' been so bad, but Madison was a lakly man, an' his
+tongue wah smoothah dan ile; so hit t'wan't no shakes fu' him to fool
+ol' Mas' 'bout his wo'k an' git erlong des erbout ez he pleased. Mas'
+Madison Mixon, hisse'f, was a mighty 'dulgent so't o' man, an' he liked
+a laugh bettah dan anyone in de worl'. Well, my man could mek him laugh,
+an' dat was enough fu' him. I used to lectuah dat man much 'bout his
+onshifless ways, but he des went erlong, twell bimeby hyeah come de wah
+an' evahthing was broke up. Den w'en hit come time dat Madison had to
+scramble fu' hisself, dey wa'nt no scramble in him. He des' wouldn't
+wo'k an' I had to do evahthing. He allus had what he called some gret
+scheme, but deh nevah seemed to come to nuffin, an' once when he got de
+folks to put some money in somep'n' dat broke up, dey come put' nigh
+tahin' an' featherin' him. Finally, I des got morchully tiahed o' dat
+man's ca'in' on, an' I say to him one day, 'Madison,' I say, 'I'm tiahed
+of all dis foo'ishness, an' I'm gwine up Norf whaih I kin live an' be
+somebody. Ef evah you mek a man out o' yo'se'f, an' want me, de Bible
+say 'Seek an' you shell receive.' Cause even den I was a mighty han' to
+c'ote de Scripters. Well, I lef' him, an' Norf I come, 'dough it jes'
+nigh broke my hea't, fu' I sho did love dat black man. De las' thing I
+hyeahed o' him, he had des learned to read an' write an' wah runnin' fu'
+de Legislater 'twell de Klu Klux got aftah him; den I think he 'signed
+de nomernation."
+
+This was Martha's story, and the reason that there was no Mr. Mixon with
+her when she came North, drifted from place to place and finally became
+one of New York's large black contingent from the South. To her the
+lessons of slavery had not been idle ones. Industrious, careful, and
+hard-working, she soon became prosperous, and when, hunting a spiritual
+home she settled upon Shiloh Chapel, she was welcomed there as a
+distinct addition to the large and active membership.
+
+Shiloh was not one of the fashionable churches of the city, but it was
+primarily a church home for any Southern negro, for in it were
+representatives of every one of the old slaveholding States. Its pastor
+was one of those who had not yet got beyond the belief that any temporal
+preparation for the preaching of the Gospel was unnecessary. It was
+still his firm trust, and often his boast, that if one opened his mouth
+the Lord would fill it, and it grew to be a settled idea that the Lord
+filled his acceptably, for his converts were many and his congregation
+increased.
+
+The Rev. Silas Todbury's education may have been deficient in other
+matters, but one thing he knew, and knew thoroughly--the disposition of
+his people. He knew just what weaknesses, longings, and desires their
+recent bondage had left with them, and with admirable shrewdness
+contrived to meet them. He knew that in preaching they wanted noise,
+emotion, and fire; that in the preacher they wanted free-heartedness and
+cordiality. He knew that when Christmas came they wanted a great rally,
+somewhat approaching, at least, the rousing times both spiritual and
+temporal that they had had back on the old plantation, when Christmas
+meant a week of pleasurable excitement. Knowing the last so well, it was
+with commendable foresight that he began early his preparations for a
+big time on a certain Christmas not long ago.
+
+"I tell you people," he said to his congregation, "we's goin' to have a
+reg'lar 'Benjamin's mess'!"
+
+The coloured folk, being not quite sure of the quotation, laughed
+heartily, exclaiming in admiration of their pastor, "Dat Todbu'y is
+sholy one mess hisse'f."
+
+"Now any of de sistahs dat's willin' to he'p mek dis comin' Chris'mus a
+real sho 'nough one, 'll 'blige me by meetin' me in de basement of de
+chu'ch aftah services. De brothahs kin go 'long home 'twell dey called
+fu'."
+
+There was another outburst of merriment at this sally, and it was a
+good-natured score or more of sisters who a little later met the pastor
+as agreed. Among them was Martha Maria Mixon, for she was very close to
+her pastor, and for many a day had joyed his clerical heart with special
+dinners.
+
+"Ah," said the preacher, rubbing his hands, "Sistah Marthy, I see you's
+on han' ez usual to he'p me out, an' you, too, Sis Jinny, an' Sis
+Dicey," he added, quick to note the signs of any incipient jealousy, and
+equally ready to check it. "We's all hyeah, de faithful few, an' we's
+all ready fu' wo'k."
+
+The sisters beamed and nodded.
+
+"Well, we goin' to have some'p'n evah night, beginnin' wid Chris'mus
+night, straight on endurin' of de week, an' I want to separate you all
+into companies fu' to take chawge of each night. Now, I's a-goin' to
+have a powahful preachah f'om de Souf wid us, an' I want you all to show
+him what we kin do. On Chris'mus day we goin' to have a sermont at de
+chu'ch an' a festabal in de evenin' wid a Chris'mus tree. Sis' Marthy, I
+want you to boa'd de minister."
+
+"La, Brothah Todbu'y, I don't scarcely feel lak I's 'portant 'nough fu'
+dat," said Mrs. Mixon modestly, "but I'll do de bes' I kin. I hatter be
+lak de widder's mice in de scuse o' meal."
+
+"We ain't got no doubt 'bout what you able to do, Sis Marthy," and the
+pastor passed to the appointment of his other committees. After evening
+services the brothers were similarly called in consultation and
+appointed to their respective duties.
+
+To the black people to whom these responsibilities were thus turned
+over, joy came, and with it the vision of other days--the vision of the
+dear old days, the hard old days back there in the South, when they had
+looked forward to their Christmas from year to year. Then it had been a
+time of sadness as well as of joy, for they knew that though the week
+was full of pleasure, after it was over must come separation and
+sadness. For this was the time when those who were to be hired out,
+loaned, or given away, were to change their homes. So even while they
+danced they sighed, and while they shouted they moaned. Now there was no
+such repressing fact to daunt them. Christmas would come. They would
+enjoy themselves, and after it was over would go back to the same homes
+to live through the round of months in the midst of familiar faces and
+among their own old loved ones. The thought gave sweetness to their
+labour, and the responsibilities devolving upon them imbued the sacred
+holiday with a meaning and charm that it had never had before for them.
+They bubbled over with importance and with the glory of it. A sister and
+a brother could not meet without a friendly banter.
+
+"Hi, Sis' Dicey," Brother Williams would call out across the fence to
+his neighbour, "I don' believe you doin' anything to'ds dat Chris'mus
+celebration. Evah time I sees you, you's in de washtub tryin' to mek
+braid an' meat fo' dat no 'count man o' yo'n."
+
+Sister Dicey's laugh rang out loud and musical before she replied,
+"Nevah you min', Brothah Williams. I don' see yo' back bowed so much by
+de yoke."
+
+"Oh, honey, I's labo'in' even ef you do'n know it, but you'll see it on
+de day."
+
+"I 'low you labo'in' de mos' to git dat wife o' yo'n a new dress," and
+her tormentor's guffaw seemed to admit some such benevolent intention.
+
+In the corners of every house where the younger and more worldly-minded
+people congregated there was much whispering and giggling, for they had
+their own plans for Christmas outside of the church affair.
+
+"You goin' to give me de pleasure of yo' comp'ny to de dance aftah de
+festabal?" some ardent and early swain would murmur to his lady love,
+and the whisper would fly back in well-feigned affright, "Heish, man,
+you want to have Brothah Todbu'y chu'chin' me?" But if the swain
+persisted, there was little chance of his being ultimately refused. So
+the world, the flesh, and the devil kept pace with the things of the
+spirit in the great preparation.
+
+Meanwhile Martha Maria Mixon went her own way, working hard, fixing and
+observing. She had determined to excel herself this time, and not only
+should her part at the church be above reproach, but the entertainment
+which she would give that strange preacher would be a thing long to be
+remembered. And so, almost startled at all that Shiloh was preparing for
+his reception, hoary Christmas approached.
+
+All New York was a dazzling bazar through which the people thronged
+ceaselessly, tumultuously. Everyone was a child again; holly wreaths
+with the red berries gleaming amid the green were everywhere, and the
+white streets were gay with laughter and bustle and life.
+
+On the night before the great day Martha sat before her fire and hummed
+softly to herself. There was a smile upon her face, for she had worked
+and worked well, and now all was ready and to her entire satisfaction.
+Something which shall be nameless simmered in a tin cup on the back of
+the stove before her, and every now and then she broke her reverie to
+sip of it. It smelled sweet and pungent and suspicious, but, then--this
+was Christmas Eve. She was half drowsing when a brisk knock startled her
+into wakefulness. Thinking it was one of the neighbours in for a call
+she bade the visitor enter, without moving. There was a stamping of
+feet, and the door opened and a black man covered with snow stood before
+her. He said nothing. Martha rubbed her eyes and stared at him, and then
+she looked at the cup accusingly, and from it back to the man. Then she
+rubbed her eyes again.
+
+"Wha--wha----" she stammered, rising slowly.
+
+"Don' you know me, Marthy, don' you know me; an' don' you want to see
+yo' husban'?"
+
+"Madison Mixon, is dat you in de flesh?"
+
+"It's me, Marthy; you tol' me ef evah I made a man o' myse'f, to seek
+you. It's been a long road, but I's tried faithful."
+
+All the memories of other days came rushing over Martha in an
+overwhelming flood. In one moment everything was forgotten save that
+here stood her long delinquent husband. She threw out her arms and took
+a step toward him, but he anticipated her further advance and rushing to
+her clasped her ample form in a close embrace.
+
+"You will tek me back!" he cried, "you will fu'give me!"
+
+"Yes, yes, of co'se, I will, Madison, ef you has made a man of yo'se'f."
+
+"I hopes to prove dat to you."
+
+It was a very pleasant evening that they spent together, and like old
+times to Martha. Never once did it occur to her that this sudden finding
+of a husband might be awkward on the morrow when the visitor came to
+dinner. Nor did she once suspect that Madison might be up to one of his
+old tricks. She accepted him for just what he said he was and intended
+to be.
+
+Her first doubt came the next morning when she began to hurry her
+preparations for church. Madison had been fumbling in his carpet bag and
+was already respectably dressed. His wife looked at him approvingly, but
+the glance turned to one of consternation when he stammered forth that
+he had to go out, as he had some business to attend to.
+
+"What, on de ve'y fust day you hyeah, ain't you goin' to chu'ch wid me?"
+
+"De bus'ness is mighty pressin', but I hopes to see you at chu'ch by de
+time de services begin. Waih does you set?" His hand was on the door.
+
+Martha sank into a chair and the tears came to her eyes, but she choked
+them back. She would not let him see how much she was hurt. She told him
+in a faltering voice where she sat, and he passed out. Then her tears
+came and flooded away the last hope. She had been so proud to think that
+she would walk to church with her husband that morning for the first
+time in so long a while, and now it was all over. For a little while she
+thought that she would not go, and then the memory of all the
+preparations she had made and of the new minister came to her, and she
+went on with her dressing.
+
+The church was crowded that morning when Martha arrived. She looked
+around in vain for some sight of Madison, but she could see nothing of
+him, and so she sank into her seat with a sigh. She could just see the
+new minister drooping in his seat behind the reading desk. He was
+evidently deep in meditation, for he did not get up during the hymn.
+
+Then Martha heard the Rev. Silas Todbury speaking. His words did not
+affect her until she found that the whole of his closing sentence was
+flashing through her brain like a flame. "We will now be exho'ted by de
+Reverent Madison Mixon."
+
+She couldn't believe her ears, but stared wildly at the pulpit where the
+new preacher stood. It was Madison. Her first impulse was to rise in her
+seat and stop him. It was another of his tricks, and he should not
+profane the church. But his look and voice silenced her and she sank
+back in amazement.
+
+He preached a powerful sermon, and at its close told something of his
+life and who he was, and Martha found herself all at once the centre of
+attention; and her face glowed and her heart burned within her as the
+people about her nodded and smiled at her through their tears, and
+hurled "Amen" upon "Amen."
+
+Madison hurried to her side after the services. "I des wanted to s'prise
+you a little, Marthy," he said.
+
+She was too happy to answer and, pressing his arm very tightly, she
+walked out among her congratulating friends, and between her husband and
+the Rev. Silas Todbury went proudly home to her Christmas dinner.
+
+
+
+
+_Three_
+
+THE MISSION OF MR. SCATTERS
+
+
+It took something just short of a revolution to wake up the sleepy
+little town of Miltonville. Through the slow, hot days it drowsed along
+like a lazy dog, only half rousing now and then to snap at some flying
+rumour, and relapsing at once into its pristine somnolence.
+
+It was not a dreamless sleep, however, that held the town in chains. It
+had its dreams--dreams of greatness, of wealth, of consequence and of
+growth. Granted that there was no effort to realise these visions, they
+were yet there, and, combined with the memory of a past that was not
+without credit, went far to give tone to its dormant spirit.
+
+It was a real spirit, too; the gallant Bourbon spirit of the old South;
+of Kentucky when she is most the daughter of Virginia, as was evidenced
+in the awed respect which all Miltonvillians, white and black alike,
+showed to Major Richardson in his house on the hill. He was part of the
+traditions of the place. It was shown in the conservatism of the old
+white families, and a certain stalwart if reflected self-respect in the
+older coloured inhabitants.
+
+In all the days since the school had been founded and Mr. Dunkin's
+marriage to the teacher had raised a brief ripple of excitement, these
+coloured people had slumbered. They were still slumbering that hot
+August day, unmindful of the sensation that lay at their very doors,
+heedless of the portents that said as plain as preaching, "Miltonville,
+the time is at hand, awake!"
+
+So it was that that afternoon there were only a few loungers, and these
+not very alert, about the station when the little train wheezed and
+puffed its way into it. It had been so long since anyone save those whom
+they knew had alighted at Miltonville that the loungers had lost faith,
+and with it curiosity, and now they scarcely changed their positions as
+the little engine stopped with a snort of disgust. But in an instant
+indifference had fled as the mist before the sun, and every eye on the
+platform was staring and white. It is the unexpected that always
+happens, and yet humanity never gets accustomed to it. The loafers,
+white and black, had assumed a sitting posture, and then they had stood
+up. For from the cars there had alighted the wonder of a stranger--a
+Negro stranger, gorgeous of person and attire. He was dressed in a suit
+of black cloth. A long coat was buttoned close around his tall and
+robust form. He was dead black, from his shiny top hat to his not less
+shiny boots, and about him there was the indefinable air of distinction.
+He stood looking about the platform for a moment, and then stepped
+briskly and decisively toward the group that was staring at him with
+wide eyes. There was no hesitation in that step. He walked as a man
+walks who is not in the habit of being stopped, who has not known what
+it is to be told, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further."
+
+"Can you tell me where I can find the residence of Mr. Isaac Jackson?"
+he asked sonorously as he reached the stupefied loungers. His voice was
+deep and clear.
+
+Someone woke from his astonishment and offered to lead him thither, and
+together the two started for their destination, the stranger keeping up
+a running fire of comment on the way. Had his companion been a close
+observer and known anything about the matter, he would have found the
+newcomer's English painfully, unforgivably correct. A language should be
+like an easy shoe on a flexible foot, but to one unused to it, it proves
+rather a splint on a broken limb. The stranger stalked about in
+conversational splints until they arrived at Isaac Jackson's door. Then
+giving his guide a dime, he dismissed him with a courtly bow, and
+knocked.
+
+It was a good thing that Martha Ann Jackson had the innate politeness of
+her race well to the fore when she opened the door upon the radiant
+creature, or she would have given voice to the words that were in her
+heart: "Good Lawd, what is dis?"
+
+"Is this the residence of Mr. Isaac Jackson?" in the stranger's suavest
+voice.
+
+"Yes, suh, he live hyeah."
+
+"May I see him? I desire to see him upon some business." He handed her
+his card, which she carefully turned upside down, glanced at without
+understanding, and put in her apron pocket as she replied:
+
+"He ain't in jes' now, but ef you'll step in an' wait, I'll sen' one o'
+de chillen aftah him."
+
+"I thank you, madam, I thank you. I will come in and rest from the
+fatigue of my journey. I have travelled a long way, and rest in such a
+pleasant and commodious abode as your own appears to be will prove very
+grateful to me."
+
+She had been half afraid to invite this resplendent figure into her
+humble house, but she felt distinctly flattered at his allusion to the
+home which she had helped Isaac to buy, and by the alacrity with which
+the stranger accepted her invitation.
+
+She ushered him into the front room, mentally thanking her stars that
+she had forced the reluctant Isaac to buy a bright new carpet a couple
+of months before.
+
+A child was despatched to find and bring home the father, while Martha
+Ann, hastily slipping out of her work-dress and into a starched calico,
+came in to keep her visitor company.
+
+His name proved to be Scatters, and he was a most entertaining and
+ingratiating man. It was evident that he had some important business
+with Isaac Jackson, but that it was mysterious was shown by the guarded
+way in which he occasionally hinted at it as he tapped the valise he
+carried and nodded knowingly.
+
+Time had never been when Martha Ann Jackson was so flustered. She was
+charmed and frightened and flattered. She could only leave Mr. Scatters
+long enough to give orders to her daughter, Lucy, to prepare such a
+supper as that household had never seen before; then she returned to sit
+again at his feet and listen to his words of wisdom.
+
+The supper progressed apace, and the savour of it was already in the
+stranger's nostrils. Upon this he grew eloquent and was about to divulge
+his secret to the hungry-eyed woman when the trampling of Isaac's boots
+upon the walk told him that he had only a little while longer to contain
+himself, and at the same time to wait for the fragrant supper.
+
+Now, it is seldom that a man is so well impressed with a smooth-tongued
+stranger as is his wife. Usually his hard-headedness puts him on the
+defensive against the blandishments of the man who has won his better
+half's favour, and, however honest the semi-fortunate individual may be,
+he despises him for his attainments. But it was not so in this case.
+Isaac had hardly entered the house and received his visitor's warm
+handclasp before he had become captive to his charm. Business,
+business--no, his guest had been travelling and he must be both tired
+and hungry. Isaac would hear of no business until they had eaten. Then,
+over a pipe, if the gentleman smoked, they might talk at their ease.
+
+Mr. Scatters demurred, but in fact nothing could have pleased him
+better, and the open smile with which he dropped into his place at the
+table was very genuine and heartfelt. Genuine, too, were his praises of
+Lucy's cooking; of her flaky buscuits and mealy potatoes. He was pleased
+all through and he did not hesitate to say so.
+
+It was a beaming group that finally rose heavily laden from the supper
+table.
+
+Over a social pipe a little later, Isaac Jackson heard the story that
+made his eyes bulge with interest and his heart throb with eagerness.
+
+Mr. Scatters began, tapping his host's breast and looking at him
+fixedly, "You had a brother some years ago named John." It was more like
+an accusation than a question.
+
+"Yes, suh, I had a brothah John."
+
+"Uh, huh, and that brother migrated to the West Indies."
+
+"Yes, suh, he went out to some o' dem outlandish places."
+
+"Hold on, sir, hold on, I am a West Indian myself."
+
+"I do' mean no erfence, 'ceptin' dat John allus was of a rovin'
+dispersition."
+
+"Very well, you know no more about your brother after his departure for
+the West Indies?"
+
+"No, suh."
+
+"Well, it is my mission to tell you the rest of the story. Your brother
+John landed at Cuba, and after working about some years and living
+frugally, he went into the coffee business, in which he became rich."
+
+"Rich?"
+
+"Rich, sir."
+
+"Why, bless my soul, who'd 'a evah thought that of John? Why, suh, I'm
+sho'ly proud to hyeah it. Why don't he come home an' visit a body?"
+
+"Ah, why?" said Mr. Scatters dramatically. "Now comes the most painful
+part of my mission. 'In the midst of life we are in death.'" Mr.
+Scatters sighed, Isaac sighed and wiped his eyes. "Two years ago your
+brother departed this life."
+
+"Was he saved?" Isaac asked in a choked voice. Scatters gave him one
+startled glance, and then answered hastily, "I am happy to say that he
+was."
+
+"Poor John! He gone an' me lef'."
+
+"Even in the midst of our sorrows, however, there is always a ray of
+light. Your brother remembered you in his will."
+
+"Remembered me?"
+
+"Remembered you, and as one of the executors of his estate,"--Mr.
+Scatters rose and went softly over to his valise, from which he took a
+large square package. He came back with it, holding it as if it were
+something sacred,--"as one of the executors of his estate, which is now
+settled, I was commissioned to bring you this." He tapped the package.
+"This package, sealed as you see with the seal of Cuba, contains five
+thousand dollars in notes and bonds."
+
+Isaac gasped and reached for the bundle, but it was withdrawn. "I am,
+however, not to deliver it to you yet. There are certain formalities
+which my country demands to be gone through with, after which I deliver
+my message and return to the fairest of lands, to the Gem of the
+Antilles. Let me congratulate you, Mr. Jackson, upon your good fortune."
+
+Isaac yielded up his hand mechanically. He was dazed by the vision of
+this sudden wealth.
+
+"Fi' thousan' dollahs," he repeated.
+
+"Yes, sir, five thousand dollars. It is a goodly sum, and in the
+meantime, until court convenes, I wish you to recommend some safe place
+in which to put this money, as I do not feel secure with it about my
+person, nor would it be secure if it were known to be in your house."
+
+"I reckon Albert Matthews' grocery would be the safes' place fu' it.
+He's got one o' dem i'on saftes."
+
+"The very place. Let us go there at once, and after that I will not
+encroach upon your hospitality longer, but attempt to find a hotel."
+
+"Hotel nothin'," said Isaac emphatically. "Ef my house ain't too common,
+you'll stay right thaih ontwell co't sets."
+
+"This is very kind of you, Mr. Jackson, but really I couldn't think of
+being such a charge upon you and your good wife."
+
+"'Tain't no charge on us; we'll be glad to have you. Folks hyeah in
+Miltonville has little enough comp'ny, de Lawd knows."
+
+Isaac spoke the truth, and it was as much the knowledge that he would be
+the envy of all the town as his gratitude to Scatters that prompted him
+to prevail upon his visitor to stay.
+
+Scatters was finally persuaded, and the men only paused long enough in
+the house to tell the curiosity-eaten Martha Ann the news, and then
+started for Albert Matthews' store. Scatters carried the precious
+package, and Isaac was armed with an old shotgun lest anyone should
+suspect their treasure and attack them. Five thousand dollars was not to
+be carelessly handled!
+
+As soon as the men were gone, Martha Ann started out upon her rounds,
+and her proud tongue did for the women portion of Miltonville what the
+visit to Matthews' store did for the men. Did Mrs. So-and-So remember
+brother John? Indeed she did. And when the story was told, it was a
+"Well, well, well! he used to be an ol' beau o' mine." Martha Ann found
+no less than twenty women of her acquaintance for whom her brother John
+seemed to have entertained tender feelings.
+
+The corner grocery store kept by Albert Matthews was the general
+gathering-place for the coloured male population of the town. It was a
+small, one-roomed building, almost filled with barrels, boxes, and
+casks.
+
+Pride as well as necessity had prompted Isaac to go to the grocery just
+at this time, when it would be quite the fullest of men. He had not
+calculated wrongly when he reckoned upon the sensation that would be
+made by his entrance with the distinguished-looking stranger. The
+excitement was all the most hungry could have wished for. The men stared
+at Jackson and his companion with wide-open eyes. They left off chewing
+tobacco and telling tales. A half-dozen of them forgot to avail
+themselves of the joy of spitting, and Albert Matthews, the proprietor,
+a weazened little brown-skinned man, forgot to lay his hand upon the
+scale in weighing out a pound of sugar.
+
+With a humility that was false on the very face of it, Isaac introduced
+his guest to the grocer and the three went off together mysteriously
+into a corner. The matter was duly explained and the object of the visit
+told. Matthews burned with envy of his neighbour's good fortune.
+
+"I do' reckon, Mistah Scatters, dat we bettah not let de othah folks in
+de sto' know anything 'bout dis hyeah bus'ness of ouahs. I got to be
+'sponsible fu dat money, an' I doesn't want to tek no chances."
+
+"You are perfectly right, sir, perfectly right. You are responsible, not
+only for the money itself, but for the integrity of this seal which
+means the dignity of government."
+
+Matthews looked sufficiently impressed, and together they all went their
+way among the barrels and boxes to the corner where the little safe
+stood. With many turnings and twistings the door was opened, the package
+inclosed and the safe shut again. Then they all rose solemnly and went
+behind the counter to sample something that Matthews had. This was
+necessary as a climax, for they had performed, not a mere deed, but a
+ceremonial.
+
+"Of course, you'll say nothing about this matter at all, Mr. Matthews,"
+said Scatters, thereby insuring publicity to his affair.
+
+There were a few introductions as the men passed out, but hardly had
+their backs turned when a perfect storm of comment and inquiry broke
+about the grocer's head. So it came to pass, that with many mysterious
+nods and headshakings, Matthews first hinted at and then told the
+story.
+
+For the first few minutes the men could scarcely believe what they had
+heard. It was so utterly unprecedented. Then it dawned upon them that it
+might be so, and discussion and argument ran rife for the next hour.
+
+The story flew like wildfire, there being three things in this world
+which interest all sorts and conditions of men alike: great wealth,
+great beauty, and great love. Whenever Mr. Scatters appeared he was
+greeted with deference and admiration. Any man who had come clear from
+Cuba on such an errand to their fellow-townsman deserved all honour and
+respect. His charming manners confirmed, too, all that preconceived
+notions had said of him. He became a social favourite. It began with Mr.
+and Mrs. Dunkin's calling upon him. Then followed Alonzo Taft, and when
+the former two gave a reception for the visitor, his position was
+assured. Miltonville had not yet arisen to the dignity of having a
+literary society. He now founded one and opened it himself with an
+address so beautiful, so eloquent and moving that Mr. Dunkin bobbed his
+head dizzy in acquiescence, and Aunt Hannah Payne thought she was in
+church and shouted for joy.
+
+The little town had awakened from its long post-bellum slumber and
+accepted with eagerness the upward impulse given it. It stood aside and
+looked on with something like adoration when Mr. Scatters and Mrs.
+Dunkin met and talked of ineffable things--things far above the ken of
+the average mortal.
+
+When Mr. Scatters found that his mission was known, he gave up further
+attempts at concealing it and talked freely about the matter. He
+expatiated at length upon the responsibility that devolved upon him and
+his desire to discharge it, and he spoke glowingly of the great
+government whose power was represented by the seal which held the
+package of bonds. Not for one day would he stay away from his beloved
+Cuba, if it were not that that seal had to be broken in the presence of
+the proper authorities. So, however reluctant he might be to stay, it
+was not for him to shirk his task: he must wait for the sitting of
+court.
+
+Meanwhile the Jacksons lived in an atmosphere of glory. The womenfolk
+purchased new dresses, and Isaac got a new wagon on the strength of
+their good fortune. It was nothing to what they dreamed of doing when
+they had the money positively in hand. Mr. Scatters still remained their
+guest, and they were proud of it.
+
+What pleased them most was that their distinguished visitor seemed not
+to look down upon, but rather to be pleased with, their homely fare.
+Isaac had further cause for pleasure when his guest came to him later
+with a great show of frank confidence to request the loan of fifty
+dollars.
+
+"I should not think of asking even this small favour of you but that I
+have only Cuban money with me and I knew you would feel distressed if
+you knew that I went to the trouble of sending this money away for
+exchange on account of so small a sum."
+
+This was undoubtedly a mark of special confidence. It suddenly made
+Isaac feel as if the grand creature had accepted and labelled him as a
+brother and an equal. He hastened to Matthews' safe, where he kept his
+own earnings; for the grocer was banker as well.
+
+With reverent hands they put aside the package of bonds and together
+counted out the required half a hundred dollars. In a little while Mr.
+Scatters' long, graceful fingers had closed over it.
+
+Mr. Jackson's cup of joy was now full. It had but one bitter drop to mar
+its sweetness. That was the friendship that had sprung up between the
+Cuban and Mr. Dunkin. They frequently exchanged visits, and sat long
+together engaged in conversation from which Isaac was excluded. This
+galled him. He felt that he had a sort of proprietary interest in his
+guest. And any infringement of this property right he looked upon with
+distinct disfavour. So that it was with no pleasant countenance that he
+greeted Mr. Dunkin when he called on a certain night.
+
+"Mr. Scatters is gone out," he said, as the old man entered and
+deposited his hat on the floor.
+
+"Dat's all right, Isaac," said Mr. Dunkin slowly, "I didn't come to see
+de gent'man. I come to see you."
+
+The cloud somewhat lifted from Isaac's brow. Mr. Dunkin was a man of
+importance and it made a deal of difference whom he was visiting.
+
+He seemed a little bit embarrassed, however, as to how to open
+conversation. He hummed and hawed and was visibly uneasy. He tried to
+descant upon the weather, but the subject failed him. Finally, with an
+effort, he hitched his chair nearer to his host's and said in a low
+voice, "Ike, I reckon you has de confidence of Mistah Scatters?"
+
+"I has," was the proud reply, "I has."
+
+"Hum! uh! huh! Well--well--has you evah loant him any money?"
+
+Isaac was aghast. Such impertinence!
+
+"Mistah Dunkin," he began, "I considah----"
+
+"Hol' on, Ike!" broke in Dunkin, laying a soothing hand on the other's
+knee, "don' git on yo' high hoss. Dis hyeah's a impo'tant mattah."
+
+"I ain't got nothin' to say."
+
+"He ain't never tol' you 'bout havin' nothin' but Cubian money on him?"
+
+Isaac started.
+
+"I see he have. He tol' me de same thing."
+
+The two men sat staring suspiciously into each other's faces.
+
+"He got a hun'ed an' fifty dollahs f'om me," said Dunkin.
+
+"I let him have fifty," added Jackson weakly.
+
+"He got a hun'ed an' fifty dollahs f'om thews. Dat's how I come to git
+'spicious. He tol' him de same sto'y."
+
+Again that pregnant look flashed between them, and they both rose and
+went out of the house.
+
+They hurried down to Matthews' grocery. The owner was waiting for them
+there. There was solemnity, but no hesitation, in the manner with which
+they now went to the safe. They took out the package hastily and with
+ruthless hands. This was no ceremonial now. The seal had no longer any
+fears for them. They tore it off. They tore the wrappers. Then paper.
+Neatly folded paper. More wrapping paper. Newspapers. Nothing more. Of
+bills or bonds--nothing. With the debris of the mysterious parcel
+scattered about their feet, they stood up and looked at each other.
+
+"I nevah did believe in furriners nohow," said Mr. Dunkin sadly.
+
+"But he knowed all about my brothah John."
+
+"An' he sho'ly did make mighty fine speeches. Maybe we's missed de
+money." This from the grocer.
+
+Together they went over the papers again, with the same result.
+
+"Do you know where he went to-night, Ike?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Den I reckon we's seed de las' o' him."
+
+"But he lef' his valise."
+
+"Yes, an' he lef' dis," said Dunkin sternly, pointing to the paper on
+the floor. "He sho'ly is mighty keerless of his valybles."
+
+"Let's go git de constable," said the practical Matthews.
+
+They did, though they felt that it would be unavailing.
+
+The constable came and waited at Jackson's house. They had been there
+about half an hour, talking the matter over, when what was their
+surprise to hear Mr. Scatters' step coming jauntily up the walk. A
+sudden panic of terror and shame seized them. It was as if they had
+wronged him. Suppose, after all, everything should come right and he
+should be able to explain? They sat and trembled until he entered. Then
+the constable told him his mission.
+
+Mr. Scatters was surprised. He was hurt. Indeed, he was distinctly
+grieved that his friends had had so little confidence in him. Had he
+been to them anything but a gentleman, a friend, and an honest man? Had
+he not come a long distance from his home to do one of them a favour?
+They hung their heads. Martha Ann, who was listening at the door, was
+sobbing audibly. What had he done thus to be humiliated? He saw the
+effect of his words and pursued it. Had he not left in the care of one
+of their own number security for his integrity in the shape of the
+bonds?
+
+The effect of his words was magical. Every head went up and three pairs
+of flashing eyes were bent upon him. He saw and knew that they knew. He
+had not thought that they would dare to violate the seal around which he
+had woven such a halo. He saw that all was over, and, throwing up his
+hands with a despairing gesture, he bowed graciously and left the room
+with the constable.
+
+All Miltonville had the story next day, and waited no less eagerly than
+before for the "settin' of co't."
+
+To the anger and chagrin of Miltonvillians, Fox Run had the honour and
+distinction of being the county seat, and thither they must go to the
+sessions; but never did they so forget their animosities as on the day
+set for the trial of Scatters. They overlooked the pride of the Fox
+Runners, their cupidity and their vaunting arrogance. They ignored the
+indignity of showing interest in anything that took place in that
+village, and went in force, eager, anxious, and curious. Ahorse, afoot,
+by oxcart, by mule-wagon, white, black, high, low, old, and young of
+both sexes invaded Fox Run and swelled the crowd of onlookers until,
+with pity for the very anxiety of the people, the humane judge decided
+to discard the now inadequate court-room and hold the sessions on the
+village green. Here an impromptu bar was set up, and over against it
+were ranged the benches, chairs, and camp-stools of the spectators.
+
+Every man of prominence in the county was present. Major Richardson,
+though now retired, occupied a distinguished position within the bar.
+Old Captain Howard shook hands familiarly with the judge and nodded to
+the assembly as though he himself had invited them all to be present.
+Former Judge Durbin sat with his successor on the bench.
+
+Court opened and the first case was called. It gained but passing
+attention. There was bigger game to be stalked. A hog-stealing case
+fared a little better on account of the intimateness of the crime
+involved. But nothing was received with such awed silence as the case of
+the State against Joseph Scatters. The charge was obtaining money under
+false pretences, and the plea "Not Guilty."
+
+The witnesses were called and their testimony taken. Mr. Scatters was
+called to testify in his own defence, but refused to do so. The
+prosecution stated its case and proceeded to sum up the depositions of
+the witnesses. As there was no attorney for the defence, the State's
+attorney delivered a short speech, in which the guilt of the defendant
+was plainly set forth. It was as clear as day. Things looked very dark
+for Mr. Scatters of Cuba.
+
+As the lawyer sat down, and ere the case could be given to the jury, he
+rose and asked permission of the Court to say a few words.
+
+This was granted him.
+
+He stood up among them, a magnificent, strong, black figure. His eyes
+swept the assembly, judge, jury, and spectators with a look half
+amusement, half defiance.
+
+"I have pleaded not guilty," he began in a low, distinct voice that
+could be heard in every part of the inclosure, "and I am not guilty of
+the spirit which is charged against me, however near the letter may
+touch me. I did use certain knowledge that I possessed, and the seal
+which I happened to have from an old government position, to
+defraud--that is the word, if you will--to defraud these men out of the
+price of their vanity and their cupidity. But it was not a
+long-premeditated thing. I was within a few miles of your town before
+the idea occurred to me. I was in straits. I stepped from the brink of
+great poverty into the midst of what you are pleased to deem a greater
+crime."
+
+The Court held its breath. No such audacity had ever been witnessed in
+the life of Fox Run.
+
+Scatters went on, warming to his subject as he progressed. He was
+eloquent and he was pleasing. A smile flickered over the face of Major
+Richardson and was reflected in the features of many others as the
+speaker burst forth:
+
+"Gentlemen, I maintain that instead of imprisoning you should thank me
+for what I have done. Have I not taught your community a lesson? Have I
+not put a check upon their credulity and made them wary of unheralded
+strangers?"
+
+He had. There was no disputing that. The judge himself was smiling, and
+the jurymen were nodding at each other.
+
+Scatters had not yet played his trump card. He saw that the time was
+ripe. Straightening his form and raising his great voice, he cried:
+"Gentlemen, I am guilty according to the letter of the law, but from
+that I appeal to the men who make and have made the law. From the hard
+detail of this new day, I appeal to the chivalry of the old South which
+has been told in story and sung in song. From men of vindictiveness I
+appeal to men of mercy. From plebeians to aristocrats. By the memory of
+the sacred names of the Richardsons"--the Major sat bolt upright and
+dropped his snuffbox--"the Durbins"--the ex-judge couldn't for his life
+get his pince-nez on--"the Howards"--the captain openly rubbed his
+hands--"to the memory that those names call up I appeal, and to the
+living and honourable bearers of them present. And to you, gentlemen of
+the jury, the lives of whose fathers went to purchase this dark and
+bloody ground, I appeal from the accusation of these men, who are not my
+victims, not my dupes, but their own."
+
+There was a hush when he was done. The judge read the charge to the
+jury, and it was favourable--very. And--well, Scatters had taught the
+darkies a lesson; he had spoken of their families and their traditions,
+he knew their names, and--oh, well, he was a good fellow after all--what
+was the use?
+
+The jury did not leave their seats, and the verdict was acquittal.
+
+Scatters thanked the Court and started away; but he met three
+ominous-looking pairs of eyes, and a crowd composed of angry Negroes was
+flocking toward the edge of the green.
+
+He came back.
+
+"I think I had better wait until the excitement subsides," he said to
+Major Richardson.
+
+"No need of that, suh, no need of that. Here, Jim," he called to his
+coachman, "take Mr. Scatters wherever he wants to go, and remember, I
+shall hold you responsible for his safety."
+
+"Yes, suh," said Jim.
+
+"A thousand thanks, Major," said the man with the mission.
+
+"Not at all, suh. By the way, that was a very fine effort of yours this
+afternoon. I was greatly moved by it. If you'll give me your address
+I'll send you a history of our family, suh, from the time they left
+Vuhginia and before."
+
+Mr. Scatters gave him the address, and smiled at the three enemies, who
+still waited on the edge of the green.
+
+"To the station," he said to the driver.
+
+
+
+
+_Four_
+
+A MATTER OF DOCTRINE
+
+
+There was great excitement in Miltonville over the advent of a most
+eloquent and convincing minister from the North. The beauty about the
+Rev. Thaddeus Warwick was that he was purely and simply a man of the
+doctrine. He had no emotions, his sermons were never matters of feeling;
+but he insisted so strongly upon the constant presentation of the tenets
+of his creed that his presence in a town was always marked by the
+enthusiasm and joy of religious disputation.
+
+The Rev. Jasper Hayward, coloured, was a man quite of another stripe.
+With him it was not so much what a man held as what he felt. The
+difference in their characteristics, however, did not prevent him from
+attending Dr. Warwick's series of sermons, where, from the vantage point
+of the gallery, he drank in, without assimilating, that divine's words
+of wisdom.
+
+Especially was he edified on the night that his white brother held
+forth upon the doctrine of predestination. It was not that he understood
+it at all, but that it sounded well and the words had a rich ring as he
+champed over them again and again.
+
+Mr. Hayward was a man for the time and knew that his congregation
+desired something new, and if he could supply it he was willing to take
+lessons even from a white co-worker who had neither "de spi'it ner de
+fiah." Because, as he was prone to admit to himself, "dey was sump'in'
+in de unnerstannin'."
+
+He had no idea what plagiarism is, and without a single thought of
+wrong, he intended to reproduce for his people the religious wisdom
+which he acquired at the white church. He was an innocent beggar going
+to the doors of the well-provided for cold spiritual victuals to warm
+over for his own family. And it would not be plagiarism either, for this
+very warming-over process would save it from that and make his own
+whatever he brought. He would season with the pepper of his homely wit,
+sprinkle it with the salt of his home-made philosophy, then, hot with
+the fire of his crude eloquence, serve to his people a dish his very
+own. But to the true purveyor of original dishes it is never pleasant to
+know that someone else holds the secret of the groundwork of his
+invention.
+
+It was then something of a shock to the Reverend Mr. Hayward to be
+accosted by Isaac Middleton, one of his members, just as he was leaving
+the gallery on the night of this most edifying of sermons.
+
+Isaac laid a hand upon his shoulder and smiled at him benevolently.
+
+"How do, Brothah Hayward," he said, "you been sittin' unner de drippin's
+of de gospel, too?"
+
+"Yes, I has been listenin' to de wo'ds of my fellow-laborah in de
+vineya'd of de Lawd," replied the preacher with some dignity, for he saw
+vanishing the vision of his own glory in a revivified sermon on
+predestination.
+
+Isaac linked his arm familiarly in his pastor's as they went out upon
+the street.
+
+"Well, what you t'ink erbout pre-o'dination an' fo'-destination any how?"
+
+"It sutny has been pussented to us in a powahful light dis eve'nin'."
+
+"Well, suh, hit opened up my eyes. I do' know when I's hyeahed a sehmon
+dat done my soul mo' good."
+
+"It was a upliftin' episode."
+
+"Seem lak 'co'din' to de way de brothah 'lucidated de matter to-night
+dat evaht'ing done sot out an' cut an' dried fu' us. Well dat's gwine to
+he'p me lots."
+
+"De gospel is allus a he'p."
+
+"But not allus in dis way. You see I ain't a eddicated man lak you,
+Brothah Hayward."
+
+"We can't all have de same 'vantages," the preacher condescended. "But
+what I feels, I feels, an' what I unnerstan's, I unnerstan's. The
+Scripture tell us to get unnerstannin'."
+
+"Well, dat's what I's been a-doin' to-night. I's been a-doubtin' an'
+a-doubtin', a-foolin' erroun' an' wonderin', but now I unnerstan'."
+
+"'Splain yo'se'f, Brothah Middleton," said the preacher.
+
+"Well, suh, I will to you. You knows Miss Sally Briggs? Huh, what say?"
+
+The Reverend Hayward had given a half discernible start and an
+exclamation had fallen from his lips.
+
+"What say?" repeated his companion.
+
+"I knows de sistah ve'y well, she bein' a membah of my flock."
+
+"Well, I been gwine in comp'ny wit dat ooman fu' de longes'. You ain't
+nevah tasted none o' huh cookin', has you?"
+
+"I has 'sperienced de sistah's puffo'mances in dat line."
+
+"She is the cookin'est ooman I evah seed in all my life, but
+howsomedever, I been gwine all dis time an' I ain' nevah said de wo'd. I
+nevah could git clean erway f'om huh widout somep'n' drawin' me back,
+an' I didn't know what hit was."
+
+The preacher was restless.
+
+"Hit was des dis away, Brothah Hayward, I was allus lingerin' on de
+brink, feahful to la'nch away, but now I's a-gwine to la'nch, case dat
+all dis time tain't been nuffin but fo'-destination dat been a-holdin' me
+on."
+
+"Ahem," said the minister; "we mus' not be in too big a hu'y to put ouah
+human weaknesses upon some divine cause."
+
+"I ain't a-doin' dat, dough I ain't a-sputin' dat de lady is a mos'
+oncommon fine lookin' pusson."
+
+"I has only seed huh wid de eye of de spi'it," was the virtuous answer,
+"an' to dat eye all t'ings dat are good are beautiful."
+
+"Yes, suh, an' lookin' wid de cookin' eye, hit seem lak' I des
+fo'destinated fu' to ma'y dat ooman."
+
+"You say you ain't axe huh yit?"
+
+"Not yit, but I's gwine to ez soon ez evah I gets de chanst now."
+
+"Uh, huh," said the preacher, and he began to hasten his steps homeward.
+
+"Seems lak you in a pow'ful hu'y to-night," said his companion, with
+some difficulty accommodating his own step to the preacher's masterly
+strides. He was a short man and his pastor was tall and gaunt.
+
+"I has somp'n' on my min,' Brothah Middleton, dat I wants to thrash out
+to-night in de sollertude of my own chambah," was the solemn reply.
+
+"Well, I ain' gwine keep erlong wid you an' pestah you wid my chattah,
+Brothah Hayward," and at the next corner Isaac Middleton turned off and
+went his way, with a cheery "so long, may de Lawd set wid you in yo'
+meddertations."
+
+"So long," said his pastor hastily. Then he did what would be strange in
+any man, but seemed stranger in so virtuous a minister. He checked his
+hasty pace, and, after furtively watching Middleton out of sight, turned
+and retraced his steps in a direction exactly opposite to the one in
+which he had been going, and toward the cottage of the very Sister
+Griggs concerning whose charms the minister's parishioner had held
+forth.
+
+It was late, but the pastor knew that the woman whom he sought was
+industrious and often worked late, and with ever increasing eagerness he
+hurried on. He was fully rewarded for his perseverance when the light
+from the window of his intended hostess gleamed upon him, and when she
+stood in the full glow of it as the door opened in answer to his knock.
+
+"La, Brothah Hayward, ef it ain't you; howdy; come in."
+
+"Howdy, howdy, Sistah Griggs, how you come on?"
+
+"Oh, I's des tol'able," industriously dusting a chair. "How's yo'se'f?"
+
+"I's right smaht, thankee ma'am."
+
+"W'y, Brothah Hayward, ain't you los' down in dis paht of de town?"
+
+"No, indeed, Sistah Griggs, de shep'erd ain't nevah los' no whaih dey's
+any of de flock." Then looking around the room at the piles of ironed
+clothes, he added: "You sutny is a indust'ious ooman."
+
+"I was des 'bout finishin' up some i'onin' I had fu' de white folks,"
+smiled Sister Griggs, taking down her ironing-board and resting it in
+the corner. "Allus when I gits thoo my wo'k at nights I's putty well
+tiahed out an' has to eat a snack; set by, Brothah Hayward, while I
+fixes us a bite."
+
+"La, sistah, hit don't skacely seem right fu' me to be a-comin' in hyeah
+lettin' you fix fu' me at dis time o' night, an' you mighty nigh
+tuckahed out, too."
+
+"Tsch, Brothah Hayward, taint no ha'dah lookin' out fu' two dan it is
+lookin' out fu' one."
+
+Hayward flashed a quick upward glance at his hostess' face and then
+repeated slowly, "Yes'm, dat sutny is de trufe. I ain't nevah t'ought o'
+that befo'. Hit ain't no ha'dah lookin' out fu' two dan hit is fu'
+one," and though he was usually an incessant talker, he lapsed into a
+brown study.
+
+Be it known that the Rev. Mr. Hayward was a man of a very level head,
+and that his bachelorhood was a matter of economy. He had long
+considered matrimony in the light of a most desirable estate, but one
+which he feared to embrace until the rewards for his labours began
+looking up a little better. But now the matter was being presented to
+him in an entirely different light. "Hit ain't no ha'dah lookin' out fu'
+two dan fu' one." Might that not be the truth after all. One had to have
+food. It would take very little more to do for two. One had to have a
+home to live in. The same house would shelter two. One had to wear
+clothes. Well, now, there came the rub. But he thought of donation
+parties, and smiled. Instead of being an extravagance, might not this
+union of two beings be an economy? Somebody to cook the food, somebody
+to keep the house, and somebody to mend the clothes.
+
+His reverie was broken in upon by Sally Griggs' voice. "Hit do seem lak
+you mighty deep in t'ought dis evenin', Brothah Hayward. I done spoke to
+you twicet."
+
+"Scuse me, Sistah Griggs, my min' has been mighty deeply 'sorbed in a
+little mattah o' doctrine. What you say to me?"
+
+"I say set up to the table an' have a bite to eat; tain't much, but
+'sich ez I have'--you know what de 'postle said."
+
+The preacher's eyes glistened as they took in the well-filled board.
+There was fervour in the blessing which he asked that made amends for
+its brevity. Then he fell to.
+
+Isaac Middleton was right. This woman was a genius among cooks. Isaac
+Middleton was also wrong. He, a layman, had no right to raise his eyes
+to her. She was the prize of the elect, not the quarry of any chance
+pursuer. As he ate and talked, his admiration for Sally grew as did his
+indignation at Middleton's presumption.
+
+Meanwhile the fair one plied him with delicacies, and paid deferential
+attention whenever he opened his mouth to give vent to an opinion. An
+admirable wife she would make, indeed.
+
+At last supper was over and his chair pushed back from the table. With a
+long sigh of content, he stretched his long legs, tilted back and said:
+"Well, you done settled de case ez fur ez I is concerned."
+
+"What dat, Brothah Hayward?" she asked.
+
+"Well, I do' know's I's quite prepahed to tell you yit."
+
+"Hyeah now, don' you remembah ol' Mis' Eve? Taint nevah right to git a
+lady's cur'osity riz."
+
+"Oh, nemmine, nemmine, I ain't gwine keep yo' cur'osity up long. You
+see, Sistah Griggs, you done 'lucidated one p'int to me dis night dat
+meks it plumb needful fu' me to speak."
+
+She was looking at him with wide open eyes of expectation.
+
+"You made de 'emark to-night, dat it ain't no ha'dah lookin' out aftah
+two dan one."
+
+"Oh, Brothah Hayward!"
+
+"Sistah Sally, I reckernizes dat, an' I want to know ef you won't let me
+look out aftah we two? Will you ma'y me?"
+
+She picked nervously at her apron, and her eyes sought the floor
+modestly as she answered, "Why, Brothah Hayward, I ain't fittin' fu' no
+sich eddicated man ez you. S'posin' you'd git to be pu'sidin' elder, er
+bishop, er somp'n' er othah, whaih'd I be?"
+
+He waved his hand magnanimously. "Sistah Griggs, Sally, whatevah high
+place I may be fo'destined to I shall tek my wife up wid me."
+
+This was enough, and with her hearty yes, the Rev. Mr. Hayward had
+Sister Sally close in his clerical arms. They were not through their
+mutual felicitations, which were indeed so enthusiastic as to drown the
+sound of a knocking at the door and the ominous scraping of feet, when
+the door opened to admit Isaac Middleton, just as the preacher was
+imprinting a very decided kiss upon his fiancee's cheek.
+
+"Wha'--wha'" exclaimed Middleton.
+
+The preacher turned. "Dat you, Isaac?" he said complacently. "You must
+'scuse ouah 'pearance, we des got ingaged."
+
+The fair Sally blushed unseen.
+
+"What!" cried Isaac. "Ingaged, aftah what I tol' you to-night." His face
+was a thundercloud.
+
+"Yes, suh."
+
+"An' is dat de way you stan' up fu' fo'destination?"
+
+This time it was the preacher's turn to darken angrily as he replied,
+"Look a-hyeah, Ike Middleton, all I got to say to you is dat whenevah a
+lady cook to please me lak dis lady do, an' whenevah I love one lak I
+love huh, an' she seems to love me back, I's a-gwine to pop de question
+to huh, fo'destination er no fo'destination, so dah!"
+
+The moment was pregnant with tragic possibilities. The lady still stood
+with bowed head, but her hand had stolen into her minister's. Isaac
+paused, and the situation overwhelmed him. Crushed with anger and defeat
+he turned toward the door.
+
+On the threshold he paused again to say, "Well, all I got to say to you,
+Hayward, don' you nevah talk to me no mor' nuffin' 'bout doctrine!"
+
+
+
+
+_Five_
+
+OLD ABE'S CONVERSION
+
+
+The Negro population of the little Southern town of Danvers was in a
+state of excitement such as it seldom reached except at revivals,
+baptisms, or on Emancipation Day. The cause of the commotion was the
+anticipated return of the Rev. Abram Dixon's only son, Robert, who,
+having taken up his father's life-work and graduated at one of the
+schools, had been called to a city church.
+
+When Robert's ambition to take a college course first became the subject
+of the village gossip, some said that it was an attempt to force
+Providence. If Robert were called to preach, they said, he would be
+endowed with the power from on high, and no intervention of the schools
+was necessary. Abram Dixon himself had at first rather leaned to this
+side of the case. He had expressed his firm belief in the theory that if
+you opened your mouth, the Lord would fill it. As for him, he had no
+thought of what he should say to his people when he rose to speak. He
+trusted to the inspiration of the moment, and dashed blindly into
+speech, coherent or otherwise.
+
+Himself a plantation exhorter of the ancient type, he had known no
+school except the fields where he had ploughed and sowed, the woods and
+the overhanging sky. He had sat under no teacher except the birds and
+the trees and the winds of heaven. If he did not fail utterly, if his
+labour was not without fruit, it was because he lived close to nature,
+and so, near to nature's God. With him religion was a matter of emotion,
+and he relied for his results more upon a command of feeling than upon
+an appeal to reason. So it was not strange that he should look upon his
+son's determination to learn to be a preacher as unjustified by the real
+demands of the ministry.
+
+But as the boy had a will of his own and his father a boundless pride in
+him, the day came when, despite wagging heads, Robert Dixon went away to
+be enrolled among the students of a growing college. Since then six
+years had passed. Robert had spent his school vacations in teaching; and
+now, for the first time, he was coming home, a full-fledged minister of
+the gospel.
+
+It was rather a shock to the old man's sensibilities that his son's
+congregation should give him a vacation, and that the young minister
+should accept; but he consented to regard it as of the new order of
+things, and was glad that he was to have his boy with him again,
+although he murmured to himself, as he read his son's letter through his
+bone-bowed spectacles: "Vacation, vacation, an' I wonder ef he reckons
+de devil's goin' to take one at de same time?"
+
+It was a joyous meeting between father and son. The old man held his boy
+off and looked at him with proud eyes.
+
+"Why, Robbie," he said, "you--you's a man!"
+
+"That's what I'm trying to be, father." The young man's voice was deep,
+and comported well with his fine chest and broad shoulders.
+
+"You's a bigger man den yo' father ever was!" said his mother
+admiringly.
+
+"Oh, well, father never had the advantage of playing football."
+
+The father turned on him aghast. "Playin' football!" he exclaimed. "You
+don't mean to tell me dat dey 'lowed men learnin' to be preachers to
+play sich games?"
+
+"Oh, yes, they believe in a sound mind in a sound body, and one seems to
+be as necessary as the other in fighting evil."
+
+Abram Dixon shook his head solemnly. The world was turning upside down
+for him.
+
+"Football!" he muttered, as they sat down to supper.
+
+Robert was sorry that he had spoken of the game, because he saw that it
+grieved his father. He had come intending to avoid rather than to combat
+his parent's prejudices. There was no condescension in his thought of
+them and their ways. They were different; that was all. He had learned
+new ways. They had retained the old. Even to himself he did not say,
+"But my way is the better one."
+
+His father was very full of eager curiosity as to his son's conduct of
+his church, and the son was equally glad to talk of his work, for his
+whole soul was in it.
+
+"We do a good deal in the way of charity work among the churchless and
+almost homeless city children; and, father, it would do your heart good
+if you could only see the little ones gathered together learning the
+first principles of decent living."
+
+"Mebbe so," replied the father doubtfully, "but what you doin' in de way
+of teachin' dem to die decent?"
+
+The son hesitated for a moment, and then he answered gently, "We think
+that one is the companion of the other, and that the best way to prepare
+them for the future is to keep them clean and good in the present."
+
+"Do you give 'em good strong doctern, er do you give 'em milk and
+water?"
+
+"I try to tell them the truth as I see it and believe it. I try to hold
+up before them the right and the good and the clean and beautiful."
+
+"Humph!" exclaimed the old man, and a look of suspicion flashed across
+his dusky face. "I want you to preach fer me Sunday."
+
+It was as if he had said, "I have no faith in your style of preaching
+the gospel. I am going to put you to the test."
+
+Robert faltered. He knew his preaching would not please his father or
+his people, and he shrank from the ordeal. It seemed like setting them
+all at defiance and attempting to enforce his ideas over their own. Then
+a perception of his cowardice struck him, and he threw off the feeling
+that was possessing him. He looked up to find his father watching him
+keenly, and he remembered that he had not yet answered.
+
+"I had not thought of preaching here," he said, "but I will relieve you
+if you wish it."
+
+"De folks will want to hyeah you an' see what you kin do," pursued his
+father tactlessly. "You know dey was a lot of 'em dat said I oughn't ha'
+let you go away to school. I hope you'll silence 'em."
+
+Robert thought of the opposition his father's friends had shown to his
+ambitions, and his face grew hot at the memory. He felt his entire
+inability to please them now.
+
+"I don't know, father, that I can silence those who opposed my going
+away or even please those who didn't, but I shall try to please One."
+
+It was now Thursday evening, and he had until Saturday night to prepare
+his sermon. He knew Danvers, and remembered what a chill fell on its
+congregations, white or black, when a preacher appeared before them with
+a manuscript or notes. So, out of concession to their prejudices, he
+decided not to write his sermon, but to go through it carefully and get
+it well in hand. His work was often interfered with by the frequent
+summons to see old friends who stayed long, not talking much, but
+looking at him with some awe and a good deal of contempt. His trial was
+a little sorer than he had expected, but he bore it all with the
+good-natured philosophy which his school life and work in a city had
+taught him.
+
+The Sunday dawned, a beautiful, Southern summer morning; the lazy hum of
+the bees and the scent of wild honeysuckle were in the air; the Sabbath
+was full of the quiet and peace of God; and yet the congregation which
+filled the little chapel at Danvers came with restless and turbulent
+hearts, and their faces said plainly: "Rob Dixon, we have not come here
+to listen to God's word. We have come here to put you on trial. Do you
+hear? On trial."
+
+And the thought, "On trial," was ringing in the young minister's mind as
+he rose to speak to them. His sermon was a very quiet, practical one; a
+sermon that sought to bring religion before them as a matter of
+every-day life. It was altogether different from the torrent of speech
+that usually flowed from that pulpit. The people grew restless under
+this spiritual reserve. They wanted something to sanction, something to
+shout for, and here was this man talking to them as simply and quietly
+as if he were not in church.
+
+As Uncle Isham Jones said, "De man never fetched an amen"; and the
+people resented his ineffectiveness. Even Robert's father sat with his
+head bowed in his hands, broken and ashamed of his son; and when,
+without a flourish, the preacher sat down, after talking twenty-two
+minutes by the clock, a shiver of surprise ran over the whole church.
+His father had never pounded the desk for less than an hour.
+
+Disappointment, even disgust, was written on every face. The singing was
+spiritless, and as the people filed out of church and gathered in knots
+about the door, the old-time head-shaking was resumed, and the comments
+were many and unfavourable.
+
+"Dat's what his schoolin' done fo' him," said one.
+
+"It wasn't nothin' mo'n a lecter," was another's criticism.
+
+"Put him 'side o' his father," said one of the Rev. Abram Dixon's loyal
+members, "and bless my soul, de ol' man would preach all roun' him, and
+he ain't been to no college, neither!"
+
+Robert and his father walked home in silence together. When they were in
+the house, the old man turned to his son and said:
+
+"Is dat de way dey teach you to preach at college?"
+
+"I followed my instructions as nearly as possible, father."
+
+"Well, Lawd he'p dey preachin', den! Why, befo' I'd ha' been in dat
+pulpit five minutes, I'd ha' had dem people moanin' an' hollerin' all
+over de church."
+
+"And would they have lived any more cleanly the next day?"
+
+The old man looked at his son sadly, and shook his head as at one of the
+unenlightened.
+
+Robert did not preach in his father's church again before his visit came
+to a close; but before going he said, "I want you to promise me you'll
+come up and visit me, father. I want you to see the work I am trying to
+do. I don't say that my way is best or that my work is a higher work,
+but I do want you to see that I am in earnest."
+
+"I ain't doubtin' you mean well, Robbie," said his father, "but I guess
+I'd be a good deal out o' place up thaih."
+
+"No, you wouldn't, father. You come up and see me. Promise me."
+
+And the old man promised.
+
+It was not, however, until nearly a year later that the Rev. Abram Dixon
+went up to visit his son's church. Robert met him at the station, and
+took him to the little parsonage which the young clergyman's people had
+provided for him. It was a very simple place, and an aged woman served
+the young man as cook and caretaker; but Abram Dixon was astonished at
+what seemed to him both vainglory and extravagance.
+
+"Ain't you livin' kin' o' high fo' yo' raisin', Robbie?" he asked.
+
+The young man laughed. "If you'd see how some of the people live here,
+father, you'd hardly say so."
+
+Abram looked at the chintz-covered sofa and shook his head at its
+luxury, but Robert, on coming back after a brief absence, found his
+father sound asleep upon the comfortable lounge.
+
+On the next day they went out together to see something of the city. By
+the habit of years, Abram Dixon was an early riser, and his son was
+like him; so they were abroad somewhat before business was astir in the
+town. They walked through the commercial portion and down along the
+wharves and levees. On every side the same sight assailed their eyes:
+black boys of all ages and sizes, the waifs and strays of the city, lay
+stretched here and there on the wharves or curled on doorsills, stealing
+what sleep they could before the relentless day should drive them forth
+to beg a pittance for subsistence.
+
+"Such as these we try to get into our flock and do something for," said
+Robert.
+
+His father looked on sympathetically, and yet hardly with full
+understanding. There was poverty in his own little village, yes, even
+squalour, but he had never seen anything just like this. At home almost
+everyone found some open door, and rare was the wanderer who slept
+out-of-doors except from choice.
+
+At nine o'clock they went to the police court, and the old minister saw
+many of his race appear as prisoners, receiving brief attention and long
+sentences. Finally a boy was arraigned for theft. He was a little,
+wobegone fellow hardly ten years of age. He was charged with stealing
+cakes from a bakery. The judge was about to deal with him as quickly as
+with the others, and Abram's heart bled for the child, when he saw a
+negro call the judge's attention. He turned to find that Robert had left
+his side. There was a whispered consultation, and then the old preacher
+heard with joy, "As this is his first offence and a trustworthy person
+comes forward to take charge of him, sentence upon the prisoner will be
+suspended."
+
+Robert came back to his father holding the boy by the hand, and together
+they made their way from the crowded room.
+
+"I'm so glad! I'm so glad!" said the old man brokenly.
+
+"We often have to do this. We try to save them from the first contact
+with the prison and all that it means. There is no reformatory for black
+boys here, and they may not go to the institutions for the white; so for
+the slightest offence they are sent to jail, where they are placed with
+the most hardened criminals. When released they are branded forever, and
+their course is usually downward."
+
+He spoke in a low voice, that what he said might not reach the ears of
+the little ragamuffin who trudged by his side.
+
+Abram looked down on the child with a sympathetic heart.
+
+"What made you steal dem cakes?" he asked kindly.
+
+"I was hongry," was the simple reply.
+
+The old man said no more until he had reached the parsonage, and then
+when he saw how the little fellow ate and how tenderly his son
+ministered to him, he murmured to himself, "Feed my lambs"; and then
+turning to his son, he said, "Robbie, dey's some'p'n in 'dis, dey's
+some'p'n in it, I tell you."
+
+That night there was a boy's class in the lower room of Robert Dixon's
+little church. Boys of all sorts and conditions were there, and Abram
+listened as his son told them the old, sweet stories in the simplest
+possible manner and talked to them in his cheery, practical way. The old
+preacher looked into the eyes of the street gamins about him, and he
+began to wonder. Some of them were fierce, unruly-looking youngsters,
+inclined to meanness and rowdyism, but one and all, they seemed under
+the spell of their leader's voice. At last Robert said, "Boys, this is
+my father. He's a preacher, too. I want you to come up and shake hands
+with him." Then they crowded round the old man readily and heartily, and
+when they were outside the church, he heard them pause for a moment, and
+then three rousing cheers rang out with the vociferated explanation,
+"Fo' de minister's pap!"
+
+Abram held his son's hand long that night, and looked with tear-dimmed
+eyes at the boy.
+
+"I didn't understan'," he said. "I didn't understan'."
+
+"You'll preach for me Sunday, father?"
+
+"I wouldn't daih, honey. I wouldn't daih."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will, pap."
+
+He had not used the word for a long time, and at sound of it his father
+yielded.
+
+It was a strange service that Sunday morning. The son introduced the
+father, and the father, looking at his son, who seemed so short a time
+ago unlearned in the ways of the world, gave as his text, "A little
+child shall lead them."
+
+He spoke of his own conceit and vainglory, the pride of his age and
+experience, and then he told of the lesson he had learned. "Why,
+people," he said, "I feels like a new convert!"
+
+It was a gentler gospel than he had ever preached before, and in the
+congregation there were many eyes as wet as his own.
+
+"Robbie," he said, when the service was over, "I believe I had to come
+up here to be converted." And Robbie smiled.
+
+
+
+
+_Six_
+
+THE RACE QUESTION
+
+
+Scene--Race track. _Enter old coloured man, seating himself._
+
+"Oomph, oomph. De work of de devil sho' do p'ospah. How 'do, suh? Des
+tol'able, thankee, suh. How you come on? Oh, I was des a-sayin' how de
+wo'k of de ol' boy do p'ospah. Doesn't I frequent the racetrack? No,
+suh; no, suh. I's Baptis' myse'f, an' I 'low hit's all devil's doin's.
+Wouldn't 'a' be'n hyeah to-day, but I got a boy named Jim dat's long
+gone in sin an' he gwine ride one dem hosses. Oomph, dat boy! I sut'ny
+has talked to him and labohed wid him night an' day, but it was allers
+in vain, an' I's feahed dat de day of his reckonin' is at han'.
+
+"Ain't I nevah been intrusted in racin'? Humph, you don't s'pose I been
+dead all my life, does you? What you laffin' at? Oh, scuse me, scuse me,
+you unnerstan' what I means. You don' give a ol' man time to splain
+hisse'f. What I means is dat dey has been days when I walked in de
+counsels of de on-gawdly and set in de seats of sinnahs; and long erbout
+dem times I did tek most ovahly strong to racin'.
+
+"How long dat been? Oh, dat's way long back, 'fo' I got religion, mo'n
+thuty years ago, dough I got to own I has fell from grace several times
+sense.
+
+"Yes, suh, I ust to ride. Ki-yi! I nevah furgit de day dat my ol' Mas'
+Jack put me on 'June Boy,' his black geldin', an' say to me, 'Si,' says
+he, 'if you don' ride de tail offen Cunnel Scott's mare, "No Quit," I's
+gwine to larrup you twell you cain't set in de saddle no mo'.' Hyah,
+hyah. My ol' Mas' was a mighty han' fu' a joke. I knowed he wan't gwine
+to do nuffin' to me.
+
+"Did I win? Why, whut you spec' I's doin' hyeah ef I hadn' winned? W'y,
+ef I'd 'a' let dat Scott maih beat my 'June Boy' I'd 'a' drowned myse'f
+in Bull Skin Crick.
+
+"Yes, suh, I winned; w'y, at de finish I come down dat track lak hit was
+de Jedgment Day an' I was de las' one up! Ef I didn't race dat maih's
+tail clean off, I 'low I made hit do a lot o' switchin'. An' aftah dat
+my wife Mandy she ma'ed me. Hyah, hyah, I ain't bin much on hol'in' de
+reins sence.
+
+"Sh! dey comin' in to wa'm up. Dat Jim, dat Jim, dat my boy; you nasty
+putrid little rascal. Des a hundred an' eight, suh, des a hundred an'
+eight. Yas, suh, dat's my Jim; I don't know whaih he gits his dev'ment
+at.
+
+"What's de mattah wid dat boy? Whyn't he hunch hisse'f up on dat saddle
+right? Jim, Jim, whyn't you limber up, boy; hunch yo'se'f up on dat hoss
+lak you belonged to him and knowed you was dah. What I done showed you?
+De black raskil, goin' out dah tryin' to disgrace his own daddy. Hyeah
+he come back. Dat's bettah, you scoun'ril.
+
+"Dat's a right smaht-lookin' hoss he's a-ridin', but I ain't a-trustin'
+dat bay wid de white feet--dat is, not altogethah. She's a favourwright
+too; but dey's sumpin' else in dis worl' sides playin' favourwrights.
+Jim bettah had win dis race. His hoss ain't a five to one shot, but I
+spec's to go way fum hyeah wid money ernuff to mek a donation on de
+pa'sonage.
+
+"Does I bet? Well, I don' des call hit bettin'; but I resks a little
+w'en I t'inks I kin he'p de cause. 'Tain't gamblin', o' co'se; I
+wouldn't gamble fu nothin', dough my ol' Mastah did ust to say dat a
+honest gamblah was ez good ez a hones' preachah an' mos' nigh ez skace.
+
+"Look out dah, man, dey's off, dat nasty bay maih wid de white feet
+leadin' right fu'm 'de pos'. I knowed it! I knowed it! I had my eye on
+huh all de time. Oh, Jim, Jim, why didn't you git in bettah, way back
+dah fouf? Dah go de gong! I knowed dat wasn't no staht. Troop back dah,
+you raskils, hyah, hyah.
+
+"I wush dat boy wouldn't do so much jummying erroun' wid dat hoss. Fust
+t'ing he know he ain't gwine to know whaih he's at.
+
+"Dah, dah dey go ag'in. Hit's a sho' t'ing dis time. Bettah, Jim,
+bettah. Dey didn't leave you dis time. Hug dat bay mare, hug her close,
+boy. Don't press dat hoss yit. He holdin' back a lot o' t'ings.
+
+"He's gainin'! doggone my cats, he's gainin'! an' dat hoss o' his'n
+gwine des ez stiddy ez a rockin'-chair. Jim allus was a good boy.
+
+"Confound these spec's, I cain't see 'em skacely; huh, you say dey's
+neck an' neck; now I see 'em! now I see 'em! and Jimmy's a-ridin'
+like----Huh, huh, I laik to said sumpin'.
+
+"De bay maih's done huh bes', she's done huh bes'! Dey's turned into the
+stretch an' still see-sawin'. Let him out, Jimmy, let him out! Dat boy
+done th'owed de reins away. Come on, Jimmy, come on! He's leadin' by a
+nose. Come on, I tell you, you black rapscallion, come on! Give 'em
+hell, Jimmy! give 'em hell! Under de wire an' a len'th ahead. Doggone my
+cats! wake me up w'en dat othah hoss comes in.
+
+"No, suh, I ain't gwine stay no longah, I don't app'ove o' racin', I's
+gwine 'roun' an' see dis hyeah bookmakah an' den I's gwine dreckly home,
+suh, dreckly home. I's Baptis' myse'f, an' I don't app'ove o' no sich
+doin's!"
+
+
+
+
+_Seven_
+
+A DEFENDER OF THE FAITH
+
+
+There was a very animated discussion going on, on the lower floor of the
+house Number Ten "D" Street. House Number Ten was the middle one of a
+row of more frames, which formed what was put down on the real estate
+agent's list as a coloured neighbourhood. The inhabitants of the little
+cottages were people so poor that they were constantly staggering on the
+verge of the abyss, which they had been taught to dread and scorn, and
+why, clearly. Life with them was no dream, but a hard, terrible reality,
+which meant increasing struggle, and little wonder then that the
+children of such parents should see the day before Christmas come
+without hope of any holiday cheer.
+
+Christmas; what did it mean to them? The pitiful little dark
+rag-muffins, save that the happy, well-dressed people who passed the
+shanties seemed further away from their life, save that mother toiled
+later in the evening at her work, if there was work, and that father
+drank more gin and prayed louder in consequence; save that, perhaps--and
+there was always a donation--that there might be a little increase in
+the amount of cold victuals that big sister brought home, and there
+might be turkey-dressing in it.
+
+But there was a warm discussion in Number Ten, and that is the principal
+thing. The next in importance is that Miss Arabella Coe, reporter, who
+had been down that way looking mainly for a Christmas story, heard the
+sound of voices raised in debate, and paused to listen. It was not a
+very polite thing for Miss Coe to do, but then Miss Coe was a reporter
+and reporters are not scrupulous about being polite when there is
+anything to hear. Besides, the pitch to which the lusty young voices
+within were raised argued that the owners did not care if the outside
+world shared in the conversation. So Arabella listened, and after a
+while she passed through the gate and peeped into the room between the
+broken slats of a shutter.
+
+It was a mean little place, quite what might be expected from its
+exterior. A cook stove sat in the middle of the floor with a smoky fire
+in it, and about it were clustered four or five black children ranging
+from a toddler of two to a boy of ten. They all showed differing degrees
+of dirt and raggedness, but all were far and beyond the point of
+respectability.
+
+One of the group, the older boy, sat upon the bed and was holding forth
+to his brothers and sisters not without many murmurs of doubt and
+disbelief.
+
+"No," he was saying, "I tell you dey hain't no such thing as a Santy
+Claus. Dat's somep'n dat yo' folks jes' git up to make you be good long
+'bout Christmas time. I know."
+
+"But, Tom, you know what mammy said," said a dreamy-eyed little chap,
+who sat on a broken stool with his chin on his hands.
+
+"Aw, mammy," said the orator, "she's jes' a-stuffin' you. She don'
+believe in no Santy Claus hersel', less'n why'nt he bring huh de dress
+she prayed fu' last Christmas." He was very wise, this old man of ten
+years, and he had sold papers on the avenue where many things are
+learned, both good and bad.
+
+"But what you got to say about pappy?" pursued the believer. "He say
+dey's a Santy Claus, and dat he comes down de chimbly; and----"
+
+"Whut's de mattah wid you; look at dat stove pipe; how you s'pose
+anybody go'n' to git in hyeah th'oo de chimbly?"
+
+They all looked up at the narrow, rusty stove pipe and the sigh of
+hopelessness brought the tears to Arabella's eyes. The children seemed
+utterly nonplussed, and Tom was swelling at his triumph. "How's any
+Santy Claus go'n' to come down th'oo that, I want to know," he repeated.
+
+But the faith of childhood is stronger than reason. Tom's little sister
+piped up, "I don't know how, but he comes th'roo' that away anyhow. He
+brung Mamie Davith a doll and it had thoot on it out o' the chimbly."
+
+It was now Tom's turn to be stumped, but he wouldn't let it be known. He
+only said, "Aw," contemptuously and coughed for more crushing arguments.
+
+"I knows dey's a Santy Claus," said dreamy-eyed Sam.
+
+"Ef dey is why'n't he never come here?" retorted Tom.
+
+"I jes' been thinkin' maybe ouah house is so little he miss it in de
+night; dey says he's a ol' man an' I 'low his sight ain' good."
+
+Tom was stricken into silence for a moment by this entirely new view of
+the matter, and then finding no answer to it, he said "Aw" again and
+looked superior, but warningly so.
+
+"Maybe Thanty's white an' don' go to see col'red people," said the
+little girl.
+
+"But I do know coloured people's houses he's been at," contended Sam.
+"Aw, dem col'red folks dat's got the money, dem's de only ones dat Santy
+Claus fin's, you bet."
+
+Arabella at the window shuddered at the tone of the sceptic; it reminded
+her so much of the world she knew, and it was hard to believe that her
+friends who prided themselves on their unbelief could have anything in
+common with a little coloured newsboy down on "D" Street.
+
+"Tell you what," said Sam again, "let's try an' see if dey is a Santy.
+We'll put a light in the winder, so if he's ol' he can see us anyhow,
+an' we'll pray right hard fu' him to come."
+
+"Aw," said Tom.
+
+"Ith been good all thish month," chirped the little girl.
+
+The other children joined with enthusiasm in Sam's plan, though Tom sat
+upon the bed and looked scornfully on.
+
+Arabella escaped from the window just as Sam brought the smoky lamp and
+set it on the sill, but she still stood outside the palings of the fence
+and looked in. She saw four little forms get down on their knees and she
+crept up near again to hear.
+
+Following Sam's lead they began, "Oh, Santy," but Tom's voice broke in,
+"Don't you know the Lord don't 'low you to pray to nobody but Him?"
+
+Sam paused, puzzled for a minute, then he led on: "Please 'scuse, good
+Lord, we started wrong, but won't you please, sir, send Santy Clause
+around. Amen." And they got up from their knees satisfied.
+
+"Aw," said Tom as Arabella was turning wet-eyed away.
+
+It was a good thing the reporter left as soon as she did, for in a few
+minutes a big woman pushed in at the gate and entered the house.
+
+"Mammy, mammy," shrieked the children.
+
+"Lawsy, me," said Martha, laughing, "who evah did see sich children?
+Bless dey hearts, an' dey done sot dey lamp in de winder, too, so's dey
+po' ol' mammy kin see to git in."
+
+As she spoke she was taking the lamp away to set it on the table where
+she had placed her basket, but the cry of the children stopped her. "Oh,
+no, mammy, don't take it, don't take it, dat's to light Santy Claus in."
+
+She paused a minute bewildered and then the light broke over her face.
+She smiled and then a rush of tears quenched the smile. She gathered the
+children into her arms and said, "I's feared, honey, ol' man Santy ain'
+gwine fu' you to-night."
+
+"Wah'd I tell you?" sneered Tom.
+
+"You hush yo' mouf," said his mother, and she left the lamp where it
+was.
+
+As Arabella Coe wended her way home that night her brain was busy with
+many thoughts. "I've got my story at last," she told herself, "and I'll
+go on up and write it." But she did not go up to write it. She came to
+the parting of the ways. One led home, the other to the newspaper office
+where she worked. She laughed nervously, and took the former way. Once
+in her room she went through her small store of savings. There was very
+little there, then she looked down ruefully at her worn boots. She did
+need a new pair. Then, holding her money in her hand, she sat down to
+think.
+
+"It's really a shame," she said to herself, "those children will have no
+Christmas at all, and they'll never believe in Santa Claus again. They
+will lose their faith forever and from this it will go to other things."
+She sat there dreaming for a long while and the vision of a very
+different childhood came before her eyes.
+
+"Dear old place," she murmured softly, "I believed in Santa Claus until
+I was thirteen, and that oldest boy is scarcely ten." Suddenly she
+sprung to her feet. "Hooray," she cried, "I'll be defender of the
+faith," and she went out into the lighted streets again.
+
+The shopkeepers looked queerly at Arabella that night as she bought as
+if she were the mother of a large and growing family, and she appeared
+too young for that. Finally, there was a dress for mother.
+
+She carried them down on "D" Street and placed them stealthily at the
+door of Number Ten. She put a note among the things, which read: "I am
+getting old and didn't see your house last year, also I am getting fat
+and couldn't get down that little stove pipe of yours this year. You
+must excuse me. Santa Claus." Then looking wilfully at her shoes, but
+nevertheless with a glow on her face, she went up to the office to write
+her story.
+
+There were joyous times at Number Ten the next day. Mother was really
+surprised, and the children saw it.
+
+"Wha'd I tell you," said dreamy Sam.
+
+Tom said nothing then, but when he went down to the avenue to sell the
+morning papers, all resplendent in a new muffler, he strode up to a boy
+and remarked belligerently, "Say, if you says de ain't no Santy Claus
+again, I'll punch yo' head."
+
+
+
+
+_Eight_
+
+CAHOOTS
+
+
+In the centre of the quaint old Virginia grave-yard stood two monuments
+side by side--two plain granite shafts exactly alike. On one was
+inscribed the name Robert Vaughan Fairfax and the year 1864. On the
+other was the simple and perplexing inscription, "Cahoots." Nothing
+more.
+
+The place had been the orchard of one of the ante-bellum mansions before
+the dead that were brought back from the terrible field of Malvern Hill
+and laid there had given it a start as a cemetery. Many familiar names
+were chiselled on the granite head-stones, and anyone conversant with
+Virginia genealogy would have known them to belong to some of the best
+families of the Old Dominion. But "Cahoots,"--who or what was he?
+
+My interest, not to say curiosity, was aroused. There must be a whole
+story in those two shafts with their simple inscriptions, a life-drama
+or perhaps a tragedy. And who was more likely to know it than the
+postmaster of the quaint little old town. Just after the war, as if
+tired with its exertions to repel the invader, the old place had fallen
+asleep and was still drowsing.
+
+I left the cemetery--if such it could be called--and wended my way up
+the main street to the ancient building which did duty as post-office.
+The man in charge, a grizzled old fellow with an empty sleeve, sat
+behind a small screen. He looked up as I entered and put out his hand
+toward the mailboxes, waiting for me to mention my name. But instead I
+said: "I am not expecting any mail. I only wanted to ask a few
+questions."
+
+"Well, sir, what can I do for you?" he asked with some interest.
+
+"I've just been up there walking through the cemetery," I returned, "and
+I am anxious to know the story, if there be one, of two monuments which
+I saw there."
+
+"You mean Fairfax and Cahoots."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You're a stranger about here, of course."
+
+"Yes," I said again, "and so there is a story?"
+
+"There is a story and I'll tell it to you. Come in and sit down." He
+opened a wire door into his little cage, and I seated myself on a stool
+and gave my attention to him.
+
+"It's just such a story," he began, "as you can hear in any of the
+Southern States--wherever there were good masters and faithful slaves.
+This particular tale is a part of our county history, and there ain't
+one of the old residents but could tell it to you word for word and fact
+for fact. In the days before our misunderstanding with the North, the
+Fairfaxes were the leading people in this section. By leading, I mean
+not only the wealthiest, not only the biggest land-owners, but that
+their name counted for more in social circles and political councils
+than any other hereabout. It is natural to expect that such a family
+should wish to preserve its own name down a direct line. So it was a
+source of great grief to old Fairfax that his first three children were
+girls, pretty, healthy, plump enough little things, but girls for all
+that, and consequently a disappointment to their father's pride of
+family. When the fourth child came and it proved to be a boy, the
+Fairfax plantation couldn't hold the Fairfax joy and it flowed out and
+mellowed the whole county.
+
+"They do say that Fairfax Fairfax was in one of his further tobacco
+fields when the good news was brought to him, and that after giving
+orders that all the darkies should knock off work and take a holiday, in
+his haste and excitement he jumped down from his horse and ran all the
+way to the house. I give the story only for what it is worth. But if it
+is true, it is the first case of a man of that name and family
+forgetting himself in an emergency.
+
+"Well, of course, the advent of a young male Fairfax would under any
+circumstances have proven a great event, although it was afterwards
+duplicated, but there would have been no story to tell, there would have
+been no 'Cahoots,' if by some fortuitous circumstance one of the slave
+women had not happened to bring into the world that day and almost at
+the same time that her mistress was introducing young Vaughan Fairfax to
+the light, a little black pickaninny of her own. Well, if you're a
+Southern man, and I take it that you are, you know that nothing ever
+happens in the quarters that the big house doesn't know. So the news was
+soon at the white father's ears and nothing would do him but that the
+black baby must be brought to the house and be introduced to the white
+one. The little black fellow came in all rolled in his bundle of shawls
+and was laid for a few minutes beside his little lord and master. Side
+by side they lay blinking at the light equally strange to both, and then
+the master took the black child's hand and put it in that of the
+white's. With the convulsive gesture common to babyhood the little hands
+clutched in a feeble grasp.
+
+"'Dah now,' old Doshy said--she was the nurse that had brought the
+pickaninny up--'dey done tol' each othah howdy.'
+
+"'Told each other howdy nothing,' said old Fairfax solemnly, 'they have
+made a silent compact of eternal friendship, and I propose to ratify it
+right here.'
+
+"He was a religious man, and so there with all the darkies clustered
+around in superstitious awe, and with the white face of his wife looking
+at him from among the pillows, he knelt and offered a prayer, and asked
+a blessing upon the two children just come into the world. And through
+it all those diminutive specimens of humanity lay there blinking with
+their hands still clasped.
+
+"Well, they named the white child Robert Vaughan, and they began calling
+the little darky Ben, until an incident in later life gave him the name
+that clung to him till the last, and which the Fairfaxes have had
+chiseled on his tomb-stone.
+
+"The incident occurred when the two boys were about five years old. They
+were as thick as thieves, and two greater scamps and greater cronies
+never tramped together over a Virginia plantation. In the matter of
+deviltry they were remarkably precocious, and it was really wonderful
+what an amount of mischief those two could do. As was natural, the white
+boy planned the deeds, and the black one was his willing coadjutor in
+carrying them out.
+
+"Meanwhile, the proud father was smilingly indulgent to their pranks,
+but even with him the climax was reached when one of his fine young
+hounds was nearly driven into fits by the clatter of a tin can tied to
+its tail. Then the two culprits were summoned to appear before the
+paternal court of inquiry.
+
+"They came hand in hand, and with no great show of fear or
+embarrassment. They had gotten off so many times before that they were
+perfectly confident of their power in this case to cajole the judge. But
+to their surprise he was all sternness and severity.
+
+"'Now look here,' he said, after expatiating on the cruel treatment
+which the dog had received. 'I want to know which one of you tied the
+can to Spot's tail?'
+
+"Robert Vaughan looked at Ben, and Ben looked back at him. Silence
+there, and nothing more.
+
+"'Do you hear my question?' old Fairfax asked with rising voice.
+
+"Robert Vaughan looked straight ahead of him, and Ben dug his big toe
+into the sand at the foot of the veranda, but neither answered.
+
+"'Robert Vaughan Fairfax,' said his father, 'who played that trick on
+Spot? Answer me, do you hear?'
+
+"The Fairfax heir seemed suddenly to have grown deaf and dumb, and the
+father turned to the black boy. His voice took on the tone of command
+which he had hardly used to his son. 'Who played that trick on Spot?
+Answer me, Ben.'
+
+"The little darky dug harder and harder into the sand, and flashed a
+furtive glance from under his brows at his fellow-conspirator. Then he
+drawled out, 'I done it.'
+
+"'You didn't,' came back the instant retort from his young master, 'I
+did it myself.'
+
+"'I done it,' repeated Ben, and 'You didn't,' reiterated his young
+master.
+
+"The father sat and looked on at the dispute, and his mouth twitched
+suspiciously, but he spoke up sternly. 'Well, if I can't get the truth
+out of you this way, I'll try some other plan. Mandy,' he hailed a
+servant, 'put these boys on a diet of bread and water until they are
+ready to answer my questions truthfully.'
+
+"The culprits were led away to their punishment. Of course it would have
+just been meat to Mandy to have stolen something to the youngsters, but
+her master kept such a close eye upon her that she couldn't, and when
+brought back at the end of three hours, their fare had left the
+prisoners rather hungry. But they had evidently disputed the matter
+between themselves, and from the cloud on their faces when they
+reappeared before their stern judge, it was still unsettled.
+
+"To the repetition of the question, Vaughan answered again, 'I did it,'
+and then his father tried Ben again.
+
+"After several efforts, and an imploring glance at his boy master, the
+little black stammered out:
+
+"'Well, I reckon--I reckon, Mas,' me an' Mas' Vaughan, we done it in
+cahoots.'
+
+"Old Fairfax Fairfax had a keen sense of humour, and as he looked down
+on the strangely old young darky and took in his answer, the
+circumstance became too much for his gravity, and his relaxing laugh
+sent the culprits rolling and tumbling in the sand in an ectasy of
+relief from the strained situation.
+
+"'Cahoots--I reckon it was "Cahoots,"' the judge said. 'You ought to be
+named that, you little black rascal!' Well, the story got around, and so
+it was, and from that day forth the black boy was 'Cahoots.' Cahoots,
+whether on the plantation, at home, in the halls of the Northern
+College, where he accompanied his young master, or in the tragic moments
+of the great war-drama played out on the field of Malvern.
+
+"As they were in childhood, so, inseparable through youth and young
+manhood, Robert Fairfax and Cahoots grew up. They were together in
+everything, and when the call came that summoned the young Virginian
+from his college to fight for the banner of his State, Cahoots was the
+one who changed from the ease of a gentleman's valet to the hardship of
+a soldier's body-servant.
+
+"The last words Fairfax Fairfax said as his son cantered away in his
+gray suit were addressed to Cahoots: 'Take good care of your Mas'
+Vaughan, Cahoots, and don't come back without him.'
+
+"'I won't, Mastah,' Cahoots flung back and galloped after his lifelong
+companion.
+
+"Well, the war brought hard times both for master and man, and there
+were no flowery beds of ease even for the officers who wore the gray.
+Robert Fairfax took the fortunes of the conflict like a man and a
+Virginia gentleman, and with him Cahoots.
+
+"It was at Malvern Hill that the young Confederate led his troops into
+battle, and all day long the booming of the cannon and the crash of
+musketry rising above the cries of the wounded and dying came to the
+ears of the slave waiting in his tent for his master's return. Then in
+the afternoon a scattered fragment came straggling back into the camp.
+Cahoots went out to meet them. The firing still went on.
+
+"'Whah's Mas' Bob?' his voice pierced through the cannon's thunder.
+
+"'He fell at the front, early in the battle.'
+
+"'Whah's his body den, ef he fell?'
+
+"'We didn't have time to look for dead bodies in that murderous fire. It
+was all we could do to get our living bodies away.'
+
+"'But I promised not to go back without him.' It was a wail of anguish
+from the slave.
+
+"'Well, you'll have to.'
+
+"'I won't. Whah did he fall?'
+
+"Someone sketched briefly the approximate locality of Robert Fairfax's
+resting place, and on the final word Cahoots tore away.
+
+"The merciless shot of the Federals was still raking the field. But amid
+it all an old prairie schooner, gotten from God knows where, started out
+from the dismantled camp across the field. 'Some fool going to his
+death,' said one of the gray soldiers.
+
+"A ragged, tattered remnant of the wagon came back. The horses were
+bleeding and staggering in their steps. The very harness was cut by the
+balls that had grazed it. But with a light in his eyes and the look of a
+hero, Cahoots leaped from the tattered vehicle and began dragging out
+the body of his master.
+
+"He had found him far to the front in an abandoned position and brought
+him back over the field of the dead.
+
+"'How did you do it?' They asked him.
+
+"'I jes' had to do it,' he said. 'I promised not to go home widout him,
+and I didn't keer ef I did git killed. I wanted to die ef I couldn't
+find Mas' Bob's body.'
+
+"He carried the body home, and mourned at the burial, and a year later
+came back to the regiment with the son who had come after Robert, and
+was now just of fighting age. He went all through this campaign, and
+when the war was over, the two struck away into the mountains. They came
+back after a while, neither one having taken the oath of allegiance, and
+if there were any rebels Cahoots was as great a one to the day of his
+death as his master. That tomb-stone, you see it looks old, was placed
+there at the old master's request when his dead son came home from
+Malvern Hill, for he said when Cahoots went to the other side they must
+not be separated; that accounts for its look of age, but it was not
+until last year that we laid Cahoots--Cahoots still though an old
+man--beside his master. And many a man that had owned his people, and
+many another that had fought to continue that ownership, dropped a tear
+on his grave."
+
+
+
+
+_Nine_
+
+THE PROMOTER
+
+
+Even as early as September, in the year of 1870, the newly emancipated
+had awakened to the perception of the commercial advantages of freedom,
+and had begun to lay snares to catch the fleet and elusive dollar. Those
+controversialists who say that the Negro's only idea of freedom was to
+live without work are either wrong, malicious, or they did not know
+Little Africa when the boom was on; when every little African, fresh
+from the fields and cabins, dreamed only of untold wealth and of
+mansions in which he would have been thoroughly uncomfortable. These
+were the devil's sunny days, and early and late his mowers were in the
+field. These were the days of benefit societies that only benefited the
+shrewdest man; of mutual insurance associations, of wild building
+companies, and of gilt-edged land schemes wherein the unwary became
+bogged. This also was the day of Mr. Jason Buford, who, having been free
+before the war, knew a thing or two, and now had set himself up as a
+promoter. Truly he had profited by the example of the white men for whom
+he had so long acted as messenger and factotum.
+
+As he frequently remarked when for purposes of business he wished to air
+his Biblical knowledge, "I jest takes the Scripter fur my motter an'
+foller that ol' passage where it says, 'Make hay while the sun shines,
+fur the night cometh when no man kin work.'"
+
+It is related that one of Mr. Buford's customers was an old plantation
+exhorter. At the first suggestion of a Biblical quotation the old
+gentleman closed his eyes and got ready with his best amen. But as the
+import of the words dawned on him he opened his eyes in surprise, and
+the amen died a-borning. "But do hit say dat?" he asked earnestly.
+
+"It certainly does read that way," said the promoter glibly.
+
+"Uh, huh," replied the old man, settling himself back in his chair. "I
+been preachin' dat t'ing wrong fu' mo' dan fo'ty yeahs. Dat's whut comes
+o' not bein' able to read de wo'd fu' yo'se'f."
+
+Buford had no sense of the pathetic or he could never have done what he
+did--sell to the old gentleman, on the strength of the knowledge he had
+imparted to him, a house and lot upon terms so easy that he might drowse
+along for a little time and then wake to find himself both homeless and
+penniless. This was the promoter's method, and for so long a time had it
+proved successful that he had now grown mildly affluent and had set up a
+buggy in which to drive about and see his numerous purchasers and
+tenants.
+
+Buford was a suave little yellow fellow, with a manner that suggested
+the training of some old Southern butler father, or at least, an
+experience as a likely house-boy. He was polite, plausible, and more
+than all, resourceful. All of this he had been for years, but in all
+these years he had never so risen to the height of his own uniqueness as
+when he conceived and carried into execution the idea of the "Buford
+Colonizing Company."
+
+Humanity has always been looking for an Eldorado, and, however mixed the
+metaphor may be, has been searching for a Moses to lead it thereto.
+Behold, then, Jason Buford in the rôle of Moses. And equipped he was to
+carry off his part with the very best advantage, for though he might not
+bring water from the rock, he could come as near as any other man to
+getting blood from a turnip.
+
+The beauty of the man's scheme was that no offering was too small to be
+accepted. Indeed, all was fish that came to his net.
+
+Think of paying fifty cents down and knowing that some time in the dim
+future you would be the owner of property in the very heart of a great
+city where people would rush to buy. It was glowing enough to attract a
+people more worldly wise than were these late slaves. They simply fell
+into the scheme with all their souls; and off their half dollars,
+dollars, and larger sums, Mr. Buford waxed opulent. The land meanwhile
+did not materialise.
+
+It was just at this time that Sister Jane Callender came upon the scene
+and made glad the heart of the new-fledged Moses. He had heard of Sister
+Jane before, and he had greeted her coming with a sparkling of eyes and
+a rubbing of hands that betokened a joy with a good financial basis.
+
+The truth about the newcomer was that she had just about received her
+pension, or that due to her deceased husband, and she would therefore be
+rich, rich to the point where avarice would lie in wait for her.
+
+Sis' Jane settled in Mr. Buford's bailiwick, joined the church he
+attended, and seemed only waiting with her dollars for the very call
+which he was destined to make. She was hardly settled in a little
+three-room cottage before he hastened to her side, kindly intent, or its
+counterfeit, beaming from his features. He found a weak-looking old lady
+propped in a great chair, while another stout and healthy-looking woman
+ministered to her wants or stewed about the house in order to be doing
+something.
+
+"Ah, which--which is Sis' Jane Callender," he asked, rubbing his hands
+for all the world like a clothing dealer over a good customer.
+
+"Dat's Sis' Jane in de cheer," said the animated one, pointing to her
+charge. "She feelin' mighty po'ly dis evenin'. What might be yo' name?"
+She was promptly told.
+
+"Sis' Jane, hyeah one de good brothahs come to see you to offah his
+suvices if you need anything."
+
+"Thanky, brothah, charity," said the weak voice, "sit yo'se'f down. You
+set down, Aunt Dicey. Tain't no use a runnin' roun' waitin' on me. I
+ain't long fu' dis worl' nohow, mistah."
+
+"Buford is my name an' I came in to see if I could be of any assistance
+to you, a-fixin' up yo' mattahs er seein' to anything for you."
+
+"Hit's mighty kind o' you to come, dough I don' 'low I'll need much
+fixin' fu' now."
+
+"Oh, we hope you'll soon be better, Sistah Callender."
+
+"Nevah no mo', suh, 'til I reach the Kingdom."
+
+"Sis' Jane Callender, she have been mighty sick," broke in Aunt Dicey
+Fairfax, "but I reckon she gwine pull thoo', the Lawd willin'."
+
+"Amen," said Mr. Buford.
+
+"Huh, uh, children, I done hyeahd de washin' of de waters of Jerdon."
+
+"No, no, Sistah Callendah, we hope to see you well and happy in de
+injoyment of de pension dat I understan' de gov'ment is goin' to give
+you."
+
+"La, chile, I reckon de white folks gwine to git dat money. I ain't
+nevah gwine to live to 'ceive it. Des' aftah I been wo'kin' so long fu'
+it, too."
+
+The small eyes of Mr. Buford glittered with anxiety and avarice. What,
+was this rich plum about to slip from his grasp, just as he was about to
+pluck it? It should not be. He leaned over the old lady with intense
+eagerness in his gaze.
+
+"You must live to receive it," he said, "we need that money for the
+race. It must not go back to the white folks. Ain't you got nobody to
+leave it to?"
+
+"Not a chick ner a chile, 'ceptin' Sis' Dicey Fairfax here."
+
+Mr. Buford breathed again. "Then leave it to her, by all means," he
+said.
+
+"I don' want to have nothin' to do with de money of de daid," said Sis'
+Dicey Fairfax.
+
+"Now, don't talk dat away, Sis' Dicey," said the sick woman. "Brother
+Buford is right, case you sut'ny has been good to me sence I been layin'
+hyeah on de bed of affliction, an' dey ain't nobody more fitterner to
+have dat money den you is. Ef de Lawd des lets me live long enough, I's
+gwine to mek my will in yo' favoh."
+
+"De Lawd's will be done," replied the other with resignation, and Mr.
+Buford echoed with an "Amen!"
+
+He stayed very long that evening, planning and talking with the two old
+women, who received his words as the Gospel. Two weeks later the
+_Ethiopian Banner_, which was the organ of Little Africa, announced that
+Sis' Jane Callender had received a back pension which amounted to more
+than five hundred dollars. Thereafter Mr. Buford was seen frequently in
+the little cottage, until one day, after a lapse of three or four weeks,
+a policeman entered Sis' Jane Callender's cottage and led her away
+amidst great excitement to prison. She was charged with pension fraud,
+and against her protestations, was locked up to await the action of the
+Grand Jury.
+
+The promoter was very active in his client's behalf, but in spite of all
+his efforts she was indicted and came up for trial.
+
+It was a great day for the denizens of Little Africa, and they crowded
+the court room to look upon this stranger who had come among them to
+grow so rich, and then suddenly to fall so low.
+
+The prosecuting attorney was a young Southerner, and when he saw the
+prisoner at the bar he started violently, but checked himself. When the
+prisoner saw him, however, she made no effort at self control.
+
+"Lawd o' mussy," she cried, spreading out her black arms, "if it ain't
+Miss Lou's little Bobby."
+
+The judge checked the hilarity of the audience; the prosecutor
+maintained his dignity by main force, and the bailiff succeeded in
+keeping the old lady in her place, although she admonished him: "Pshaw,
+chile, you needn't fool wid me, I nussed dat boy's mammy when she borned
+him."
+
+It was too much for the young attorney, and he would have been less a
+man if it had not been. He came over and shook her hand warmly, and this
+time no one laughed.
+
+It was really not worth while prolonging the case, and the prosecution
+was nervous. The way that old black woman took the court and its
+officers into her bosom was enough to disconcert any ordinary tribunal.
+She patronised the judge openly before the hearing began and insisted
+upon holding a gentle motherly conversation with the foreman of the
+jury.
+
+She was called to the stand as the very first witness.
+
+"What is your name?" asked the attorney.
+
+"Now, Bobby, what is you axin' me dat fu'? You know what my name is, and
+you one of de Fairfax fambly, too. I 'low ef yo' mammy was hyeah, she'd
+mek you 'membah; she'd put you in yo' place."
+
+The judge rapped for order.
+
+"That is just a manner of proceeding," he said; "you must answer the
+question, so the rest of the court may know."
+
+"Oh, yes, suh, 'scuse me, my name hit's Dicey Fairfax."
+
+The attorney for the defence threw up his hands and turned purple. He
+had a dozen witnesses there to prove that they had known the woman as
+Jane Callender.
+
+"But did you not give your name as Jane Callender?"
+
+"I object," thundered the defence.
+
+"Do, hush, man," Sis' Dicey exclaimed, and then turning to the
+prosecutor, "La, honey, you know Jane Callender ain't my real name, you
+knows dat yo'se'f. It's des my bus'ness name. W'y, Sis' Jane Callender
+done daid an' gone to glory too long 'go fu' to talk erbout."
+
+"Then you admit to the court that your name is not Jane Callender?"
+
+"Wha's de use o' my 'mittin', don' you know it yo'se'f, suh? Has I got
+to come hyeah at dis late day an' p'ove my name an' redentify befo' my
+ol' Miss's own chile? Mas' Bob, I nevah did t'ink you'd ac' dat away.
+Freedom sutny has done tuk erway yo' mannahs."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes, that's all right, but we want to establish the fact that
+your name is Dicey Fairfax."
+
+"Cose it is."
+
+"Your Honor, I object--I----"
+
+"Your Honor," said Fairfax coldly, "will you grant me the liberty of
+conducting the examination in a way somewhat out of the ordinary lines?
+I believe that my brother for the defence will have nothing to complain
+of. I believe that I understand the situation and shall be able to get
+the truth more easily by employing methods that are not altogether
+technical."
+
+The court seemed to understand a thing or two himself, and overruled the
+defence's objection.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Fairfax----"
+
+Aunt Dicey snorted. "Hoomph? What? Mis' Fairfax? What ou say, Bobby
+Fairfax? What you call me dat fu'? My name Aunt Dicey to you an' I want
+you to un'erstan' dat right hyeah. Ef you keep on foolin' wid me, I
+'spec' my patience gwine waih claih out."
+
+"Excuse me. Well, Aunt Dicey, why did you take the name of Jane
+Callender if your name is really Dicey Fairfax?"
+
+"W'y, I done tol' you, Bobby, dat Sis' Jane Callender was des' my
+bus'ness name."
+
+"Well, how were you to use this business name?"
+
+"Well, it was des dis away. Sis' Jane Callender, she gwine git huh
+pension, but la, chile, she tuk down sick unto deaf, an' Brothah
+Buford, he say dat she ought to mek a will in favoh of somebody, so's de
+money would stay 'mongst ouah folks, an' so, bimeby, she 'greed she mek
+a will."
+
+"And who is Brother Buford, Aunt Dicey?"
+
+"Brothah Buford? Oh, he's de gemman whut come an' offered to 'ten' to
+Sis' Jane Callender's bus'ness fu' huh. He's a moughty clevah man."
+
+"And he told her she ought to make a will?"
+
+"Yas, suh. So she 'greed she gwine mek a will, an' she say to me, 'Sis
+Dicey, you sut'ny has been good to me sence I been layin' hyeah on dis
+bed of 'fliction, an' I gwine will all my proputy to you.' Well, I don't
+want to tek de money, an' she des mos' nigh fo'ce it on me, so I say
+yes, an' Brothah Buford he des sot an' talk to us, an' he say dat he
+come to-morror to bring a lawyer to draw up de will. But bless Gawd,
+honey, Sis' Callender died dat night, an' de will wasn't made, so when
+Brothah Buford come bright an' early next mornin', I was layin' Sis'
+Callender out. Brothah Buford was mighty much moved, he was. I nevah did
+see a strange pusson tek anything so hard in all my life, an' den he
+talk to me, an' he say, 'Now, Sis' Dicey, is you notified any de
+neighbours yit?' an' I said no I hain't notified no one of de
+neighbours, case I ain't 'quainted wid none o' dem yit, an' he say, 'How
+erbout de doctah? Is he 'quainted wid de diseased?' an' I tol' him no,
+he des come in, da's all. 'Well,' he say, 'cose you un'erstan' now dat
+you is Sis' Jane Callender, caise you inhe'it huh name, an' when de
+doctah come to mek out de 'stiffycate, you mus' tell him dat Sis' Dicey
+Fairfax is de name of de diseased, an' it'll be all right, an' aftah dis
+you got to go by de name o' Jane Callender, caise it's a bus'ness name
+you done inhe'it.' Well, dat's whut I done, an' dat's huccome I been
+Jane Callender in de bus'ness 'sactions, an' Dicey Fairfax at home. Now,
+you un'erstan', don't you? It wuz my inhe'ited name."
+
+"But don't you know that what you have done is a penitentiary offence?"
+
+"Who you stan'in' up talkin' to dat erway, you nasty impident little
+scoun'el? Don't you talk to me dat erway. I reckon ef yo' mammy was
+hyeah she sut'ny would tend to yo' case. You alluse was sassier an'
+pearter den yo' brother Nelse, an' he had to go an' git killed in de
+wah, an' you--you--w'y, jedge, I'se spanked dat boy mo' times den I kin
+tell you fu' hus impidence. I don't see how you evah gits erlong wid
+him."
+
+The court repressed a ripple that ran around. But there was no smile on
+the smooth-shaven, clear-cut face of the young Southerner. Turning to
+the attorney for the defence, he said: "Will you take the witness?" But
+that gentleman, waving one helpless hand, shook his head.
+
+"That will do, then," said young Fairfax. "Your Honor," he went on,
+addressing the court, "I have no desire to prosecute this case further.
+You all see the trend of it just as I see, and it would be folly to
+continue the examination of any of the rest of these witnesses. We have
+got that story from Aunt Dicey herself as straight as an arrow from a
+bow. While technically she is guilty; while according to the facts she
+is a criminal according to the motive and the intent of her actions, she
+is as innocent as the whitest soul among us." He could not repress the
+youthful Southerner's love for this little bit of rhetoric.
+
+"And I believe that nothing is to be gained by going further into the
+matter, save for the purpose of finding out the whereabouts of this
+Brother Buford, and attending to his case as the facts warrant. But
+before we do this, I want to see the stamp of crime wiped away from the
+name of my Aunt Dicey there, and I beg leave of the court to enter a
+nolle prosse. There is only one other thing I must ask of Aunt Dicey,
+and that is that she return the money that was illegally gotten, and
+give us information concerning the whereabouts of Buford."
+
+Aunt Dicey looked up in excitement, "W'y, chile, ef dat money was got
+illegal, I don' want it, but I do know whut I gwine to do, cause I done
+'vested it all wid Brothah Buford in his colorednization comp'ny." The
+court drew its breath. It had been expecting some such _dénouement_.
+
+"And where is the office of this company situated?"
+
+"Well, I des can't tell dat," said the old lady. "W'y, la, man, Brothah
+Buford was in co't to-day. Whaih is he? Brothah Buford, whaih you?" But
+no answer came from the surrounding spectators. Brother Buford had faded
+away. The old lady, however, after due conventions, was permitted to go
+home.
+
+It was with joy in her heart that Aunt Dicey Fairfax went back to her
+little cottage after her dismissal, but her face clouded when soon after
+Robert Fairfax came in.
+
+"Hyeah you come as usual," she said with well-feigned anger. "Tryin' to
+sof' soap me aftah you been carryin' on. You ain't changed one mite fu'
+all yo' bein' a man. What you talk to me dat away in co't fu'?"
+
+Fairfax's face was very grave. "It was necessary, Aunt Dicey," he said.
+"You know I'm a lawyer now, and there are certain things that lawyers
+have to do whether they like it or not. You don't understand. That man
+Buford is a scoundrel, and he came very near leading you into a very
+dangerous and criminal act. I am glad I was near to save you."
+
+"Oh, honey, chile, I didn't know dat. Set down an' tell me all erbout
+it."
+
+This the attorney did, and the old lady's indignation blazed forth.
+"Well, I hope to de Lawd you'll fin' dat rascal an' larrup him ontwell
+he cain't stan' straight."
+
+"No, we're going to do better than that and a great deal better. If we
+find him we are going to send him where he won't inveigle any more
+innocent people into rascality, and you're going to help us."
+
+"W'y, sut'ny, chile, I'll do all I kin to he'p you git dat rascal, but I
+don't know whaih he lives, case he's allus come hyeah to see me."
+
+"He'll come back some day. In the meantime we will be laying for him."
+
+Aunt Dicey was putting some very flaky biscuits into the oven, and
+perhaps the memory of other days made the young lawyer prolong his visit
+and his explanation. When, however, he left, it was with well-laid plans
+to catch Jason Buford napping.
+
+It did not take long. Stealthily that same evening a tapping came at
+Aunt Dicey's door. She opened it, and a small, crouching figure crept
+in. It was Mr. Buford. He turned down the collar of his coat which he
+had had closely up about his face and said:
+
+"Well, well, Sis' Callender, you sut'ny have spoiled us all."
+
+"La, Brothah Buford, come in hyeah an' set down. Whaih you been?"
+
+"I been hidin' fu' feah of that testimony you give in the court room.
+What did you do that fu'?"
+
+"La, me, I didn't know, you didn't 'splain to me in de fust."
+
+"Well, you see, you spoiled it, an' I've got to git out of town as soon
+as I kin. Sis' Callender, dese hyeah white people is mighty slippery,
+and they might catch me. But I want to beg you to go on away from hyeah
+so's you won't be hyeah to testify if dey does. Hyeah's a hundred
+dollars of yo' money right down, and you leave hyeah to-morrer mornin'
+an' go erway as far as you kin git."
+
+"La, man, I's puffectly willin' to he'p you, you know dat."
+
+"Cose, cose," he answered hurriedly, "we col'red people has got to stan'
+together."
+
+"But what about de res' of dat money dat I been 'vestin' wid you?"
+
+"I'm goin' to pay intrus' on that," answered the promoter glibly.
+
+"All right, all right." Aunt Dicey had made several trips to the little
+back room just off her sitting room as she talked with the promoter.
+Three times in the window had she waved a lighted lamp. Three times
+without success. But at the last "all right," she went into the room
+again. This time the waving lamp was answered by the sudden flash of a
+lantern outside.
+
+"All right," she said, as she returned to the room, "set down an' lemme
+fix you some suppah."
+
+"I ain't hardly got the time. I got to git away from hyeah." But the
+smell of the new baked biscuits was in his nostrils and he could not
+resist the temptation to sit down. He was eating hastily, but with
+appreciation, when the door opened and two minions of the law entered.
+
+Buford sprang up and turned to flee, but at the back door, her large
+form a towering and impassive barrier, stood Aunt Dicey.
+
+"Oh, don't hu'y, Brothah Buford," she said calmly, "set down an' he'p
+yo'se'f. Dese hyeah's my friends."
+
+It was the next day that Robert Fairfax saw him in his cell. The man's
+face was ashen with coward's terror. He was like a caught rat though,
+bitingly on the defensive.
+
+"You see we've got you, Buford," said Fairfax coldly to him. "It is as
+well to confess."
+
+"I ain't got nothin' to say," said Buford cautiously.
+
+"You will have something to say later on unless you say it now. I don't
+want to intimidate you, but Aunt Dicey's word will be taken in any court
+in the United States against yours, and I see a few years hard labour
+for you between good stout walls."
+
+The little promoter showed his teeth in an impotent snarl. "What do you
+want me to do?" he asked, weakening.
+
+"First, I want you to give back every cent of the money that you got out
+of Dicey Fairfax. Second, I want you to give up to every one of those
+Negroes that you have cheated every cent of the property you have
+accumulated by fraudulent means. Third, I want you to leave this place,
+and never come back so long as God leaves breath in your dirty body. If
+you do this, I will save you--you are not worth the saving--from the pen
+or worse. If you don't, I will make this place so hot for you that hell
+will seem like an icebox beside it."
+
+The little yellow man was cowering in his cell before the attorney's
+indignation. His lips were drawn back over his teeth in something that
+was neither a snarl nor a smile. His eyes were bulging and
+fear-stricken, and his hands clasped and unclasped themselves nervously.
+
+"I--I----" he faltered, "do you want to send me out without a cent?"
+
+"Without a cent, without a cent," said Fairfax tensely.
+
+"I won't do it," the rat in him again showed fight. "I won't do it. I'll
+stay hyeah an' fight you. You can't prove anything on me."
+
+"All right, all right," and the attorney turned toward the door.
+
+"Wait, wait," called the man, "I will do it, my God! I will do it. Jest
+let me out o' hyeah, don't keep me caged up. I'll go away from hyeah."
+
+Fairfax turned back to him coldly, "You will keep your word?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I will return at once and take the confession."
+
+And so the thing was done. Jason Buford, stripped of his ill-gotten
+gains, left the neighbourhood of Little Africa forever. And Aunt Dicey,
+no longer a wealthy woman and a capitalist, is baking golden brown
+biscuits for a certain young attorney and his wife, who has the bad
+habit of rousing her anger by references to her business name and her
+investments with a promoter.
+
+
+
+
+_Ten_
+
+THE WISDOM OF SILENCE
+
+
+Jeremiah Anderson was free. He had been free for ten years, and he was
+proud of it. He had been proud of it from the beginning, and that was
+the reason that he was one of the first to cast off the bonds of his old
+relations, and move from the plantation and take up land for himself. He
+was anxious to cut himself off from all that bound him to his former
+life. So strong was this feeling in him that he would not consent to
+stay on and work for his one-time owner even for a full wage.
+
+To the proposition of the planter and the gibes of some of his more
+dependent fellows he answered, "No, suh, I's free, an' I sholy is able
+to tek keer o' myse'f. I done been fattenin' frogs fu' othah people's
+snakes too long now."
+
+"But, Jerry," said Samuel Brabant, "I don't mean you any harm. The
+thing's done. You don't belong to me any more, but naturally, I take an
+interest in you, and want to do what I can to give you a start. It's
+more than the Northern government has done for you, although such wise
+men ought to know that you have had no training in caring for
+yourselves."
+
+There was a slight sneer in the Southerner's voice. Jerry perceived it
+and thought it directed against him. Instantly his pride rose and his
+neck stiffened.
+
+"Nemmine me," he answered, "nemmine me. I's free, an' w'en a man's free,
+he's free."
+
+"All right, go your own way. You may have to come back to me some time.
+If you have to come, come. I don't blame you now. It must be a great
+thing to you, this dream--this nightmare." Jerry looked at him. "Oh, it
+isn't a nightmare now, but some day, maybe, it will be, then come to
+me."
+
+The master turned away from the newly made freeman, and Jerry went forth
+into the world which was henceforth to be his. He took with him his few
+belongings; these largely represented by his wife and four lusty-eating
+children. Besides, he owned a little money, which he had got working for
+others when his master's task was done. Thus, bur'dened and equipped, he
+set out to tempt Fortune.
+
+He might do one of two things--farm land upon shares for one of his
+short-handed neighbours, or buy a farm, mortgage it, and pay for it as
+he could. As was natural for Jerry, and not uncommendable, he chose at
+once the latter course, bargained for his twenty acres--for land was
+cheap then, bought his mule, built his cabin, and set up his household
+goods.
+
+Now, slavery may give a man the habit of work, but it cannot imbue him
+with the natural thrift that long years of self-dependence brings. There
+were times when Jerry's freedom tugged too strongly at his easy
+inclination, drawing him away to idle when he should have toiled. What
+was the use of freedom, asked an inward voice, if one might not rest
+when one would? If he might not stop midway the furrow to listen and
+laugh at a droll story or tell one? If he might not go a-fishing when
+all the forces of nature invited and the jay-bird called from the tree
+and gave forth saucy banter like the fiery, blue shrew that she was?
+
+There were times when his compunction held Jerry to his task, but more
+often he turned an end furrow and laid his misgivings snugly under it
+and was away to the woods or the creek. There was joy and a loaf for the
+present. What more could he ask?
+
+The first year Fortune laughed at him, and her laugh is very different
+from her smile. She sent the swift rains to wash up the new planted
+seed, and the hungry birds to devour them. She sent the fierce sun to
+scorch the young crops, and the clinging weeds to hug the fresh
+greenness of his hope to death. She sent--cruellest jest of all--another
+baby to be fed, and so weakened Cindy Ann that for many days she could
+not work beside her husband in the fields.
+
+Poverty began to teach the unlessoned delver in the soil the thrift
+which he needed; but he ended his first twelve months with barely enough
+to eat, and nothing paid on his land or his mule. Broken and
+discouraged, the words of his old master came to him. But he was proud
+with an obstinate pride and he shut his lips together so that he might
+not groan. He would not go to his master. Anything rather than that.
+
+In that place sat certain beasts of prey, dealers, and lenders of money,
+who had their lairs somewhere within the boundaries of that wide and
+mysterious domain called The Law. They had their risks to run, but so
+must all beasts that eat flesh or drink blood. To them went Jerry, and
+they were kind to him. They gave him of their store. They gave him food
+and seed, but they were to own all that they gave him from what he
+raised, and they were to take their toll first from the new crops.
+
+Now, the black had been warned against these same beasts, for others had
+fallen a prey to them even in so short a time as their emancipation
+measured, and they saw themselves the re-manacled slaves of a hopeless
+and ever-growing debt, but Jerry would not be warned. He chewed the
+warnings like husks between his teeth, and got no substance from them.
+
+Then, Fortune, who deals in surprises, played him another trick. She
+smiled upon him. His second year was better than his first, and the
+brokers swore over his paid up note. Cindy Ann was strong again and the
+oldest boy was big enough to help with the work.
+
+Samuel Brabant was displeased, not because he felt any malice toward his
+former servant, but for the reason that any man with the natural amount
+of human vanity must feel himself agrieved just as his cherished
+prophecy is about to come true. Isaiah himself could not have been above
+it. How much less, then, the uninspired Mr. Brabant, who had his "I told
+you so," all ready. He had been ready to help Jerry after giving him
+admonitions, but here it was not needed. An unused "I told you so,"
+however kindly, is an acid that turns the milk of human kindness sour.
+
+Jerry went on gaining in prosperity. The third year treated him better
+than the second, and the fourth better than the third. During the fifth
+he enlarged his farm and his house and took pride in the fact that his
+oldest boy, Matthew, was away at school. By the tenth year of his
+freedom he was arrogantly out of debt. Then his pride was too much for
+him. During all these years of his struggle the words of his master had
+been as gall in his mouth. Now he spat them out with a boast. He talked
+much in the market-place, and where many people gathered, he was much
+there, giving himself as a bright and shining example.
+
+"Huh," he would chuckle to any listeners he could find, "Ol' Mas'
+Brabant, he say, 'Stay hyeah, stay hyeah, you do' know how to tek keer
+o' yo'se'f yit.' But I des' look at my two han's an' I say to myse'f,
+whut I been doin' wid dese all dese yeahs--tekin' keer o' myse'f an'
+him, too. I wo'k in de fiel', he set in de big house an' smoke. I wo'k
+in de fiel', his son go away to college an' come back a graduate. Das
+hit. Well, w'en freedom come, I des' bent an' boun' I ain' gwine do it
+no mo' an' I didn't. Now look at me. I sets down w'en I wants to. I
+does my own wo'kin' an' my own smokin'. I don't owe a cent, an' dis yeah
+my boy gwine graduate f'om de school. Dat's me, an' I ain' called on ol'
+Mas' yit."
+
+Now, an example is always an odious thing, because, first of all, it is
+always insolent even when it is bad, and there were those who listened
+to Jerry who had not been so successful as he, some even who had stayed
+on the plantation and as yet did not even own the mule they ploughed
+with. The hearts of those were filled with rage and their mouths with
+envy. Some of the sting of the latter got into their retelling of
+Jerry's talk and made it worse than it was.
+
+Old Samuel Brabant laughed and said, "Well, Jerry's not dead yet, and
+although I don't wish him any harm, my prophecy might come true yet."
+
+There were others who, hearing, did not laugh, or if they did, it was
+with a mere strained thinning of the lips that had no element of mirth
+in it. Temper and tolerance were short ten years after sixty-three.
+
+The foolish farmer's boastings bore fruit, and one night when he and his
+family had gone to church he returned to find his house and barn in
+ashes, his mules burned and his crop ruined. It had been very quietly
+done and quickly. The glare against the sky had attracted few from the
+nearby town, and them too late to be of service.
+
+Jerry camped that night across the road from what remained of his former
+dwelling. Cindy Ann and the children, worn out and worried, went to
+sleep in spite of themselves, but he sat there all night long, his chin
+between his knees, gazing at what had been his pride.
+
+Well, the beasts lay in wait for him again, and when he came to them
+they showed their fangs in greeting. And the velvet was over their
+claws. He had escaped them before. He had impugned their skill in the
+hunt, and they were ravenous for him. Now he was fatter, too. He went
+away from them with hard terms, and a sickness at his heart. But he had
+not said "Yes" to the terms. He was going home to consider the almost
+hopeless conditions under which they would let him build again.
+
+They were staying with a neighbour in town pending his negotiations and
+thither he went to ponder on his circumstances. Then it was that Cindy
+Ann came into the equation. She demanded to know what was to be done and
+how it was to be gone about.
+
+"But Cindy Ann, honey, you do' know nuffin' 'bout bus'ness."
+
+"T'ain't whut I knows, but whut I got a right to know," was her
+response.
+
+"I do' see huccome you got any right to be a-pryin' into dese hyeah
+things."
+
+"I's got de same right I had to w'ok an' struggle erlong an' he'p you
+get whut we's done los'."
+
+Jerry winced and ended by telling her all.
+
+"Dat ain't nuffin' but owdacious robbery," said Cindy Ann. "Dem people
+sees dat you got a little some'p'n, an' dey ain't gwine stop ontwell
+dey's bu'nt an' stoled evah blessed cent f'om you. Je'miah, don't you
+have nuffin' mo' to do wid 'em."
+
+"I got to, Cindy Ann."
+
+"Whut fu' you got to?"
+
+"How I gwine buil' a cabin an' a ba'n an' buy a mule less'n I deal wid
+'em?"
+
+"Dah's Mas' Sam Brabant. He'd he'p you out."
+
+Jerry rose up, his eyes flashing fire. "Cindy Ann," he said, "you a
+fool, you ain't got no mo' pride den a guinea hen, an' you got a heap
+less sense. W'y, befo' I go to ol' Mas' Sam Brabant fu' a cent, I'd
+sta've out in de road."
+
+"Huh!" said Cindy Ann, shutting her mouth on her impatience.
+
+One gets tired of thinking and saying how much more sense a woman has
+than a man when she comes in where his sense stops and his pride
+begins.
+
+With the recklessness of despair Jerry slept late that next morning, but
+he might have awakened early without spoiling his wife's plans. She was
+up betimes, had gone on her mission and returned before her spouse
+awoke.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when Brabant came to see him. Jerry grew sullen
+at once as his master approached, but his pride stiffened. This white
+man should see that misfortune could not weaken him.
+
+"Well, Jerry," said his former master, "you would not come to me, eh, so
+I must come to you. You let a little remark of mine keep you from your
+best friend, and put you in the way of losing the labour of years."
+
+Jerry made no answer.
+
+"You've proved yourself able to work well, but Jerry," pausing, "you
+haven't yet shown that you're able to take care of yourself, you don't
+know how to keep your mouth shut."
+
+The ex-slave tried to prove this a lie by negative pantomime.
+
+"I'm going to lend you the money to start again."
+
+"I won't----"
+
+"Yes, you will, if you don't, I'll lend it to Cindy Ann, and let her
+build in her own name. She's got more sense than you, and she knows how
+to keep still when things go well."
+
+"Mas' Sam," cried Jerry, rising quickly, "don' len' dat money to Cindy
+Ann. W'y ef a ooman's got anything she nevah lets you hyeah de las' of
+it."
+
+"Will you take it, then?"
+
+"Yes, suh; yes, suh, an' thank 'e, Mas' Sam." There were sobs some place
+back in his throat. "An' nex' time ef I evah gets a sta't agin, I'll
+keep my mouf shet. Fac' is, I'll come to you, Mas' Sam, an' borry fu' de
+sake o' hidin'."
+
+
+
+
+_Eleven_
+
+THE TRIUMPH OF OL' MIS' PEASE
+
+
+Between the two women, the feud began in this way: When Ann Pease
+divorced her handsome but profligate spouse, William, Nancy Rogers had,
+with reprehensible haste, taken him for better or for worse. Of course,
+it proved for worse, but Ann Pease had never forgiven her.
+
+"'Pears lak to me," she said, "dat she was des a-waitin' fu' to step
+inter my shoes, no mattah how I got outen 'em, whethah I died or
+divo'ced."
+
+It was in the hey-day of Nancy Rogers' youth, and she was still
+hot-tempered, so she retorted that "Ann Pease sut'ny did unmind huh' o'
+de dawg in de mangah." The friends of the two women took sides, and a
+war began which waged hotly between them--a war which for the first few
+weeks threatened the unity of Mt. Pisgah Church.
+
+But the church in all times has been something of a selfish institution
+and has known how to take care of itself. Now, Mt. Pisgah, of necessity,
+must recognise divorce, and of equal necessity, re-marriage. So when the
+Rev. Isaiah Johnson had been appealed to, he had spread his fat hands,
+closed his eyes and said solemnly, "Whom God hath j'ined, let no man put
+asundah;" peace, or at best, apparent peace, settled upon the troubled
+waters.
+
+The solidity of Mt. Pisgah was assured, the two factions again spoke to
+each other, both gave collections on the same Sunday; but between the
+two principals there was no abatement of their relentless animosity.
+
+Ann Pease as it happened was a "puffessor," while the new Mrs. Pease was
+out of the fold; a gay, frivolous person who had never sought or found
+grace. She laughed when a black wag said of the two that "they might
+bofe be 'peas,' but dey wasn't out o' de same pod." But on its being
+repeated to Sister Pease, she resented it with Christian indignation,
+sniffed and remarked that "Ef Wi'yum choosed to pick out one o' de
+onregenerate an' hang huh ez a millstone erroun' his neck, it wasn't
+none o' huh bus'ness what happened to him w'en dey pulled up de tares
+f'om de wheat."
+
+There were some ultra-malicious ones who said that Sister Pease, seeing
+her former husband in the possession of another, had begun to regret her
+step, for the unregenerate William was good-looking after all, and the
+"times" that he and his equally sinful wife had together were the wonder
+and disgust, the envy and horror of the whole community, who watched
+them with varying moods of eagerness.
+
+Sister Ann Pease went her way apparently undisturbed. Religion has an
+arrogance of its own, and when at the end of the year the good widow
+remained unmarried she could toss her head, go her way, and look down
+from a far height upon the "po' sinnahs"; indeed, she had rather the
+better of her frailer sister in the sympathies of the people.
+
+As one sister feelingly remarked, "Dat ooman des baihin' dat man in huh
+prayahs, an' I 'low she'll mou'n him into glory yit."
+
+One year of married life disillusions, and defiant gaiety cannot live
+upon itself when admiration fails. There is no reward in being daring
+when courage becomes commonplace. The year darkened to winter, and
+bloomed to spring again. The willows feathered along the river banks,
+and the horse-chestnuts budded and burst into beautiful life. Then came
+summer, rejoicing, with arms full of flowers, and autumn with lap full
+of apples and grain, then winter again, and all through the days Nancy
+danced and was gay, but there was a wistfulness in her eyes, and the tug
+of the baby no longer drew her heart. She had come to be "Wi'yum's
+Nancy," while the other, _that_ other was still "Sister Pease," who sat
+above her in the high places of the people's hearts.
+
+And then, oh, blessedness of the winter, the revival came; and both she
+and William, strangely stricken together with the realisation of their
+sins, fell at the mercy seat.
+
+"There is more joy over one sinner that repenteth,"--but when Will and
+Nancy both "came through" on the same night--well, Mt. Pisgah's walls
+know the story.
+
+There was triumph in Nancy's face as she proclaimed her conversion, and
+the first person she made for was Sister Pease. She shook her hands and
+embraced her, crying ever aloud between the vociferations of the
+congregation, "Oh, sistah, he'p me praise Him, he'p me praise Him," and
+the elder woman in the cause caught the infection of the moment and
+joined in the general shout.
+
+Afterwards she was not pleased with herself. But then if she hadn't
+shouted, wouldn't it have been worse?
+
+The Rev. Isaiah was nothing if not dramatic in his tendencies, and on
+the day when he was to receive William and Nancy Pease into full
+membership with the church, it struck him that nothing could make upon
+his congregation a profounder impression for good than to have the two
+new Peases joined by the elder one, or as the wag would have put it, all
+in one pod. And it was so ordered, and the thing was done.
+
+It is true that the preacher had to labour some with Sister Ann Pease,
+but when he showed her how it was her Christian duty, and if she failed
+of it her rival must advance before her in public opinion, she
+acquiesced. It was an easier matter with "Sister Wi'yum Pease." She
+agreed readily, for she was filled with condescending humility, which on
+every occasion she took the opportunity of displaying toward her rival.
+
+The Rev. Isaiah Johnson only made one mistake in his diplomatic
+manoeuvring. That was when he whispered to Sister Ann Pease, "Didn't I
+tell you? Des see how easy Sister Wi'yum give in." He was near to losing
+his cause and the wind was completely taken out of his sails when the
+widow replied with a snort, "Give in, my Lawd! Dat ooman's got a right
+to give in; ain't she got 'uligion an' de man, too?"
+
+However, the storm blew over, and by the time service was begun they
+were all seated together on a front bench, Sister Nancy, William, and
+Sister Ann.
+
+Now was the psychological moment, and after a soul-stirring hymn the
+preacher rose and announced his text--"Behold how good and how pleasant
+it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."
+
+Someone in the back part of the church suggested trinity as a substitute
+and started a titter, but the preacher had already got his dramatic
+momentum, and was sweeping along in a tumultuous tide of oratory. Right
+at his three victims did he aim his fiery eloquence, and ever and again
+he came back to his theme, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for
+brethren to dwell together in unity," even though Ann Pease had turned
+her back on William, whose head was low bowed, and Nancy was
+ostentatiously weeping into a yellow silk handkerchief.
+
+The sermon spurred on to a tempestuous close, and then came the climax
+when the doors of the church were opened. William and Nancy immediately
+went up to end their probation, and after a few whispered remarks the
+minister shook hands with each of them, then raising his voice he said:
+"Now, brothahs and sistahs, befo' you all gives dese lambs de right
+han' o' fellowship to welcome dem to de fol', I want Sister Ann Pease to
+come up an' be de first to bid 'em God speed on the gospel way." Ann
+Pease visibly swelled, but she marched up, and without looking at
+either, shook hands with each of her enemies.
+
+"Hallelujah, praise de Lord," shouted the preacher, clapping his hands,
+"Behold how good and how pleasant it is; and now let the congregation in
+gineral come aroun' and welcome Brothah and Sistah Pease."
+
+His rich bass voice broke into "Bless Be the Tie that Binds," and as the
+volume of the hymn, swelled by the full chorus of the congregation,
+rolled away to the rafters of the little church, the people rose and
+marched solemnly round, shaking hands with the new members and with each
+other.
+
+Brother and Sister Pease were the last to leave church that day, but
+they found Ann waiting for them at the door. She walked straight up to
+them and spoke: "Nancy Rogers," she said, "I know you; I kin see claih
+thoo you, and you ain't a foolin' me one bit. All I got to say is dat I
+has done my Christian duty, an' I ain't gwine do no mo', so don' you
+speak to me fo'm dis day out."
+
+For the brief space of a second there was something like a gleam in
+Nancy's eyes, but she replied in all meekness, "I's a full-blown
+Christian now, an' I feel it my bounden duty to speak to you, Sis'
+Pease, an' I's gwine t' speak."
+
+Ignoring this defiance the other woman turned to her former husband. She
+looked at him with unveiled contempt, then she said slowly, "An' ez fu'
+Wi'yum, Gawd he'p you."
+
+Here all intercourse between these warring spirits might have ended but
+for Nancy Pease's persistent civility. She would speak to her rival on
+every occasion, and even call upon her if she could gain admittance to
+the house. And now the last drop of bitterness fell into the widow's
+cup, for the community, to distinguish between them, began calling her
+"Ol' Sis' Pease." This was the climax of her sorrows, and she who had
+been so devout came no more to the church; she who had been so cheerful
+and companionable grew morose and sour and shut her doors against her
+friends. She was as one dead to her old world. The one bit of vivid life
+about her was her lasting hatred of the woman who bore her name. In vain
+the preacher sought to break down the barrier of her animosity. She had
+built it of adamant, and his was a losing fight. So for several years
+the feud went on, and those who had known Ann in her cheerier days
+forgot that knowledge and spoke of her with open aversion as "dat awful
+ol' Mis' Pease." The while Nancy, in spite of "Wi'yum's" industrial
+vagaries, had flourished and waxed opulent. She continued to flaunt her
+Christian humility in the eyes of her own circle, and to withhold her
+pity from the poor, lonely old woman whom hate had made bitter and to
+whom the world, after all, had not been over-kind. But prosperity is
+usually cruel, and one needs the prick of the thorn one's self to know
+how it stings his brother.
+
+She was startled one day, however, out of her usual placidity. Sister
+Martin, one of her neighbours, dropped in and settling herself with a
+sigh announced the important news, "Well, bless Gawd, ol' Sis' Pease is
+gone at last."
+
+Nancy dropped the plate she had been polishing, and unheeded, it smashed
+into bits on the floor.
+
+"Wha'--what!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Yes'm," Sister Martin assured her, "de ol' lady done passed away."
+
+"I didn't know she was sick; w'en she die?"
+
+"She done shet huh eyes on dis worl' o' sorror des a few minutes ago.
+She ain't bin sick mo'n two days."
+
+Nancy had come to herself now, and casting her eyes up in an excess of
+Christian zeal, she said: "Well, she wouldn't let me do nuffin' fu' huh
+in life, but I sut'ny shell try to do my duty by huh in death," and
+drying her hands and throwing a shawl over her head, she hastened over
+to her dead enemy's house.
+
+The news had spread quickly and the neighbourhood had just begun to
+gather in the little room which held the rigid form. Nancy entered and
+made her way through the group about the bed, waving the others aside
+imperiously.
+
+"It is my Christian duty," she said solemnly, "to lay Sis' Pease out,
+an' I's gwine do it." She bent over the bed. Now there are a dozen
+truthful women who will vouch for the truth of what happened. When Nancy
+leaned over the bed, as if in obedience to the power of an electric
+shock, the corpse's eyes flew open, Ann Pease rose up in bed and
+pointing a trembling finger at her frightened namesake exclaimed: "Go
+'way f'om me, Nancy Rogers, don't you daih to tech me. You ain't got de
+come-uppance of me yit. Don't you daih to lay me out."
+
+Most of this remark, it seems, fell on empty air, for the room was
+cleared in a twinkling. Women holding high numerous skirts over their
+heavy shoes fled in a panic, and close in their wake panted Nancy Pease.
+
+There have been conflicting stories about the matter, but there are
+those who maintain that after having delivered her ultimatum, old Mis'
+Pease immediately resumed the natural condition of a dead person. In
+fact there was no one there to see, and the old lady did not really die
+until night, and when they found her, there was a smile of triumph on
+her face.
+
+Nancy did not help to lay her out.
+
+
+
+
+_Twelve_
+
+THE LYNCHING OF JUBE BENSON
+
+
+Gordon Fairfax's library held but three men, but the air was dense with
+clouds of smoke. The talk had drifted from one topic to another much as
+the smoke wreaths had puffed, floated, and thinned away. Then Handon
+Gay, who was an ambitious young reporter, spoke of a lynching story in a
+recent magazine, and the matter of punishment without trial put new life
+into the conversation.
+
+"I should like to see a real lynching," said Gay rather callously.
+
+"Well, I should hardly express it that way," said Fairfax, "but if a
+real, live lynching were to come my way, I should not avoid it."
+
+"I should," spoke the other from the depths of his chair, where he had
+been puffing in moody silence. Judged by his hair, which was freely
+sprinkled with gray, the speaker might have been a man of forty-five or
+fifty, but his face, though lined and serious, was youthful, the face of
+a man hardly past thirty.
+
+"What, you, Dr. Melville? Why, I thought that you physicians wouldn't
+weaken at anything."
+
+"I have seen one such affair," said the doctor gravely, "in fact, I took
+a prominent part in it."
+
+"Tell us about it," said the reporter, feeling for his pencil and
+notebook, which he was, nevertheless, careful to hide from the speaker.
+
+The men drew their chairs eagerly up to the doctor's, but for a minute
+he did not seem to see them, but sat gazing abstractedly into the fire,
+then he took a long draw upon his cigar and began:
+
+"I can see it all very vividly now. It was in the summer time and about
+seven years ago. I was practising at the time down in the little town of
+Bradford. It was a small and primitive place, just the location for an
+impecunious medical man, recently out of college.
+
+"In lieu of a regular office, I attended to business in the first of two
+rooms which I rented from Hiram Daly, one of the more prosperous of the
+townsmen. Here I boarded and here also came my patients--white and
+black--whites from every section, and blacks from 'nigger town,' as the
+west portion of the place was called.
+
+"The people about me were most of them coarse and rough, but they were
+simple and generous, and as time passed on I had about abandoned my
+intention of seeking distinction in wider fields and determined to
+settle into the place of a modest country doctor. This was rather a
+strange conclusion for a young man to arrive at, and I will not deny
+that the presence in the house of my host's beautiful young daughter,
+Annie, had something to do with my decision. She was a beautiful young
+girl of seventeen or eighteen, and very far superior to her
+surroundings. She had a native grace and a pleasing way about her that
+made everybody that came under her spell her abject slave. White and
+black who knew her loved her, and none, I thought, more deeply and
+respectfully than Jube Benson, the black man of all work about the
+place.
+
+"He was a fellow whom everybody trusted; an apparently steady-going,
+grinning sort, as we used to call him. Well, he was completely under
+Miss Annie's thumb, and would fetch and carry for her like a faithful
+dog. As soon as he saw that I began to care for Annie, and anybody could
+see that, he transferred some of his allegiance to me and became my
+faithful servitor also. Never did a man have a more devoted adherent in
+his wooing than did I, and many a one of Annie's tasks which he
+volunteered to do gave her an extra hour with me. You can imagine that I
+liked the boy and you need not wonder any more that as both wooing and
+my practice waxed apace, I was content to give up my great ambitions and
+stay just where I was.
+
+"It wasn't a very pleasant thing, then, to have an epidemic of typhoid
+break out in the town that kept me going so that I hardly had time for
+the courting that a fellow wants to carry on with his sweetheart while
+he is still young enough to call her his girl. I fumed, but duty was
+duty, and I kept to my work night and day. It was now that Jube proved
+how invaluable he was as a coadjutor. He not only took messages to
+Annie, but brought sometimes little ones from her to me, and he would
+tell me little secret things that he had overheard her say that made me
+throb with joy and swear at him for repeating his mistress'
+conversation. But best of all, Jube was a perfect Cerberus, and no one
+on earth could have been more effective in keeping away or deluding the
+other young fellows who visited the Dalys. He would tell me of it
+afterwards, chuckling softly to himself. 'An,' Doctah, I say to Mistah
+Hemp Stevens, "'Scuse us, Mistah Stevens, but Miss Annie, she des gone
+out," an' den he go outer de gate lookin' moughty lonesome. When Sam
+Elkins come, I say, "Sh, Mistah Elkins, Miss Annie, she done tuk down,"
+an' he say, "What, Jube, you don' reckon hit de----" Den he stop an'
+look skeert, an' I say, "I feared hit is, Mistah Elkins," an' sheks my
+haid ez solemn. He goes outer de gate lookin' lak his bes' frien' done
+daid, an' all de time Miss Annie behine de cu'tain ovah de po'ch des' a
+laffin' fit to kill.'
+
+"Jube was a most admirable liar, but what could I do? He knew that I
+was a young fool of a hypocrite, and when I would rebuke him for these
+deceptions, he would give way and roll on the floor in an excess of
+delighted laughter until from very contagion I had to join him--and,
+well, there was no need of my preaching when there had been no beginning
+to his repentance and when there must ensue a continuance of his
+wrong-doing.
+
+"This thing went on for over three months, and then, pouf! I was down
+like a shot. My patients were nearly all up, but the reaction from
+overwork made me an easy victim of the lurking germs. Then Jube loomed
+up as a nurse. He put everyone else aside, and with the doctor, a friend
+of mine from a neighbouring town, took entire charge of me. Even Annie
+herself was put aside, and I was cared for as tenderly as a baby. Tom,
+that was my physician and friend, told me all about it afterward with
+tears in his eyes. Only he was a big, blunt man and his expressions did
+not convey all that he meant. He told me how my nigger had nursed me as
+if I were a sick kitten and he my mother. Of how fiercely he guarded his
+right to be the sole one to 'do' for me, as he called it, and how, when
+the crisis came, he hovered, weeping, but hopeful, at my bedside, until
+it was safely passed, when they drove him, weak and exhausted, from the
+room. As for me, I knew little about it at the time, and cared less. I
+was too busy in my fight with death. To my chimerical vision there was
+only a black but gentle demon that came and went, alternating with a
+white fairy, who would insist on coming in on her head, growing larger
+and larger and then dissolving. But the pathos and devotion in the story
+lost nothing in my blunt friend's telling.
+
+"It was during the period of a long convalescence, however, that I came
+to know my humble ally as he really was, devoted to the point of
+abjectness. There were times when for very shame at his goodness to me,
+I would beg him to go away, to do something else. He would go, but
+before I had time to realise that I was not being ministered to, he
+would be back at my side, grinning and pottering just the same. He
+manufactured duties for the joy of performing them. He pretended to see
+desires in me that I never had, because he liked to pander to them, and
+when I became entirely exasperated, and ripped out a good round oath, he
+chuckled with the remark, 'Dah, now, you sholy is gittin' well. Nevah
+did hyeah a man anywhaih nigh Jo'dan's sho' cuss lak dat.'
+
+"Why, I grew to love him, love him, oh, yes, I loved him as well--oh,
+what am I saying? All human love and gratitude are damned poor things;
+excuse me, gentlemen, this isn't a pleasant story. The truth is usually
+a nasty thing to stand.
+
+"It was not six months after that that my friendship to Jube, which he
+had been at such great pains to win, was put to too severe a test.
+
+"It was in the summer time again, and as business was slack, I had
+ridden over to see my friend, Dr. Tom. I had spent a good part of the
+day there, and it was past four o'clock when I rode leisurely into
+Bradford. I was in a particularly joyous mood and no premonition of the
+impending catastrophe oppressed me. No sense of sorrow, present or to
+come, forced itself upon me, even when I saw men hurrying through the
+almost deserted streets. When I got within sight of my home and saw a
+crowd surrounding it, I was only interested sufficiently to spur my
+horse into a jog trot, which brought me up to the throng, when something
+in the sullen, settled horror in the men's faces gave me a sudden, sick
+thrill. They whispered a word to me, and without a thought, save for
+Annie, the girl who had been so surely growing into my heart, I leaped
+from the saddle and tore my way through the people to the house.
+
+"It was Annie, poor girl, bruised and bleeding, her face and dress torn
+from struggling. They were gathered round her with white faces, and, oh,
+with what terrible patience they were trying to gain from her fluttering
+lips the name of her murderer. They made way for me and I knelt at her
+side. She was beyond my skill, and my will merged with theirs. One
+thought was in our minds.
+
+"'Who?' I asked.
+
+"Her eyes half opened, 'That black----' She fell back into my arms dead.
+
+"We turned and looked at each other. The mother had broken down and was
+weeping, but the face of the father was like iron.
+
+"'It is enough,' he said; 'Jube has disappeared.' He went to the door
+and said to the expectant crowd, 'She is dead.'
+
+"I heard the angry roar without swelling up like the noise of a flood,
+and then I heard the sudden movement of many feet as the men separated
+into searching parties, and laying the dead girl back upon her couch, I
+took my rifle and went out to join them.
+
+"As if by intuition the knowledge had passed among the men that Jube
+Benson had disappeared, and he, by common consent, was to be the object
+of our search. Fully a dozen of the citizens had seen him hastening
+toward the woods and noted his skulking air, but as he had grinned in
+his old good-natured way they had, at the time, thought nothing of it.
+Now, however, the diabolical reason of his slyness was apparent. He had
+been shrewd enough to disarm suspicion, and by now was far away. Even
+Mrs. Daly, who was visiting with a neighbour, had seen him stepping out
+by a back way, and had said with a laugh, 'I reckon that black rascal's
+a-running off somewhere.' Oh, if she had only known.
+
+"'To the woods! To the woods!' that was the cry, and away we went, each
+with the determination not to shoot, but to bring the culprit alive into
+town, and then to deal with him as his crime deserved.
+
+"I cannot describe the feelings I experienced as I went out that night
+to beat the woods for this human tiger. My heart smouldered within me
+like a coal, and I went forward under the impulse of a will that was
+half my own, half some more malignant power's. My throat throbbed drily,
+but water nor whiskey would not have quenched my thirst. The thought has
+come to me since that now I could interpret the panther's desire for
+blood and sympathise with it, but then I thought nothing. I simply went
+forward, and watched, watched with burning eyes for a familiar form that
+I had looked for as often before with such different emotions.
+
+"Luck or ill-luck, which you will, was with our party, and just as dawn
+was graying the sky, we came upon our quarry crouched in the corner of a
+fence. It was only half light, and we might have passed, but my eyes had
+caught sight of him, and I raised the cry. We levelled our guns and he
+rose and came toward us.
+
+"'I t'ought you wa'n't gwine see me,' he said sullenly, 'I didn't mean
+no harm.'
+
+"'Harm!'
+
+"Some of the men took the word up with oaths, others were ominously
+silent.
+
+"We gathered around him like hungry beasts, and I began to see terror
+dawning in his eyes. He turned to me, 'I's moughty glad you's hyeah,
+doc,' he said, 'you ain't gwine let 'em whup me.'
+
+"'Whip you, you hound,' I said, 'I'm going to see you hanged,' and in
+the excess of my passion I struck him full on the mouth. He made a
+motion as if to resent the blow against even such great odds, but
+controlled himself.
+
+"'W'y, doctah,' he exclaimed in the saddest voice I have ever heard,
+'w'y, doctah! I ain't stole nuffin' o' yo'n, an' I was comin' back. I
+only run off to see my gal, Lucy, ovah to de Centah.'
+
+"'You lie!' I said, and my hands were busy helping the others bind him
+upon a horse. Why did I do it? I don't know. A false education, I
+reckon, one false from the beginning. I saw his black face glooming
+there in the half light, and I could only think of him as a monster.
+It's tradition. At first I was told that the black man would catch me,
+and when I got over that, they taught me that the devil was black, and
+when I had recovered from the sickness of that belief, here were Jube
+and his fellows with faces of menacing blackness. There was only one
+conclusion: This black man stood for all the powers of evil, the result
+of whose machinations had been gathering in my mind from childhood up.
+But this has nothing to do with what happened.
+
+"After firing a few shots to announce our capture, we rode back into
+town with Jube. The ingathering parties from all directions met us as we
+made our way up to the house. All was very quiet and orderly. There was
+no doubt that it was as the papers would have said, a gathering of the
+best citizens. It was a gathering of stern, determined men, bent on a
+terrible vengeance.
+
+"We took Jube into the house, into the room where the corpse lay. At
+sight of it, he gave a scream like an animal's and his face went the
+colour of storm-blown water. This was enough to condemn him. We divined,
+rather than heard, his cry of 'Miss Ann, Miss Ann, oh, my God, doc, you
+don't t'ink I done it?'
+
+"Hungry hands were ready. We hurried him out into the yard. A rope was
+ready. A tree was at hand. Well, that part was the least of it, save
+that Hiram Daly stepped aside to let me be the first to pull upon the
+rope. It was lax at first. Then it tightened, and I felt the quivering
+soft weight resist my muscles. Other hands joined, and Jube swung off
+his feet.
+
+"No one was masked. We knew each other. Not even the Culprit's face was
+covered, and the last I remember of him as he went into the air was a
+look of sad reproach that will remain with me until I meet him face to
+face again.
+
+"We were tying the end of the rope to a tree, where the dead man might
+hang as a warning to his fellows, when a terrible cry chilled us to the
+marrow.
+
+"'Cut 'im down, cut 'im down, he ain't guilty. We got de one. Cut him
+down, fu' Gawd's sake. Here's de man, we foun' him hidin' in de barn!'
+
+"Jube's brother, Ben, and another Negro, came rushing toward us, half
+dragging, half carrying a miserable-looking wretch between them. Someone
+cut the rope and Jube dropped lifeless to the ground.
+
+"'Oh, my Gawd, he's daid, he's daid!' wailed the brother, but with
+blazing eyes he brought his captive into the centre of the group, and we
+saw in the full light the scratched face of Tom Skinner--the worst white
+ruffian in the town--but the face we saw was not as we were accustomed
+to see it, merely smeared with dirt. It was blackened to imitate a
+Negro's.
+
+"God forgive me; I could not wait to try to resuscitate Jube. I knew he
+was already past help, so I rushed into the house and to the dead girl's
+side. In the excitement they had not yet washed or laid her out.
+Carefully, carefully, I searched underneath her broken finger nails.
+There was skin there. I took it out, the little curled pieces, and went
+with it to my office.
+
+"There, determinedly, I examined it under a powerful glass, and read my
+own doom. It was the skin of a white man, and in it were embedded
+strands of short, brown hair or beard.
+
+"How I went out to tell the waiting crowd I do not know, for something
+kept crying in my ears, 'Blood guilty! Blood guilty!'
+
+"The men went away stricken into silence and awe. The new prisoner
+attempted neither denial nor plea. When they were gone I would have
+helped Ben carry his brother in, but he waved me away fiercely, 'You
+he'ped murder my brothah, you dat was _his_ frien', go 'way, go 'way!
+I'll tek him home myse'f' I could only respect his wish, and he and his
+comrade took up the dead man and between them bore him up the street on
+which the sun was now shining full.
+
+"I saw the few men who had not skulked indoors uncover as they passed,
+and I--I--stood there between the two murdered ones, while all the while
+something in my ears kept crying, 'Blood guilty! Blood guilty!'"
+
+The doctor's head dropped into his hands and he sat for some time in
+silence, which was broken by neither of the men, then he rose, saying,
+"Gentlemen, that was my last lynching."
+
+
+
+
+_Thirteen_
+
+SCHWALLIGER'S PHILANTHROPY
+
+
+There is no adequate reason why Schwalliger's name should appear upon
+the pages of history. He was decidedly not in good society. He was not
+even respectable as respectability goes. But certain men liked him and
+certain women loved him. He is dead. That is all that will be said of
+the most of us after a while. He was but a weak member of the community,
+but those who loved him did not condemn him, and they shut their eyes to
+his shortcomings because they were a part of him. Without his follies he
+would not have been himself.
+
+Schwalliger was only a race-horse "tout." Ah, don't hold up your hands,
+good friends, for circumstances of birth make most of us what we are,
+whether poets or pickpockets, and if this thick-set, bow-legged black
+man became a "tout" it was because he had to. Old horsemen will tell you
+that Schwalliger--no one knew where he got the name--was rolling and
+tumbling about the track at Bennings when he was still so short in
+stature that he got the name of the "tadpole." Naturally, he came to
+know much of horses, grew up with them, in fact, and having no wealthy
+father or mother to indulge him in his taste or help him use his
+knowledge, he did the next best thing and used his special education for
+himself in the humble capacity of voluntary adviser to aspiring
+gamesters. He prospered and blossomed out into good clothes of a highly
+ornate pattern. Naturally, like a man in any other business, he had his
+ups and downs, and there were times when the good clothes disappeared
+and he was temporarily forced to return to the occupation of rubbing
+down horses; but these periods of depression were of short duration, and
+at the next turn of fortune's wheel he would again be on top.
+
+"No, thuh," he was wont to say, with his inimitable lisp--"no, thuh, you
+can't keep a good man down. 'Tain't no use a-talkin', you jeth can't. It
+don't do me no harm to go back to rubbin' now an' then. It jeth nachully
+keepth me on good termth with de hothes."
+
+And, indeed, it did seem that his prophecies were surer and his
+knowledge more direct after one of these periods of enforced humility.
+
+There were various things whispered about Schwalliger; that he was no
+more honest than he should be, that he was not as sound as he might be;
+but though it might be claimed, and was, that he would prophesy, on
+occasion, the success of three different horses to three different men,
+no one ever accused him of being less than fair with the women who came
+out from the city to enjoy the races and increase their excitement by
+staking small sums. To these Schwalliger was the soul of courtesy and
+honour, and if they lost upon his advice, he was not happy until he had
+made it up to them again.
+
+One, however, who sets himself to work to give a race-horse tout a
+character may expect to have his labour for his pains. The profession of
+his subject is against him. He may as well put aside his energy and say,
+"Well, perhaps he was a bad lot, but----." The present story is not
+destined to put you more in love with the hero of it, but----
+
+The heat and enthusiasm at Saratoga and the other race-courses was done,
+and autumn and the glory of Bennings had come. The ingratiating
+Schwalliger came back with the horses to his old stamping ground and to
+happiness. The other tracks had not treated him kindly, and but for the
+kindness of his equine friends, whom he slept with and tended, he might
+have come back to Washington on the wooden steps. But he was back, and
+that was happiness for him. Broke?
+
+"Well," said Schwalliger, in answer to a trainer's question, "I ain't
+exactly broke, Misthah Johnthon, but I wath pretty badly bent. I goth
+awa jutht ath thoon ath I commenth to feel mythelf crackin', but I'm
+hyeah to git even."
+
+He was only a rubber again, but he began to get even early in the week,
+and by Saturday he was again as like to a rainbow as any of his class.
+He did not, however, throw away his rubber's clothes. He was used to the
+caprices of fortune, and he did not know how soon again he should need
+them. That he was not dressed in them, and yet saved them, made him
+capable of performing his one philanthropy.
+
+Had he not been gorgeously dressed he would not have inspired the
+confidence of the old Negro who came up to him on Tuesday morning,
+disconsolate and weeping.
+
+"Mistah," he said deferentially through his tears, "is you a spo't?"
+
+Mr. Schwalliger's chest protruded, and his very red lips opened in a
+smile as he answered: "Well, I do' know'th I'm tho much of a thpo't, but
+I think I knowth a thing or two."
+
+"You look lak a spo'tin' gent'man, an' ef you is I thought mebbe you'd
+he'p me out."
+
+"Wha'th the mattah? Up againtht it? You look a little ol' to be doin'
+the gay an' frithky." But Schwalliger's eyes were kind.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you des' how it is, suh. I come f'om down in Ma'lan',
+'case I wanted to see de hosses run. My ol' mastah was moughty fon' of
+sich spo't, an' I kin' o' likes it myse'f, dough I don't nevah bet, suh.
+I's a chu'ch membah. But yistiddy aftahnoon dee was two gent'men what I
+seen playin' wid a leetle ball an' some cups ovah it, an' I went up to
+look on, an' lo an' behol', suh, it was one o' dese money-mekin' t'ings.
+W'y, I seen de man des' stan' dere an' mek money by the fis'ful. Well, I
+'low I got sorter wo'ked up. De men dee axed me to bet, but I 'low how I
+was a chu'ch membah an' didn't tek pa't in no sich carryin's on, an' den
+dee said 'twan't nuffin mo' den des' a chu'ch raffle, an' it was mo' fun
+den anyt'ing else. I des' say dat I could fin' de little ball, an' dee
+said I couldn't, an' if I fin' it dee gin me twenty dollahs, an' if I
+didn' I des' gin 'em ten dollahs. I shuk my haid. I wa'n't gwine be
+tempted, an' I try to pull myse'f erway. Ef I'd 'a' gone den 'twould 'a'
+been all right, but I stayed an' I stayed, an' I looked, an' I looked,
+an' it did seem lak it was so easy. At las', mistah, I tried it, an' I
+didn' fin' dat ball, an' dee got my ten dollahs, an' dat was all I had."
+
+"Uh, huh," said Schwalliger grimly, "thell game, an' dey did you." The
+old man shuffled uneasily, but continued:
+
+"Yes, suh, dee done me, an' de worst of it is, I's 'fraid to go home,
+even ef I could get dere, 'case dee boun' to axe me how I los' dat
+money, an' dee ain't no way fu' me to hide it, an' ef dee fin' out I
+been gamblin' I'll git chu'ched fu' it, an' I been a puffessor so
+long----" The old man's voice broke, and Schwalliger smiled the crooked
+smile of a man whose heart is touched.
+
+"Whereth thith push wo'kin'?" he said briefly.
+
+"Right ovah thaih," said the old Negro, indicating a part of the grounds
+not far distant.
+
+"All right, you go on ovah thaih an' wait fu' me; an' if you thee me,
+remembah, you don't thee me. I don't know you, you don't know me, but
+I'll try to thee you out all right."
+
+The old man went on his way, a new light in his eyes at the hope
+Schwalliger had inspired. Schwalliger himself made his way back to the
+stables; his dirty, horsy, rubber's outfit was there. He smiled
+intelligently as he looked at it. He was smiling in a different manner
+when, all dressed in it, he came up nearer to the grand stand. It was a
+very inane smile. He looked the very image of simplicity and ignorance,
+like a man who was anxious and ready to be duped. He strolled carelessly
+up to where the little game with the little ball was going on, and stood
+there looking foolishly on. The three young men--ostensibly there was
+only one--were doing a rushing business. They were playing very
+successfully on that trait of human nature which feels itself glorified
+and exalted when it has got something for nothing. The rustics, black
+and white, and some who had not the excuse of rusticity, were falling
+readily into the trap and losing their hard-earned money. Every now and
+then a man--one of their confederates, of course, would make a striking
+winning, and this served as a bait for the rest of the spectators.
+Schwalliger looked on with growing interest, always smiling an ignorant,
+simple smile. Finally, as if he could stand it no longer, he ran his
+hand in his pocket and pulled out a roll of money--money in its most
+beautiful and tempting form, the long, green notes. Then, as if a sudden
+spirit of prudence had taken possession of him, he put it back into his
+pocket, shook his head, and began working his way out of the crowd. But
+the operator of the shell game had caught sight of the bills, and it was
+like the scent of blood to the tiger. His eye was on the simple Negro at
+once, and he called cheerfully:
+
+"Come up, uncle, and try your luck. See how I manipulate this ball. Easy
+enough to find if you're only lucky." He was so flippantly shrewd that
+his newness to the business was insolently apparent to Schwalliger, who
+knew a thing or two himself. Schwalliger smiled again and shook his
+head.
+
+"Oh, no, thuh," he said, "I don't play dat."
+
+"Why, come and try your luck anyhow; no harm in it."
+
+Schwalliger took out his money and looked at it again and shook his
+head. He began again his backward movement from the crowd.
+
+"No," he said, "I wouldn' play erroun' hyeah befo' all thethe people,
+becauthe you wouldn't pay me even ef I won."
+
+"Why, of course we would," said the flippant operator; "everybody looks
+alike to us here."
+
+Schwalliger kept moving away, ever and anon sending wistful, inane
+glances back at his tempter.
+
+The bait worked admirably. The man closed up his little folding table,
+and, winking to his confederates, followed the retreating Negro. They
+stayed about with the crowd, while he followed on and on until
+Schwalliger had led him into a short alley between the stables. There he
+paused and allowed his pursuer to catch up with him.
+
+"Thay, mithtah," he said, "what you keep on follerin' me fu'? I do' want
+to play wid you; I ain't got but fo'ty dollahs, an' ef I lothe I'll have
+to walk home."
+
+"Why, my dear fellow, there ain't no way for you to lose. Come, now, let
+me show you." And he set the table down and began to manipulate the ball
+dexterously. "Needn't put no money down. Just see if you can locate the
+ball a few times for fun."
+
+Schwalliger consented, and, greatly to his delight, located the little
+ball four times out of five. He was grinning now and the eye of the
+tempter was gleaming. Schwalliger took out his money.
+
+"How much you got?" he said.
+
+"Just eighty-five dollars, and I will lay it all against your forty."
+
+"What you got it in?" asked Schwalliger.
+
+"Four fives, four tens, and five five-dollar gold-pieces." And the man
+displayed it ostentatiously. The tout's eyes flashed as he saw his
+opponent put his money back into his waistcoat pocket.
+
+"Well, I bet you," he said, and planked his money down.
+
+The operator took the shells and swept the pea first under one then
+under the other, and laid the three side by side. Schwalliger laid his
+hand upon one. He lifted it up and there was nothing there.
+
+"Ha, ha, you've had bad luck," said the operator--"you lose, you lose.
+Well, I'm sorry for you, old fellow, but we all take chances in this
+little game, you know." He was folding up his table when all of a
+sudden a cry arose to heaven from Schwalliger's lips, and he grappled
+with the very shrewd young man, while shriek on shriek of "Murder!
+Robber! Police!" came from his lips. The police at Bennings were not
+slow to answer a call like this, and they came running up, and
+Schwalliger, who, among other things, was something of an actor, told
+his story trembling, incoherently, while the operator looked on aghast.
+Schwalliger demanded protection. He had been robbed. He had bet his
+eighty-five dollars against the operator's forty, and when he had
+accidentally picked out the right shell the operator had grabbed his
+money and attempted to escape. He wanted his money. He had eighty-five
+dollars, he said. "He had fo' fiveth, fo' tenth, and five five-dollar
+gold-pieceth, an' he wanted them."
+
+The policeman was thorough. He made his search at once. It was even as
+Schwalliger had said. The money was on the gambler even as the Negro had
+said. Well, there was nothing but justice to be done. The officers
+returned the eighty-five dollars to Schwalliger, and out of an unusual
+access of clemency bade the operator begone or they would run him in.
+
+When he had gone, Schwalliger turned and winked slowly at the minions of
+the law, and went quietly into a corner with them, and there was the
+sound of the shuffling of silken paper. Later on he found the old man
+and returned him his ten, and went back to don his Jacob's coat.
+
+Who shall say that Schwalliger was not a true philanthropist?
+
+
+
+
+_Fourteen_
+
+THE INTERFERENCE OF PATSY ANN
+
+
+Patsy Ann Meriweather would have told you that her father, or more
+properly her "pappy," was a "widover," and she would have added in her
+sad little voice, with her mournful eyes upon you, that her mother had
+"bin daid fu' nigh onto fou' yeahs." Then you could have wept for Patsy,
+for her years were only thirteen now, and since the passing away of her
+mother she had been the little mother for her four younger brothers and
+sisters, as well as her father's house-keeper.
+
+But Patsy Ann never complained; she was quite willing to be all that she
+had been until such time as Isaac and Dora, Cassie and little John
+should be old enough to care for themselves, and also to lighten some of
+her domestic burdens. She had never reckoned upon any other manner of
+release. In fact her youthful mind was not able to contemplate the
+possibility of any other manner of change. But the good women of
+Patsy's neighbourhood were not the ones to let her remain in this
+deplorable state of ignorance. She was to be enlightened as to other
+changes that might take place in her condition, and of the unspeakable
+horrors that would transpire with them.
+
+It was upon the occasion that little John had taken it into his infant
+head to have the German measles just at the time that Isaac was slowly
+recovering from the chicken-pox. Patsy Ann's powers had been taxed to
+the utmost, and Mrs. Caroline Gibson had been called in from next door
+to superintend the brewing of the saffron tea, and for the general care
+of the fretful sufferer.
+
+To Patsy Ann, then, in ominous tone, spoke this oracle. "Patsy Ann, how
+yo' pappy doin' sence Matildy died?" "Matildy" was the deceased wife.
+
+"Oh, he gittin' 'long all right. He was mighty broke up at de fus', but
+he 'low now dat de house go on de same's ef mammy was a-livin'."
+
+"Oom huh," disdainfully; "Oom huh. Yo' mammy bin daid fou' yeahs, ain't
+she?"
+
+"Yes'm; mighty nigh."
+
+"Oom huh; fou' yeahs is a mighty long time fu' a colo'd man to wait; but
+we'n he do wait dat long, hit's all de wuss we'n hit do come."
+
+"Pap bin wo'kin right stiddy at de brick-ya'd," said Patsy, in loyal
+defence against some vaguely implied accusation, "an' he done put some
+money in de bank."
+
+"Bad sign, bad sign," and Mrs. Gibson gave her head a fearsome shake.
+
+But just then the shrill voice of little John calling for attention drew
+her away and left Patsy Ann to herself and her meditations.
+
+What could this mean?
+
+When that lady had finished ministering to the sick child and returned,
+Patsy Ann asked her, "Mis' Gibson, what you mean by sayin' 'bad sign,
+bad sign?'"
+
+Again the oracle shook her head sagely. Then she answered, "Chil', you
+do' know de dev'ment dey is in dis worl'."
+
+"But," retorted the child, "my pappy ain' up to no dev'ment, 'case he
+got 'uligion an' bin baptised."
+
+"Oom-m," groaned Sistah Gibson, "dat don' mek a bit o' diffunce. Who is
+any mo' ma'yin' men den de preachahs demse'ves? W'y Brothah 'Lias Scott
+done tempted matermony six times a'ready, an' 's lookin' roun' fu' de
+sebent, an' he's a good man, too."
+
+"Ma'yin'," said Patsy breathlessly.
+
+"Yes, honey, ma'yin', an' I's afeared yo' pappy's got notions in his
+haid, an' w'en a widower git gals in his haid dey ain' no use
+a-pesterin' wid 'em, 'case dey boun' to have dey way."
+
+"Ma'yin'," said Patsy to herself reflectively. "Ma'yin'." She knew what
+it meant, but she had never dreamed of the possibility of such a thing
+in connection with her father. "Ma'yin'," and yet the idea of it did not
+seem so very unalluring.
+
+She spoke her thoughts aloud.
+
+"But ef pap 'u'd ma'y, Mis' Gibson, den I'd git a chanct to go to
+school. He allus sayin' he mighty sorry 'bout me not goin'."
+
+"Dah now, dah now," cried the woman, casting a pitying glance at the
+child, "dat's de las' t'ing. He des a feelin' roun' now. You po',
+ign'ant, mothahless chil'. You ain' nevah had no step-mothah, an' you
+don' know what hit means."
+
+"But she'd tek keer o' the chillen," persisted Patsy.
+
+"Sich tekin' keer of 'em ez hit 'u'd be. She'd keer fu' 'em to dey
+graves. Nobody cain't tell me nuffin 'bout step-mothahs, case I knows
+'em. Dey ain' no ooman goin' to tek keer o' nobody else's chile lak
+she'd tek keer o' huh own," and Patsy felt a choking come into her
+throat and a tight sensation about her heart while she listened as Mrs.
+Gibson regaled her with all the choice horrors that are laid at the door
+of step-mothers.
+
+From that hour on, one settled conviction took shape and possessed Patsy
+Ann's mind; never, if she could help it, would she run the risk of
+having a step-mother. Come what may, let her be compelled to do what she
+might, let the hope of school fade from her sight forever and a day--but
+no step-mother should ever cast her baneful shadow over Patsy Ann's
+home.
+
+Experience of life had made her wise for her years, and so for the time
+she said nothing to her father; but she began to watch him with wary
+eyes, his goings out and his comings in, and to attach new importance to
+trifles that had passed unnoticed before by her childish mind.
+
+For instance, if he greased or blacked his boots before going out of an
+evening her suspicions were immediately aroused and she saw dim visions
+of her father returning, on his arm the terrible ogress whom she had
+come to know by the name of step-mother.
+
+Mrs. Gibson's poison had worked well and rapidly. She had thoroughly
+inoculated the child's mind with the step-mother virus, but she had not
+at the same time made the parent widow-proof, a hard thing to do at
+best. So it came to pass that with a mysterious horror growing within
+her, Patsy Ann saw her father black his boots more and more often and
+fare forth o' nights and Sunday afternoons.
+
+Finally her little heart could contain its sorrow no longer, and one
+night when he was later than usual she could not sleep. So she slipped
+out of bed, turned up the light, and waited for him, determined to have
+it out, then and there.
+
+He came at last and was all surprise to meet the solemn, round eyes of
+his little daughter staring at him from across the table.
+
+"W'y, lady gal," he exclaimed, "what you doin' up at 'his time?"
+
+"I sat up fu' you. I got somep'n' to ax you, pappy." Her voice quivered
+and he snuggled her up in his arms.
+
+"What's troublin' my little lady gal now? Is de chillen bin bad?"
+
+She laid her head close against his big breast, and the tears would come
+as she answered, "No, suh; de chillen bin ez good az good could be, but
+oh, pappy, pappy, is you got gal in yo' haid an' a-goin' to bring me a
+step-mothah?"
+
+He held her away from him almost harshly and gazed at her as he queried,
+"W'y, you po' baby, you! Who's bin puttin' dis hyeah foolishness in yo'
+haid?" Then his laugh rang out as he patted her head and drew her close
+to him again. "Ef yo' pappy do bring a step-mothah into dis house, Gawd
+knows he'll bring de right kin'."
+
+"Dey ain't no right kin'," answered Patsy.
+
+"You don' know, baby; you don' know. Go to baid an' don' worry."
+
+He sat up a long time watching the candle sputter, then he pulled off
+his boots and tiptoed to Patsy's bedside. He leaned over her. "Po'
+little baby," he said; "what do she know about a step-mothah?" And Patsy
+saw him and heard him, for she was awake then, and far into the night.
+
+In the eyes of the child her father stood convicted. He had "gal in his
+haid," and was going to bring her a step-mother; but it would never be;
+her resolution was taken.
+
+She arose early the next morning and after getting her father off to
+work as usual, she took the children into hand. First she scrubbed them
+assiduously, burnishing their brown faces until they shone again. Then
+she tussled with their refractory locks, and after that she dressed them
+out in all the bravery of their best clothes.
+
+Meanwhile her tears were falling like rain, though her lips were shut
+tight. The children off her mind, she turned her attention to her own
+toilet, which she made with scrupulous care. Then taking a small
+tin-type of her mother from the bureau drawer, she put it in her bosom,
+and leading her little brood she went out of the house, locking the door
+behind her and placing the key, as was her wont, under the door-step.
+
+Outside she stood for a moment or two, undecided, and then with one
+long, backward glance at her home she turned and went up the street. At
+the first corner she paused again, spat in her hand and struck the
+watery globule with her finger. In the direction the most of the spittle
+flew, she turned. Patsy Ann was fleeing from home and a step-mother,
+and Fate had decided her direction for her, even as Mrs. Gibson's
+counsels had directed her course.
+
+The child had no idea where she was going. She knew no one to whom she
+might turn in her distress. Not even with Mrs. Gibson would she be safe
+from the horror which impended. She had but one impulse in her mind and
+that was to get beyond the reach of the terrible woman, or was it a
+monster? who was surely coming after her. On and on she walked through
+the town with her little band trudging bravely along beside her. People
+turned to look at the funny group and smiled good-naturedly as they
+passed, and one man, a little more amused than the rest, shouted after
+them, "Where you goin', sis, with that orphan's home?"
+
+But Patsy Ann's dignity was impregnable. She walked on with her head in
+the air, the desire for safety tugging at her heart.
+
+The hours passed and the gentle coolness of morning turned into the
+fierce heat of noon, and still with frequent rests they trudged on,
+Patsy ever and anon using her divining hand, unconscious that she was
+doubling and redoubling on her tracks. When the whistles blew for twelve
+she got her little brood into the shade of a poplar tree and set them
+down to the lunch which, thoughtful little mother that she was, she had
+brought with her. After that they all stretched themselves out on the
+grass that bordered the sidewalk, for all the children were tired out,
+and baby John was both sleepy and cross. Even Patsy Ann drowsed and
+finally dropped into the deep slumber of childhood. They looked too
+peaceful and serene for passers-by to bother them, and so they slept and
+slept.
+
+It was past three o'clock when the little guardian awakened with a
+start, and shook her charges into activity. John wept a little at first,
+but after a while took up his journey bravely with the rest.
+
+She had just turned into a side street, discouraged and bewildered, when
+the round face of a coloured woman standing in the doorway of a
+whitewashed cottage caught her eye and attention. Once more she paused
+and consulted her watery oracle, then turned to encounter the gaze of
+the round-faced woman. The oracle had spoken and she turned into the
+yard.
+
+"Whaih you goin', honey? You sut'ny look lak you plumb tukahed out. Come
+in an' tell me all 'bout yo'se'f, you po' little t'ing. Dese yo' little
+brothas an' sistahs?"
+
+"Yes'm," said Patsy Ann.
+
+"W'y, chil', whaih you goin'?"
+
+"I don' know," was the truthful answer.
+
+"You don' know? Whaih you live?"
+
+"Oh, I live down on Douglas Street," said Patsy Ann, "an' I's runnin'
+away f'om home an' my step-mothah."
+
+The woman looked keenly at her.
+
+"What yo' name?" she said.
+
+"My name's Patsy Ann Meriweather."
+
+"An' is yo' got a step-mothah?"
+
+"No," said Patsy Ann, "I ain' got none now, but I's sut'ny 'spectin'
+one."
+
+"What you know 'bout step-mothahs, honey?"
+
+"Mis' Gibson tol' me. Dey sho'ly is awful, missus, awful."
+
+"Mis' Gibson ain' tol' you right, honey. You come in hyeah and set down.
+You ain' nothin' mo' dan a baby yo'se'f, an' you ain' got no right to be
+trapsein' roun' dis away."
+
+Have you ever eaten muffins? Have you eaten bacon with onions? Have you
+drunk tea? Have you seen your little brother John taken up on a full
+bosom and rocked to sleep in the most motherly way, with the sweetness
+and tenderness that only a mother can give? Well, that was Patsy Ann's
+case to-night.
+
+And then she laid them along like ten-pins crosswise of her bed and sat
+for a long time thinking.
+
+To Maria Adams about six o'clock that night came a troubled and
+disheartened man. It was no less a person than Patsy Ann's father.
+
+"Maria! Maria! What shall I do? Somebody don' stole all my chillen."
+
+Maria, strange to say, was a woman of few words.
+
+"Don' you bothah 'bout de chillen," she said, and she took him by the
+hand and led him to where the five lay sleeping calmly across the bed.
+
+"Dey was runnin' f'om home an' dey step-mothah," said she.
+
+"Dey run hyeah f'om a step-mothah an' foun' a mothah." It was a tribute
+and a proposal all in one.
+
+When Patsy Ann awakened, the matter was explained to her, and with
+penitent tears she confessed her sins.
+
+"But," she said to Maria Adams, "ef you's de kin' of fo'ks dat dey mek
+step-mothahs out o' I ain' gwine to bothah my haid no mo'."
+
+
+
+
+_Fifteen_
+
+THE HOME-COMING OF 'RASTUS SMITH
+
+
+There was a great commotion in that part of town which was known as
+"Little Africa," and the cause of it was not far to seek. Contrary to
+the usual thing, this cause was not an excursion down the river, nor a
+revival, baptising, nor an Emancipation Day celebration. None of these
+was it that had aroused the denizens of "Little Africa," and kept them
+talking across the street from window to window, from door to door,
+through alley gates, over backyard fences, where they stood loud-mouthed
+and arms akimboed among laden clothes lines. No, the cause of it all was
+that Erastus Smith, Aunt Mandy Smith's boy, who had gone away from home
+several years before, and who, rumour said, had become a great man, was
+coming back, and "Little Africa," from Douglass Street to Cat Alley, was
+prepared to be dazzled. So few of those who had been born within the
+mile radius which was "Little Africa" went out into the great world and
+came into contact with the larger humanity that when one did he became
+a man set apart. And when, besides, he went into a great city and worked
+for a lawyer whose name was known the country over, the place of his
+birth had all the more reason to feel proud of her son.
+
+So there was much talk across the dirty little streets, and Aunt Mandy's
+small house found itself all of a sudden a very popular resort. The old
+women held Erastus up as an example to their sons. The old men told what
+they might have done had they had his chance. The young men cursed him,
+and the young girls giggled and waited.
+
+It was about an hour before the time of the arrival of Erastus, and the
+neighbours had thinned out one by one with a delicacy rather surprising
+in them, in order that the old lady might be alone with her boy for the
+first few minutes. Only one remained to help put the finishing touches
+to the two little rooms which Mrs. Smith called home, and to the
+preparations for the great dinner. The old woman wiped her eyes as she
+said to her companion, "Hit do seem a speshul blessin', Lizy, dat I been
+spaihed to see dat chile once mo' in de flesh. He sholy was mighty nigh
+to my hea't, an' w'en he went erway, I thought it 'ud kill me. But I kin
+see now dat hit uz all fu' de bes'. Think o' 'Rastus comin' home, er big
+man! Who'd evah 'specked dat?"
+
+"Law, Mis' Smif, you sholy is got reason to be mighty thankful. Des'
+look how many young men dere is in dis town what ain't nevah been no
+'count to dey pa'ents, ner anybody else."
+
+"Well, it's onexpected, Lizy, an' hit's 'spected. 'Rastus allus wuz a
+wonnerful chil', an' de way he tuk to work an' study kin' o' promised
+something f'om de commencement, an' I 'lowed mebbe he tu'n out a
+preachah."
+
+"Tush! yo' kin thank yo' stahs he didn't tu'n out no preachah. Preachahs
+ain't no bettah den anybody else dese days. Dey des go roun' tellin' dey
+lies an' eatin' de whiders an' orphins out o' house an' home."
+
+"Well, mebbe hit's bes' he didn' tu'n out dat way. But f'om de way he
+used to stan' on de chaih an' 'zort w'en he was a little boy, I thought
+hit was des what he 'ud tu'n out. O' co'se, being' in a law office is
+des as pervidin', but somehow hit do seem mo' worl'y."
+
+"Didn't I tell you de preachahs is ez worldly ez anybody else?"
+
+"Yes, yes, dat's right, but den 'Rastus, he had de eddication, fo' he
+had gone thoo de Third Readah."
+
+Just then the gate creaked, and a little brown-faced girl, with large,
+mild eyes, pushed open the door and came shyly in.
+
+"Hyeah's some flowahs, Mis' Smif," she said. "I thought mebbe you might
+like to decorate 'Rastus's room," and she wiped the confusion from her
+face with her apron.
+
+"La, chil', thankee. Dese is mighty pu'tty posies." These were the
+laurels which Sally Martin had brought to lay at the feet of her
+home-coming hero. No one in Cat Alley but that queer, quiet little girl
+would have thought of decorating anybody's room with flowers, but she
+had peculiar notions.
+
+In the old days, when they were children, and before Erastus had gone
+away to become great, they had gone up and down together along the
+byways of their locality, and had loved as children love. Later, when
+Erastus began keeping company, it was upon Sally that he bestowed his
+affections. No one, not even her mother, knew how she had waited for him
+all these years that he had been gone, few in reality, but so long and
+so many to her.
+
+And now he was coming home. She scorched something in the ironing that
+day because tears of joy were blinding her eyes. Her thoughts were busy
+with the meeting that was to be. She had a brand new dress for the
+occasion--a lawn, with dark blue dots, and a blue sash--and there was a
+new hat, wonderful with the flowers of summer, and for both of them she
+had spent her hard-earned savings, because she wished to be radiant in
+the eyes of the man who loved her.
+
+Of course, Erastus had not written her; but he must have been busy, and
+writing was hard work. She knew that herself, and realised it all the
+more as she penned the loving little scrawls which at first she used to
+send him. Now they would not have to do any writing any more; they could
+say what they wanted to each other. He was coming home at last, and she
+had waited long.
+
+They paint angels with shining faces and halos, but for real radiance
+one should have looked into the dark eyes of Sally as she sped home
+after her contribution to her lover's reception.
+
+When the last one of the neighbours had gone Aunt Mandy sat down to rest
+herself and to await the great event. She had not sat there long before
+the gate creaked. She arose and hastened to the window. A young man was
+coming down the path. Was that 'Rastus? Could that be her 'Rastus, that
+gorgeous creature with the shiny shoes and the nobby suit and the
+carelessly-swung cane? But he was knocking at her door, and she opened
+it and took him into her arms.
+
+"Why, howdy, honey, howdy; hit do beat all to see you agin, a great big,
+grown-up man. You're lookin' des' lak one o' de big folks up in town."
+
+Erastus submitted to her endearments with a somewhat condescending
+grace, as who should say, "Well, poor old fool, let her go on this time;
+she doesn't know any better." He smiled superiorly when the old woman
+wept glad tears, as mothers have a way of doing over returned sons,
+however great fools these sons may be. She set him down to the dinner
+which she had prepared for him, and with loving patience drew from his
+pompous and reluctant lips some of the story of his doings and some
+little word about the places he had seen.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said, crossing his legs, "as soon as Mr. Carrington saw
+that I was pretty bright, he took me right up and gave me a good job,
+and I have been working for him right straight along for seven years
+now. Of course, it don't do to let white folks know all you're thinking;
+but I have kept my ears and my eyes right open, and I guess I know just
+about as much about law as he does himself. When I save up a little
+more I'm going to put on the finishing touches and hang out my shingle."
+
+"Don't you nevah think no mo' 'bout bein' a preachah, 'Rastus?" his
+mother asked.
+
+"Haw, haw! Preachah? Well, I guess not; no preaching in mine; there's
+nothing in it. In law you always have a chance to get into politics and
+be the president of your ward club or something like that, and from that
+on it's an easy matter to go on up. You can trust me to know the wires."
+And so the tenor of his boastful talk ran on, his mother a little bit
+awed and not altogether satisfied with the new 'Rastus that had returned
+to her.
+
+He did not stay in long that evening, although his mother told him some
+of the neighbours were going to drop in. He said he wanted to go about
+and see something of the town. He paused just long enough to glance at
+the flowers in his room, and to his mother's remark, "Sally Ma'tin brung
+dem in," he returned answer, "Who on earth is Sally Martin?"
+
+"Why, 'Rastus," exclaimed his mother, "does yo' 'tend lak yo' don't
+'member little Sally Ma'tin yo' used to go wid almos' f'om de time you
+was babies? W'y, I'm s'prised at you."
+
+"She has slipped my mind," said the young man.
+
+For a long while the neighbours who had come and Aunt Mandy sat up to
+wait for Erastus, but he did not come in until the last one was gone. In
+fact, he did not get in until nearly four o'clock in the morning,
+looking a little weak, but at least in the best of spirits, and he
+vouchsafed to his waiting mother the remark that "the little old town
+wasn't so bad, after all."
+
+Aunt Mandy preferred the request that she had had in mind for some time,
+that he would go to church the next day, and he consented, because his
+trunk had come.
+
+It was a glorious Sunday morning, and the old lady was very proud in
+her stiff gingham dress as she saw her son come into the room arrayed in
+his long coat, shiny hat, and shinier shoes. Well, if it was true that
+he was changed, he was still her 'Rastus, and a great comfort to her.
+There was no vanity about the old woman, but she paused before the glass
+a longer time than usual, settling her bonnet strings, for she must look
+right, she told herself, to walk to church with that elegant son of
+hers. When he was all ready, with cane in hand, and she was pausing with
+the key in the door, he said, "Just walk on, mother, I'll catch you in a
+minute or two." She went on and left him.
+
+He did not catch her that morning on her way to church, and it was a
+sore disappointment, but it was somewhat compensated for when she saw
+him stalking into the chapel in all his glory, and every head in the
+house turned to behold him.
+
+There was one other woman in "Little Africa" that morning who stopped
+for a longer time than usual before her looking-glass and who had never
+found her bonnet strings quite so refractory before. In spite of the
+vexation of flowers that wouldn't settle and ribbons that wouldn't tie,
+a very glad face looked back at Sally Martin from her little mirror. She
+was going to see 'Rastus, 'Rastus of the old days in which they used to
+walk hand in hand. He had told her when he went away that some day he
+would come back and marry her. Her heart fluttered hotly under her
+dotted lawn, and it took another application of the chamois to take the
+perspiration from her face. People had laughed at her, but that morning
+she would be vindicated. He would walk home with her before the whole
+church. Already she saw him bowing before her, hat in hand, and heard
+the set phrase, "May I have the pleasure of your company home?" and she
+saw herself sailing away upon his arm.
+
+She was very happy as she sat in church that morning, as happy as Mrs.
+Smith herself, and as proud when she saw the object of her affections
+swinging up the aisle to the collection table, and from the ring she
+knew that it could not be less than a half dollar that he put in.
+
+There was a special note of praise in her voice as she joined in singing
+the doxology that morning, and her heart kept quivering and fluttering
+like a frightened bird as the people gathered in groups, chattering and
+shaking hands, and he drew nearer to her. Now they were almost together;
+in a moment their eyes would meet. Her breath came quickly; he had
+looked at her, surely he must have seen her. His mother was just behind
+him, and he did not speak. Maybe she had changed, maybe he had forgotten
+her. An unaccustomed boldness took possession of her, and she determined
+that she would not be overlooked. She pressed forward. She saw his
+mother take his arm and heard her whisper, "Dere's Sally Ma'tin" this
+time, and she knew that he looked at her. He bowed as if to a stranger,
+and was past her the next minute. When she saw him again he was swinging
+out of the door between two admiring lines of church-goers who separated
+on the pavement. There was a brazen yellow girl on his arm.
+
+She felt weak and sick as she hid behind the crowd as well as she could,
+and for that morning she thanked God that she was small.
+
+Aunt Mandy trudged home alone, and when the street was cleared and the
+sexton was about to lock up, the girl slipped out of the church and down
+to her own little house. In the friendly shelter of her room she took
+off her gay attire and laid it away, and then sat down at the window and
+looked dully out. For her, the light of day had gone out.
+
+
+
+
+_Sixteen_
+
+THE BOY AND THE BAYONET
+
+
+It was June, and nearing the closing time of school. The air was full of
+the sound of bustle and preparation for the final exercises, field day,
+and drills. Drills especially, for nothing so gladdens the heart of the
+Washington mother, be she black or white, as seeing her boy in the blue
+cadet's uniform, marching proudly to the huzzas of an admiring crowd.
+Then she forgets the many nights when he has come in tired out and dusty
+from his practice drill, and feels only the pride and elation of the
+result.
+
+Although Tom did all he could outside of study hours, there were many
+days of hard work for Hannah Davis, when her son went into the High
+School. But she took it upon herself gladly, since it gave Bud the
+chance to learn, that she wanted him to have. When, however, he entered
+the Cadet Corps it seemed to her as if the first steps toward the
+fulfilment of all her hopes had been made. It was a hard pull to her,
+getting the uniform, but Bud himself helped manfully, and when his
+mother saw him rigged out in all his regimentals, she felt that she had
+not toiled in vain. And in fact it was worth all the trouble and expense
+just to see the joy and pride of "little sister," who adored Bud.
+
+As the time for the competitive drill drew near there was an air of
+suppressed excitement about the little house on "D" Street, where the
+three lived. All day long "little sister," who was never very well and
+did not go to school, sat and looked out of the window on the
+uninteresting prospect of a dusty thoroughfare lined on either side with
+dull red brick houses, all of the same ugly pattern, interspersed with
+older, uglier, and viler frame shanties. In the evening Hannah hurried
+home to get supper against the time when Bud should return, hungry and
+tired from his drilling, and the chore work which followed hard upon its
+heels.
+
+Things were all cheerful, however, for as they applied themselves to the
+supper, the boy, with glowing face, would tell just how his company "A"
+was getting on, and what they were going to do to companies "B" and "C."
+It was not boasting so much as the expression of a confidence, founded
+upon the hard work he was doing, and Hannah and the "little sister"
+shared that with him.
+
+The child often, listening to her brother, would clap her hands or cry,
+"Oh, Bud, you're just splendid an' I know you'll beat 'em."
+
+"If hard work'll beat 'em, we've got 'em beat," Bud would reply, and
+Hannah, to add an admonitory check to her own confidence, would break in
+with, "Now, don't you be too sho', son; dey ain't been no man so good
+dat dey wasn't somebody bettah." But all the while her face and manner
+were disputing what her words expressed.
+
+The great day came, and it was a wonderful crowd of people that packed
+the great baseball grounds to overflowing. It seemed that all of
+Washington's coloured population was out, when there were really only
+about one-tenth of them there. It was an enthusiastic, banner-waving,
+shouting, hallooing crowd. Its component parts were strictly and frankly
+partisan, and so separated themselves into sections differentiated by
+the colours of the flags they carried and the ribbons they wore. Side
+yelled defiance at side, and party bantered party. Here the blue and
+white of Company "A" flaunted audaciously on the breeze beside the very
+seats over which the crimson and gray of "B" were flying, and these in
+their turn nodded defiance over the imaginary barrier between themselves
+and "C's" black and yellow.
+
+The band was thundering out "Sousa's High School Cadet's March," the
+school officials, the judges, and reporters, and some with less purpose
+were bustling about, discussing and conferring. Altogether doing nothing
+much with beautiful unanimity. All was noise, hurry, gaiety, and
+turbulence. In the midst of it all, with blue and white rosettes pinned
+on their breasts, sat two spectators, tense and silent, while the
+breakers of movement and sound struck and broke around them. It meant
+too much to Hannah and "little sister" for them to laugh and shout. Bud
+was with Company "A," and so the whole programme was more like a
+religious ceremonial to them. The blare of the brass to them might have
+been the trumpet call to battle in old Judea, and the far-thrown tones
+of the megaphone the voice of a prophet proclaiming from the hill-top.
+
+Hannah's face glowed with expectation, and "little sister" sat very
+still and held her mother's hand save when amid a burst of cheers
+Company "A" swept into the parade ground at a quick step, then she
+sprang up, crying shrilly, "There's Bud, there's Bud, I see him," and
+then settled back into her seat overcome with embarrassment. The
+mother's eyes danced as soon as the sister's had singled out their dear
+one from the midst of the blue-coated boys, and it was an effort for her
+to keep from following her little daughter's example even to echoing her
+words.
+
+Company "A" came swinging down the field toward the judges in a manner
+that called for more enthusiastic huzzas that carried even the Freshman
+of other commands "off their feet." They were, indeed, a set of
+fine-looking young fellows, brisk, straight, and soldierly in bearing.
+Their captain was proud of them, and his very step showed it. He was
+like a skilled operator pressing the key of some great mechanism, and at
+his command they moved like clockwork. Seen from the side it was as if
+they were all bound together by inflexible iron bars, and as the end man
+moved all must move with him. The crowd was full of exclamations of
+praise and admiration, but a tense quiet enveloped them as Company "A"
+came from columns of four into line for volley firing. This was a real
+test; it meant not only grace and precision of movement, singleness of
+attention and steadiness, but quickness tempered by self-control. At the
+command the volley rang forth like a single shot. This was again the
+signal for wild cheering and the blue and white streamers kissed the
+sunlight with swift impulsive kisses. Hannah and Little Sister drew
+closer together and pressed hands.
+
+The "A" adherents, however, were considerably cooled when the next
+volley came out, badly scattering, with one shot entirely apart and
+before the rest. Bud's mother did not entirely understand the sudden
+quieting of the adherents; they felt vaguely that all was not as it
+should be, and the chill of fear laid hold upon their hearts. What if
+Bud's company, (it was always Bud's company to them), what if his
+company should lose. But, of course, that couldn't be. Bud himself had
+said that they would win. Suppose, though, they didn't; and with these
+thoughts they were miserable until the cheering again told them that the
+company had redeemed itself.
+
+Someone behind Hannah said, "They are doing splendidly, they'll win,
+they'll win yet in spite of the second volley."
+
+Company "A," in columns of fours, had executed the right oblique in
+double time, and halted amid cheers; then formed left halt into line
+without halting. The next movement was one looked forward to with much
+anxiety on account of its difficulty. The order was marching by fours
+to fix or unfix bayonets. They were going at a quick step, but the boys'
+hands were steady--hope was bright in their hearts. They were doing it
+rapidly and freely, when suddenly from the ranks there was the bright
+gleam of steel lower down than it should have been. A gasp broke from
+the breasts of Company "A's" friends. The blue and white drooped
+disconsolately, while a few heartless ones who wore other colours
+attempted to hiss. Someone had dropped his bayonet. But with muscles
+unquivering, without a turned head, the company moved on as if nothing
+had happened, while one of the judges, an army officer, stepped into the
+wake of the boys and picked up the fallen steel.
+
+No two eyes had seen half so quickly as Hannah and Little Sister's who
+the blunderer was. In the whole drill there had been but one figure for
+them, and that was Bud, Bud, and it was he who had dropped his bayonet.
+Anxious, nervous with the desire to please them, perhaps with a shade
+too much of thought of them looking on with their hearts in their eyes,
+he had fumbled, and lost all that he was striving for. His head went
+round and round and all seemed black before him.
+
+He executed the movements in a dazed way. The applause, generous and
+sympathetic, as his company left the parade ground, came to him from
+afar off, and like a wounded animal he crept away from his comrades, not
+because their reproaches stung him, for he did not hear them, but
+because he wanted to think what his mother and "Little Sister" would
+say, but his misery was as nothing to that of the two who sat up there
+amid the ranks of the blue and white holding each other's hands with a
+despairing grip. To Bud all of the rest of the contest was a horrid
+nightmare; he hardly knew when the three companies were marched back to
+receive the judges' decision. The applause that greeted Company "B" when
+the blue ribbons were pinned on the members' coats meant nothing to his
+ears. He had disgraced himself and his company. What would his mother
+and his "Little Sister" say?
+
+To Hannah and "Little Sister," as to Bud, all of the remainder of the
+drill was a misery. The one interest they had had in it failed, and not
+even the dropping of his gun by one of Company "E" when on the march,
+halting in line, could raise their spirits. The little girl tried to be
+brave, but when it was all over she was glad to hurry out before the
+crowd got started and to hasten away home. Once there and her tears
+flowed freely; she hid her face in her mother's dress, and sobbed as if
+her heart would break.
+
+"Don't cry, Baby! don't cry, Lammie, dis ain't da las' time da wah goin'
+to be a drill. Bud'll have a chance anotha time and den he'll show 'em
+somethin'; bless you, I spec' he'll be a captain." But this consolation
+of philosophy was nothing to "Little Sister." It was so terrible to her,
+this failure of Bud's. She couldn't blame him, she couldn't blame anyone
+else, and she had not yet learned to lay all such unfathomed
+catastrophes at the door of fate. What to her was the thought of another
+day; what did it matter to her whether he was a captain or a private?
+She didn't even know the meaning of the words, but "Little Sister," from
+the time she knew Bud was a private, knew that that was much better than
+being captain or any of those other things with a long name, so that
+settled it.
+
+Her mother finally set about getting the supper, while "Little Sister"
+drooped disconsolately in her own little splint-bottomed chair. She sat
+there weeping silently until she heard the sound of Bud's step, then she
+sprang up and ran away to hide. She didn't dare to face him with tears
+in her eyes. Bud came in without a word and sat down in the dark front
+room.
+
+"Dat you, Bud?" asked his mother.
+
+"Yassum."
+
+"Bettah come now, supper's puty 'nigh ready."
+
+"I don' want no supper."
+
+"You bettah come on, Bud, I reckon you mighty tired."
+
+He did not reply, but just then a pair of thin arms were put around his
+neck and a soft cheek was placed close to his own.
+
+"Come on, Buddie," whispered "Little Sister," "Mammy an' me know you
+didn't mean to do it, an' we don' keer."
+
+Bud threw his arms around his little sister and held her tightly.
+
+"It's only you an' ma I care about," he said, "though I am sorry I
+spoiled the company's drill; they say "B" would have won anyway on
+account of our bad firing, but I did want you and ma to be proud."
+
+"We is proud," she whispered, "we's mos' prouder dan if you'd won," and
+pretty soon she led him by the hand out to supper.
+
+Hannah did all she could to cheer the boy and to encourage him to hope
+for next year, but he had little to say in reply, and went to bed early.
+
+In the morning, though it neared school time, Bud lingered around and
+seemed in no disposition to get ready to go.
+
+"Bettah git ready fer school," said Hannah cheerily to him.
+
+"I don't believe I want to go any more," Bud replied.
+
+"Not go any more? Why ain't you shamed to talk that way! O' cose you a
+goin' to school."
+
+"I'm ashamed to show my face to the boys."
+
+"What you say about de boys? De boys ain't a-goin' to give you no
+edgication when you need it."
+
+"Oh, I don't want to go, ma; you don't know how I feel."
+
+"I'm kinder sorry I let you go into dat company," said Hannah musingly;
+"'cause it was de teachin' I wanted you to git, not de prancin' and
+steppin'; but I did t'ink it would make mo' of a man of you, an' it
+ain't. Yo' pappy was a po' man, ha'd wo'kin', an' he wasn't high-toned
+neither, but from the time I first see him to the day of his death I
+nevah seen him back down because he was afeared of anything," and Hannah
+turned to her work.
+
+"Little Sister" went up to Bud and slipped her hand in his. "You ain't
+a-goin' to back down, is you, Buddie?" she said.
+
+"No," said Bud stoutly, as he braced his shoulders, "I'm a-goin'."
+
+But no persuasion could make him wear his uniform.
+
+The boys were a little cold to him, and some were brutal. But most of
+them recognised the fact that what had happened to Tom Harris might have
+happened to any one of them. Besides, since the percentage had been
+shown, it was found that "B" had outpointed them in many ways, and so
+their loss was not due to the one grave error. Bud's heart sank when he
+dropped into his seat in the Assembly Hall to find seated on the
+platform one of the blue-coated officers who had acted as judge the day
+before. After the opening exercises were over he was called upon to
+address the school. He spoke readily and pleasantly, laying especial
+stress upon the value of discipline; toward the end of his address he
+said: "I suppose Company 'A' is heaping accusations upon the head of the
+young man who dropped his bayonet yesterday." Tom could have died. "It
+was most regrettable," the officer continued, "but to me the most
+significant thing at the drill was the conduct of that cadet afterward.
+I saw the whole proceeding; I saw that he did not pause for an instant,
+that he did not even turn his head, and it appeared to me as one of the
+finest bits of self-control I had ever seen in any youth; had he
+forgotten himself for a moment and stopped, however quickly, to secure
+the weapon, the next line would have been interfered with and your whole
+movement thrown into confusion." There were a half hundred eyes glancing
+furtively at Bud, and the light began to dawn in his face. "This boy has
+shown what discipline means, and I for one want to shake hands with him,
+if he is here."
+
+When he had concluded the Principal called Bud forward, and the boys,
+even his detractors, cheered as the officer took his hand.
+
+"Why are you not in uniform, sir?" he asked.
+
+"I was ashamed to wear it after yesterday," was the reply.
+
+"Don't be ashamed to wear your uniform," the officer said to him, and
+Bud could have fallen on his knees and thanked him.
+
+There were no more jeers from his comrades now, and when he related it
+all at home that evening there were two more happy hearts in that South
+Washington cottage.
+
+"I told you we was more prouder dan if you'd won," said "Little Sister."
+
+"An' what did I tell you 'bout backin' out?" asked his mother.
+
+Bud was too happy and too busy to answer; he was brushing his uniform.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The heart of happy hollow, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The heart of happy hollow, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The heart of happy hollow
+       A collection of stories
+
+Author: Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
+Release Date: February 29, 2008 [EBook #24716]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART OF HAPPY HOLLOW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Bergquist, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class="tnote">
+<h4>Transcriber's Note:</h4>
+<p>Dialect and inconsistent spelling have been preserved.<br />
+<br />
+In The Scapegoat, Part II, text appears to be missing between <a href="#hard">"hard" and "brought"</a> in the sentence
+"The school-teacher is giving you a pretty hard brought the school-children in for chorus singing, secured an able
+orator, and the best essayist in town."
+</p></div>
+<div class="bbox">
+<h1>THE HEART OF<br />
+HAPPY HOLLOW</h1>
+<p class="ast1">*</p>
+<p class="story"><i>A Collection of Stories</i></p>
+
+<p class="author">PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR</p></div>
+
+<p class="center">Reprint, 1904<br />
+Dodd, Mead and Co., New York.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div class="contents">
+<h3><i>Contents</i></h3>
+<hr class="cont" />
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Foreword</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="#Page_3">3</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>One</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE SCAPEGOAT&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Two</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> ONE CHRISTMAS AT SHILOH&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Three</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE MISSION OF MR. SCATTERS&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Four</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> A MATTER OF DOCTRINE&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Five</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> OLD ABE'S CONVERSION&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Six</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE RACE QUESTION&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Seven</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> A DEFENDER OF THE FAITH&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Eight</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> CAHOOTS&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Nine</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE PROMOTER&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Ten</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE WISDOM OF SILENCE&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Eleven</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE TRIUMPH OF OL' MIS' PEASE&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_103">103</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Twelve</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE LYNCHING OF JUBE BENSON&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Thirteen</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> SCHWALLIGER'S PHILANTHROPY&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_121">121</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Fourteen</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE INTERFERENCE OF PATSY ANN&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_129">129</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Fifteen</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE HOME-COMING OF 'RASTUS SMITH&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_137">137</a><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Sixteen</i>:</span><span class="toc2"> THE BOY AND THE BAYONET&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><a href="#Page_145">145</a><br />
+<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<p class="title">THE HEART OF HAPPY HOLLOW</p>
+<hr class="major" />
+
+
+
+<p class="center" style="margin-top: 8em;">
+To My Friend<br />
+Ezra M. Kuhns<br />
+</p>
+<p class="ast2">*</p>
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Foreword</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p>Happy Hollow; are you wondering where it is? Wherever Negroes colonise
+in the cities or villages, north or south, wherever the hod carrier, the
+porter, and the waiter are the society men of the town; wherever the
+picnic and the excursion are the chief summer diversion, and the revival
+the winter time of repentance, wherever the cheese cloth veil obtains at
+a wedding, and the little white hearse goes by with black mourners in
+the one carriage behind, there&mdash;there&mdash;is Happy Hollow. Wherever
+laughter and tears rub elbows day by day, and the spirit of labour and
+laziness shake hands, there&mdash;there&mdash;is Happy Hollow, and of some of it
+may the following pages show the heart.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+The Author.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>One</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE SCAPEGOAT</p>
+
+
+<h4>I</h4>
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he law is usually supposed to be a stern mistress, not to be lightly
+wooed, and yielding only to the most ardent pursuit. But even law, like
+love, sits more easily on some natures than on others.</p>
+
+<p>This was the case with Mr. Robinson Asbury. Mr. Asbury had started life
+as a bootblack in the growing town of Cadgers. From this he had risen
+one step and become porter and messenger in a barber-shop. This rise
+fired his ambition, and he was not content until he had learned to use
+the shears and the razor and had a chair of his own. From this, in a man
+of Robinson's temperament, it was only a step to a shop of his own, and
+he placed it where it would do the most good.</p>
+
+<p>Fully one-half of the population of Cadgers was composed of Negroes, and
+with their usual tendency to colonise, a tendency encouraged, and in
+fact compelled, by circumstances, they had gathered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> into one part of
+the town. Here in alleys, and streets as dirty and hardly wider, they
+thronged like ants.</p>
+
+<p>It was in this place that Mr. Asbury set up his shop, and he won the
+hearts of his prospective customers by putting up the significant sign,
+"Equal Rights Barber-Shop." This legend was quite unnecessary, because
+there was only one race about, to patronise the place. But it was a
+delicate sop to the people's vanity, and it served its purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Asbury came to be known as a clever fellow, and his business grew. The
+shop really became a sort of club, and, on Saturday nights especially,
+was the gathering-place of the men of the whole Negro quarter. He kept
+the illustrated and race journals there, and those who cared neither to
+talk nor listen to someone else might see pictured the doings of high
+society in very short skirts or read in the Negro papers how Miss Boston
+had entertained Miss Blueford to tea on such and such an afternoon.
+Also, he kept the policy returns, which was wise, if not moral.</p>
+
+<p>It was his wisdom rather more than his morality that made the party
+managers after a while cast their glances toward him as a man who might
+be useful to their interests. It would be well to have a man&mdash;a shrewd,
+powerful man&mdash;down in that part of the town who could carry his people's
+vote in his vest pocket, and who at any time its delivery might be
+needed, could hand it over without hesitation. Asbury seemed that man,
+and they settled upon him. They gave him money, and they gave him power
+and patronage. He took it all silently and he carried out his bargain
+faithfully. His hands and his lips alike closed tightly when there was
+anything within them. It was not long before he found himself the big
+Negro of the district and, of necessity, of the town. The time came
+when, at a critical moment, the managers saw that they had not reckoned
+without their host in choosing this barber of the black district as the
+leader of his people.</p>
+
+<p>Now, so much success must have satisfied any other man. But in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> many
+ways Mr. Asbury was unique. For a long time he himself had done very
+little shaving&mdash;except of notes, to keep his hand in. His time had been
+otherwise employed. In the evening hours he had been wooing the
+coquettish Dame Law, and, wonderful to say, she had yielded easily to
+his advances.</p>
+
+<p>It was against the advice of his friends that he asked for admission to
+the bar. They felt that he could do more good in the place where he was.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Robinson," said old Judge Davis, "it's just like this: If
+you're not admitted, it'll hurt you with the people; if you are
+admitted, you'll move uptown to an office and get out of touch with
+them."</p>
+
+<p>Asbury smiled an inscrutable smile. Then he whispered something into the
+judge's ear that made the old man wrinkle from his neck up with
+appreciative smiles.</p>
+
+<p>"Asbury," he said, "you are&mdash;you are&mdash;well, you ought to be white,
+that's all. When we find a black man like you we send him to State's
+prison. If you were white, you'd go to the Senate."</p>
+
+<p>The Negro laughed confidently.</p>
+
+<p>He was admitted to the bar soon after, whether by merit or by connivance
+is not to be told.</p>
+
+<p>"Now he will move uptown," said the black community. "Well, that's the
+way with a coloured man when he gets a start."</p>
+
+<p>But they did not know Asbury Robinson yet. He was a man of surprises,
+and they were destined to disappointment. He did not move uptown. He
+built an office in a small open space next his shop, and there hung out
+his shingle.</p>
+
+<p>"I will never desert the people who have done so much to elevate me,"
+said Mr. Asbury.</p>
+
+<p>"I will live among them and I will die among them."</p>
+
+<p>This was a strong card for the barber-lawyer. The people seized upon the
+statement as expressing a nobility of an altogether unique brand.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span></p><p>They held a mass meeting and indorsed him. They made resolutions that
+extolled him, and the Negro band came around and serenaded him, playing
+various things in varied time.</p>
+
+<p>All this was very sweet to Mr. Asbury, and the party managers chuckled
+with satisfaction and said, "That Asbury, that Asbury!"</p>
+
+<p>Now there is a fable extant of a man who tried to please everybody, and
+his failure is a matter of record. Robinson Asbury was not more
+successful. But be it said that his ill success was due to no fault or
+shortcoming of his.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time his growing power had been looked upon with disfavour by
+the coloured law firm of Bingo &amp; Latchett. Both Mr. Bingo and Mr.
+Latchett themselves aspired to be Negro leaders in Cadgers, and they
+were delivering Emancipation Day orations and riding at the head of
+processions when Mr. Asbury was blacking boots. Is it any wonder, then,
+that they viewed with alarm his sudden rise? They kept their counsel,
+however, and treated with him, for it was best. They allowed him his
+scope without open revolt until the day upon which he hung out his
+shingle. This was the last straw. They could stand no more. Asbury had
+stolen their other chances from them, and now he was poaching upon the
+last of their preserves. So Mr. Bingo and Mr. Latchett put their heads
+together to plan the downfall of their common enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The plot was deep and embraced the formation of an opposing faction made
+up of the best Negroes of the town. It would have looked too much like
+what it was for the gentlemen to show themselves in the matter, and so
+they took into their confidence Mr. Isaac Morton, the principal of the
+coloured school, and it was under his ostensible leadership that the new
+faction finally came into being.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Morton was really an innocent young man, and he had ideals which
+should never have been exposed to the air. When the wily confederates
+came to him with their plan he believed that his worth had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> been
+recognised, and at last he was to be what Nature destined him for&mdash;a
+leader.</p>
+
+<p>The better class of Negroes&mdash;by that is meant those who were
+particularly envious of Asbury's success&mdash;flocked to the new man's
+standard. But whether the race be white or black, political virtue is
+always in a minority, so Asbury could afford to smile at the force
+arrayed against him.</p>
+
+<p>The new faction met together and resolved. They resolved, among other
+things, that Mr. Asbury was an enemy to his race and a menace to
+civilisation. They decided that he should be abolished; but, as they
+couldn't get out an injunction against him, and as he had the whole
+undignified but still voting black belt behind him, he went serenely on
+his way.</p>
+
+<p>"They're after you hot and heavy, Asbury," said one of his friends to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," was the reply, "they're after me, but after a while I'll get
+so far away that they'll be running in front."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all the best people, they say."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Well, it's good to be one of the best people, but your vote only
+counts one just the same."</p>
+
+<p>The time came, however, when Mr. Asbury's theory was put to the test.
+The Cadgerites celebrated the first of January as Emancipation Day. On
+this day there was a large procession, with speechmaking in the
+afternoon and fireworks at night. It was the custom to concede the
+leadership of the coloured people of the town to the man who managed to
+lead the procession. For two years past this honour had fallen, of
+course, to Robinson Asbury, and there had been no disposition on the
+part of anybody to try conclusions with him.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Morton's faction changed all this. When Asbury went to work to
+solicit contributions for the celebration, he suddenly became aware that
+he had a fight upon his hands. All the better-class Negroes were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span>
+staying out of it. The next thing he knew was that plans were on foot
+for a rival demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he said to himself, "that's it, is it? Well, if they want a fight
+they can have it."</p>
+
+<p>He had a talk with the party managers, and he had another with Judge
+Davis.</p>
+
+<p>"All I want is a little lift, judge," he said, "and I'll make 'em think
+the sky has turned loose and is vomiting niggers."</p>
+
+<p>The judge believed that he could do it. So did the party managers.
+Asbury got his lift. Emancipation Day came.</p>
+
+<p>There were two parades. At least, there was one parade and the shadow of
+another. Asbury's, however, was not the shadow. There was a great deal
+of substance about it&mdash;substance made up of many people, many banners,
+and numerous bands. He did not have the best people. Indeed, among his
+cohorts there were a good many of the pronounced rag-tag and bobtail.
+But he had noise and numbers. In such cases, nothing more is needed. The
+success of Asbury's side of the affair did everything to confirm his
+friends in their good opinion of him.</p>
+
+<p>When he found himself defeated, Mr. Silas Bingo saw that it would be
+policy to placate his rival's just anger against him. He called upon him
+at his office the day after the celebration.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Asbury," he said, "you beat us, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't a question of beating," said the other calmly. "It was only
+an inquiry as to who were the people&mdash;the few or the many."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was well done, and you've shown that you are a manager. I
+confess that I haven't always thought that you were doing the wisest
+thing in living down here and catering to this class of people when you
+might, with your ability, to be much more to the better class."</p>
+
+<p>"What do they base their claims of being better on?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there ain't any use discussing that. We can't get along without
+you, we see that. So I, for one, have decided to work with you for
+harmony."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span></p><p>"Harmony. Yes, that's what we want."</p>
+
+<p>"If I can do anything to help you at any time, why you have only to
+command me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to find such a friend in you. Be sure, if I ever need you,
+Bingo, I'll call on you."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'll be ready to serve you."</p>
+
+<p>Asbury smiled when his visitor was gone. He smiled, and knitted his
+brow. "I wonder what Bingo's got up his sleeve," he said. "He'll bear
+watching."</p>
+
+<p>It may have been pride at his triumph, it may have been gratitude at his
+helpers, but Asbury went into the ensuing campaign with reckless
+enthusiasm. He did the most daring things for the party's sake. Bingo,
+true to his promise, was ever at his side ready to serve him. Finally,
+association and immunity made danger less fearsome; the rival no longer
+appeared a menace.</p>
+
+<p>With the generosity born of obstacles overcome, Asbury determined to
+forgive Bingo and give him a chance. He let him in on a deal, and from
+that time they worked amicably together until the election came and
+passed.</p>
+
+<p>It was a close election and many things had had to be done, but there
+were men there ready and waiting to do them. They were successful, and
+then the first cry of the defeated party was, as usual, "Fraud! Fraud!"
+The cry was taken up by the jealous, the disgruntled, and the virtuous.</p>
+
+<p>Someone remembered how two years ago the registration books had been
+stolen. It was known upon good authority that money had been freely
+used. Men held up their hands in horror at the suggestion that the Negro
+vote had been juggled with, as if that were a new thing. From their
+pulpits ministers denounced the machine and bade their hearers rise and
+throw off the yoke of a corrupt municipal government. One of those
+sudden fevers of reform had taken possession of the town and threatened
+to destroy the successful party.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span></p><p>They began to look around them. They must purify themselves. They must
+give the people some tangible evidence of their own yearnings after
+purity. They looked around them for a sacrifice to lay upon the altar of
+municipal reform. Their eyes fell upon Mr. Bingo. No, he was not big
+enough. His blood was too scant to wash away the political stains. Then
+they looked into each other's eyes and turned their gaze away to let it
+fall upon Mr. Asbury. They really hated to do it. But there must be a
+scapegoat. The god from the Machine commanded them to slay him.</p>
+
+<p>Robinson Asbury was charged with many crimes&mdash;with all that he had
+committed and some that he had not. When Mr. Bingo saw what was afoot he
+threw himself heart and soul into the work of his old rival's enemies.
+He was of incalculable use to them.</p>
+
+<p>Judge Davis refused to have anything to do with the matter. But in spite
+of his disapproval it went on. Asbury was indicted and tried. The
+evidence was all against him, and no one gave more damaging testimony
+than his friend, Mr. Bingo. The judge's charge was favourable to the
+defendant, but the current of popular opinion could not be entirely
+stemmed. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty.</p>
+
+<p>"Before I am sentenced, judge, I have a statement to make to the court.
+It will take less than ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, Robinson," said the judge kindly.</p>
+
+<p>Asbury started, in a monotonous tone, a recital that brought the
+prosecuting attorney to his feet in a minute. The judge waved him down,
+and sat transfixed by a sort of fascinated horror as the convicted man
+went on. The before-mentioned attorney drew a knife and started for the
+prisoner's dock. With difficulty he was restrained. A dozen faces in the
+court-room were red and pale by turns.</p>
+
+<p>"He ought to be killed," whispered Mr. Bingo audibly.</p>
+
+<p>Robinson Asbury looked at him and smiled, and then he told a few things
+of him. He gave the ins and outs of some of the misdemeanours of which
+he stood accused. He showed who were the men behind the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> throne. And
+still, pale and transfixed, Judge Davis waited for his own sentence.</p>
+
+<p>Never were ten minutes so well taken up. It was a tale of rottenness and
+corruption in high places told simply and with the stamp of truth upon
+it.</p>
+
+<p>He did not mention the judge's name. But he had torn the mask from the
+face of every other man who had been concerned in his downfall. They had
+shorn him of his strength, but they had forgotten that he was yet able
+to bring the roof and pillars tumbling about their heads.</p>
+
+<p>The judge's voice shook as he pronounced sentence upon his old ally&mdash;a
+year in State's prison.</p>
+
+<p>Some people said it was too light, but the judge knew what it was to
+wait for the sentence of doom, and he was grateful and sympathetic.</p>
+
+<p>When the sheriff led Asbury away the judge hastened to have a short talk
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, Robinson," he said, "and I want to tell you that you were no
+more guilty than the rest of us. But why did you spare me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I knew you were my friend," answered the convict.</p>
+
+<p>"I tried to be, but you were the first man that I've ever known since
+I've been in politics who ever gave me any decent return for
+friendship."</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you're about right, judge."</p>
+
+<p>In politics, party reform usually lies in making a scapegoat of someone
+who is only as criminal as the rest, but a little weaker. Asbury's
+friends and enemies had succeeded in making him bear the burden of all
+the party's crimes, but their reform was hardly a success, and their
+protestations of a change of heart were received with doubt. Already
+there were those who began to pity the victim and to say that he had
+been hardly dealt with.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bingo was not of these; but he found, strange to say, that his
+opposition to the idea went but a little way, and that even with Asbury<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span>
+out of his path he was a smaller man than he was before. Fate was strong
+against him. His poor, prosperous humanity could not enter the lists
+against a martyr. Robinson Asbury was now a martyr.</p>
+
+
+<h4>II</h4>
+
+<p>A year is not a long time. It was short enough to prevent people from
+forgetting Robinson, and yet long enough for their pity to grow strong
+as they remembered. Indeed, he was not gone a year. Good behaviour cut
+two months off the time of his sentence, and by the time people had come
+around to the notion that he was really the greatest and smartest man in
+Cadgers he was at home again.</p>
+
+<p>He came back with no flourish of trumpets, but quietly, humbly. He went
+back again into the heart of the black district. His business had
+deteriorated during his absence, but he put new blood and new life into
+it. He did not go to work in the shop himself, but, taking down the
+shingle that had swung idly before his office door during his
+imprisonment, he opened the little room as a news- and cigar-stand.</p>
+
+<p>Here anxious, pitying custom came to him and he prospered again. He was
+very quiet. Uptown hardly knew that he was again in Cadgers, and it knew
+nothing whatever of his doings.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder why Asbury is so quiet," they said to one another. "It isn't
+like him to be quiet." And they felt vaguely uneasy about him.</p>
+
+<p>So many people had begun to say, "Well, he was a mighty good fellow
+after all."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bingo expressed the opinion that Asbury was quiet because he was
+crushed, but others expressed doubt as to this. There are calms and
+calms, some after and some before the storm. Which was this?</p>
+
+<p>They waited a while, and, as no storm came, concluded that this must be
+the after-quiet. Bingo, reassured, volunteered to go and seek
+confirmation of this conclusion.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span></p><p>He went, and Asbury received him with an indifferent, not to say,
+impolite, demeanour.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we're glad to see you back, Asbury," said Bingo patronisingly. He
+had variously demonstrated his inability to lead during his rival's
+absence and was proud of it. "What are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to work."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right. I reckon you'll stay out of politics."</p>
+
+<p>"What could I do even if I went in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing now, of course; but I didn't know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He did not see the gleam in Asbury's half shut eyes. He only marked his
+humility, and he went back swelling with the news.</p>
+
+<p>"Completely crushed&mdash;all the run taken out of him," was his report.</p>
+
+<p>The black district believed this, too, and a sullen, smouldering anger
+took possession of them. Here was a good man ruined. Some of the people
+whom he had helped in his former days&mdash;some of the rude, coarse people
+of the low quarter who were still sufficiently unenlightened to be
+grateful&mdash;talked among themselves and offered to get up a demonstration
+for him. But he denied them. No, he wanted nothing of the kind. It would
+only bring him into unfavourable notice. All he wanted was that they
+would always be his friends and would stick by him.</p>
+
+<p>They would to the death.</p>
+
+<p>There were again two factions in Cadgers. The school-master could not
+forget how once on a time he had been made a tool of by Mr. Bingo. So he
+revolted against his rule and set himself up as the leader of an
+opposing clique. The fight had been long and strong, but had ended with
+odds slightly in Bingo's favour.</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Morton did not despair. As the first of January and Emancipation
+Day approached, he arrayed his hosts, and the fight for supremacy became
+fiercer than ever. The school-teacher is giving you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span>
+<a name="hard" title="hard"></a>a pretty hard
+brought the school-children in for chorus singing, secured an able
+orator, and the best essayist in town. With all this, he was formidable.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bingo knew that he had the fight of his life on his hands, and he
+entered with fear as well as zest. He, too, found an orator, but he was
+not sure that he was as good as Morton's. There was no doubt but that
+his essayist was not. He secured a band, but still he felt unsatisfied.
+He had hardly done enough, and for the school-master to beat him now
+meant his political destruction.</p>
+
+<p>It was in this state of mind that he was surprised to receive a visit
+from Mr. Asbury.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you're surprised to see me here," said Asbury, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"I am pleased, I know." Bingo was astute.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I just dropped in on business."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, to be sure, Asbury. What can I do for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's more what I can do for you that I came to talk about," was the
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe I understand you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's plain enough. They say that the school-teacher is giving you
+a pretty hard fight."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not so hard."</p>
+
+<p>"No man can be too sure of winning, though. Mr. Morton once did me a
+mean turn when he started the faction against me."</p>
+
+<p>Bingo's heart gave a great leap, and then stopped for the fraction of a
+second.</p>
+
+<p>"You were in it, of course," pursued Asbury, "but I can look over your
+part in it in order to get even with the man who started it."</p>
+
+<p>It was true, then, thought Bingo gladly. He did not know. He wanted
+revenge for his wrongs and upon the wrong man. How well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> the schemer had
+covered his tracks! Asbury should have his revenge and Morton would be
+the sufferer.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, Asbury, you know what I did I did innocently."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, in politics we are all lambs and the wolves are only to be
+found in the other party. We'll pass that, though. What I want to say is
+that I can help you to make your celebration an overwhelming success. I
+still have some influence down in my district."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, and very justly, too. Why, I should be delighted with your
+aid. I could give you a prominent place in the procession."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want it; I don't want to appear in this at all. All I want is
+revenge. You can have all the credit, but let me down my enemy."</p>
+
+<p>Bingo was perfectly willing, and, with their heads close together, they
+had a long and close consultation. When Asbury was gone, Mr. Bingo lay
+back in his chair and laughed. "I'm a slick duck," he said.</p>
+
+<p>From that hour Mr. Bingo's cause began to take on the appearance of
+something very like a boom. More bands were hired. The interior of the
+State was called upon and a more eloquent orator secured. The crowd
+hastened to array itself on the growing side.</p>
+
+<p>With surprised eyes, the school-master beheld the wonder of it, but he
+kept to his own purpose with dogged insistence, even when he saw that he
+could not turn aside the overwhelming defeat that threatened him. But in
+spite of his obstinacy, his hours were dark and bitter. Asbury worked
+like a mole, all underground, but he was indefatigable. Two days before
+the celebration time everything was perfected for the biggest
+demonstration that Cadgers had ever known. All the next day and night he
+was busy among his allies.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the great day, Mr. Bingo, wonderfully caparisoned,
+rode down to the hall where the parade was to form. He was early. No one
+had yet come. In an hour a score of men all told had collected. Another
+hour passed, and no more had come. Then there smote upon his ear the
+sound of music. They were coming at last.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> Bringing his sword to his
+shoulder, he rode forward to the middle of the street. Ah, there they
+were. But&mdash;but&mdash;could he believe his eyes? They were going in another
+direction, and at their head rode&mdash;Morton! He gnashed his teeth in fury.
+He had been led into a trap and betrayed. The procession passing had
+been his&mdash;all his. He heard them cheering, and then, oh! climax of
+infidelity, he saw his own orator go past in a carriage, bowing and
+smiling to the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubting who had done this thing. The hand of Asbury was
+apparent in it. He must have known the truth all along, thought Bingo.
+His allies left him one by one for the other hall, and he rode home in a
+humiliation deeper than he had ever known before.</p>
+
+<p>Asbury did not appear at the celebration. He was at his little
+news-stand all day.</p>
+
+<p>In a day or two the defeated aspirant had further cause to curse his
+false friend. He found that not only had the people defected from him,
+but that the thing had been so adroitly managed that he appeared to be
+in fault, and three-fourths of those who knew him were angry at some
+supposed grievance. His cup of bitterness was full when his partner, a
+quietly ambitious man, suggested that they dissolve their relations.</p>
+
+<p>His ruin was complete.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer was not alone in seeing Asbury's hand in his downfall. The
+party managers saw it too, and they met together to discuss the
+dangerous factor which, while it appeared to slumber, was so terribly
+awake. They decided that he must be appeased, and they visited him.</p>
+
+<p>He was still busy at his news-stand. They talked to him adroitly, while
+he sorted papers and kept an impassive face. When they were all done, he
+looked up for a moment and replied, "You know, gentlemen, as an
+ex-convict I am not in politics."</p>
+
+<p>Some of them had the grace to flush.</p>
+
+<p>"But you can use your influence," they said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not in politics," was his only reply.</p>
+
+<p>And the spring elections were coming on. Well, they worked hard,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> and he
+showed no sign. He treated with neither one party nor the other.
+"Perhaps," thought the managers, "he is out of politics," and they grew
+more confident.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearing eleven o'clock on the morning of election when a cloud no
+bigger than a man's hand appeared upon the horizon. It came from the
+direction of the black district. It grew, and the managers of the party
+in power looked at it, fascinated by an ominous dread. Finally it began
+to rain Negro voters, and as one man they voted against their former
+candidates. Their organisation was perfect. They simply came, voted, and
+left, but they overwhelmed everything. Not one of the party that had
+damned Robinson Asbury was left in power save old Judge Davis. His
+majority was overwhelming.</p>
+
+<p>The generalship that had engineered the thing was perfect. There were
+loud threats against the newsdealer. But no one bothered him except a
+reporter. The reporter called to see just how it was done. He found
+Asbury very busy sorting papers. To the newspaper man's questions he had
+only this reply, "I am not in politics, sir."</p>
+
+<p>But Cadgers had learned its lesson.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Two</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">ONE CHRISTMAS AT SHILOH</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">M</span>artha Maria Mixon was a "widder lady." So she described herself
+whenever anyone asked her as to her status in life. To her more intimate
+friends she confided that she was not a "weed widder," but one of the
+"grass" variety. The story of how her husband, Madison, had never been
+"No 'count, even befo' de wah," and of his rapid degeneration
+thereafter, was vividly told.</p>
+
+<p>"De fact of de mattah is," Mrs. Mixon was wont to say, "my man, Madison,
+was nevah no han' to wo'k. He was de settin'-downest man you evah seed.
+Hit wouldn't 'a' been so bad, but Madison was a lakly man, an' his
+tongue wah smoothah dan ile; so hit t'wan't no shakes fu' him to fool
+ol' Mas' 'bout his wo'k an' git erlong des erbout ez he pleased. Mas'
+Madison Mixon, hisse'f, was a mighty 'dulgent so't o' man, an' he liked
+a laugh bettah dan anyone in de worl'. Well, my man could mek him laugh,
+an' dat was enough fu' him. I used to lectuah dat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> man much 'bout his
+onshifless ways, but he des went erlong, twell bimeby hyeah come de wah
+an' evahthing was broke up. Den w'en hit come time dat Madison had to
+scramble fu' hisself, dey wa'nt no scramble in him. He des' wouldn't
+wo'k an' I had to do evahthing. He allus had what he called some gret
+scheme, but deh nevah seemed to come to nuffin, an' once when he got de
+folks to put some money in somep'n' dat broke up, dey come put' nigh
+tahin' an' featherin' him. Finally, I des got morchully tiahed o' dat
+man's ca'in' on, an' I say to him one day, 'Madison,' I say, 'I'm tiahed
+of all dis foo'ishness, an' I'm gwine up Norf whaih I kin live an' be
+somebody. Ef evah you mek a man out o' yo'se'f, an' want me, de Bible
+say 'Seek an' you shell receive.' Cause even den I was a mighty han' to
+c'ote de Scripters. Well, I lef' him, an' Norf I come, 'dough it jes'
+nigh broke my hea't, fu' I sho did love dat black man. De las' thing I
+hyeahed o' him, he had des learned to read an' write an' wah runnin' fu'
+de Legislater 'twell de Klu Klux got aftah him; den I think he 'signed
+de nomernation."</p>
+
+<p>This was Martha's story, and the reason that there was no Mr. Mixon with
+her when she came North, drifted from place to place and finally became
+one of New York's large black contingent from the South. To her the
+lessons of slavery had not been idle ones. Industrious, careful, and
+hard-working, she soon became prosperous, and when, hunting a spiritual
+home she settled upon Shiloh Chapel, she was welcomed there as a
+distinct addition to the large and active membership.</p>
+
+<p>Shiloh was not one of the fashionable churches of the city, but it was
+primarily a church home for any Southern negro, for in it were
+representatives of every one of the old slaveholding States. Its pastor
+was one of those who had not yet got beyond the belief that any temporal
+preparation for the preaching of the Gospel was unnecessary. It was
+still his firm trust, and often his boast, that if one opened his mouth
+the Lord would fill it, and it grew to be a settled idea that the Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span>
+filled his acceptably, for his converts were many and his congregation
+increased.</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Silas Todbury's education may have been deficient in other
+matters, but one thing he knew, and knew thoroughly&mdash;the disposition of
+his people. He knew just what weaknesses, longings, and desires their
+recent bondage had left with them, and with admirable shrewdness
+contrived to meet them. He knew that in preaching they wanted noise,
+emotion, and fire; that in the preacher they wanted free-heartedness and
+cordiality. He knew that when Christmas came they wanted a great rally,
+somewhat approaching, at least, the rousing times both spiritual and
+temporal that they had had back on the old plantation, when Christmas
+meant a week of pleasurable excitement. Knowing the last so well, it was
+with commendable foresight that he began early his preparations for a
+big time on a certain Christmas not long ago.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you people," he said to his congregation, "we's goin' to have a
+reg'lar 'Benjamin's mess'!"</p>
+
+<p>The coloured folk, being not quite sure of the quotation, laughed
+heartily, exclaiming in admiration of their pastor, "Dat Todbu'y is
+sholy one mess hisse'f."</p>
+
+<p>"Now any of de sistahs dat's willin' to he'p mek dis comin' Chris'mus a
+real sho 'nough one, 'll 'blige me by meetin' me in de basement of de
+chu'ch aftah services. De brothahs kin go 'long home 'twell dey called
+fu'."</p>
+
+<p>There was another outburst of merriment at this sally, and it was a
+good-natured score or more of sisters who a little later met the pastor
+as agreed. Among them was Martha Maria Mixon, for she was very close to
+her pastor, and for many a day had joyed his clerical heart with special
+dinners.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said the preacher, rubbing his hands, "Sistah Marthy, I see you's
+on han' ez usual to he'p me out, an' you, too, Sis Jinny, an' Sis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span>
+Dicey," he added, quick to note the signs of any incipient jealousy, and
+equally ready to check it. "We's all hyeah, de faithful few, an' we's
+all ready fu' wo'k."</p>
+
+<p>The sisters beamed and nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we goin' to have some'p'n evah night, beginnin' wid Chris'mus
+night, straight on endurin' of de week, an' I want to separate you all
+into companies fu' to take chawge of each night. Now, I's a-goin' to
+have a powahful preachah f'om de Souf wid us, an' I want you all to show
+him what we kin do. On Chris'mus day we goin' to have a sermont at de
+chu'ch an' a festabal in de evenin' wid a Chris'mus tree. Sis' Marthy, I
+want you to boa'd de minister."</p>
+
+<p>"La, Brothah Todbu'y, I don't scarcely feel lak I's 'portant 'nough fu'
+dat," said Mrs. Mixon modestly, "but I'll do de bes' I kin. I hatter be
+lak de widder's mice in de scuse o' meal."</p>
+
+<p>"We ain't got no doubt 'bout what you able to do, Sis Marthy," and the
+pastor passed to the appointment of his other committees. After evening
+services the brothers were similarly called in consultation and
+appointed to their respective duties.</p>
+
+<p>To the black people to whom these responsibilities were thus turned
+over, joy came, and with it the vision of other days&mdash;the vision of the
+dear old days, the hard old days back there in the South, when they had
+looked forward to their Christmas from year to year. Then it had been a
+time of sadness as well as of joy, for they knew that though the week
+was full of pleasure, after it was over must come separation and
+sadness. For this was the time when those who were to be hired out,
+loaned, or given away, were to change their homes. So even while they
+danced they sighed, and while they shouted they moaned. Now there was no
+such repressing fact to daunt them. Christmas would come. They would
+enjoy themselves, and after it was over would go back to the same homes
+to live through the round of months in the midst of familiar faces and
+among their own old loved ones. The thought gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> sweetness to their
+labour, and the responsibilities devolving upon them imbued the sacred
+holiday with a meaning and charm that it had never had before for them.
+They bubbled over with importance and with the glory of it. A sister and
+a brother could not meet without a friendly banter.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi, Sis' Dicey," Brother Williams would call out across the fence to
+his neighbour, "I don' believe you doin' anything to'ds dat Chris'mus
+celebration. Evah time I sees you, you's in de washtub tryin' to mek
+braid an' meat fo' dat no 'count man o' yo'n."</p>
+
+<p>Sister Dicey's laugh rang out loud and musical before she replied,
+"Nevah you min', Brothah Williams. I don' see yo' back bowed so much by
+de yoke."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, honey, I's labo'in' even ef you do'n know it, but you'll see it on
+de day."</p>
+
+<p>"I 'low you labo'in' de mos' to git dat wife o' yo'n a new dress," and
+her tormentor's guffaw seemed to admit some such benevolent intention.</p>
+
+<p>In the corners of every house where the younger and more worldly-minded
+people congregated there was much whispering and giggling, for they had
+their own plans for Christmas outside of the church affair.</p>
+
+<p>"You goin' to give me de pleasure of yo' comp'ny to de dance aftah de
+festabal?" some ardent and early swain would murmur to his lady love,
+and the whisper would fly back in well-feigned affright, "Heish, man,
+you want to have Brothah Todbu'y chu'chin' me?" But if the swain
+persisted, there was little chance of his being ultimately refused. So
+the world, the flesh, and the devil kept pace with the things of the
+spirit in the great preparation.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Martha Maria Mixon went her own way, working hard, fixing and
+observing. She had determined to excel herself this time, and not only
+should her part at the church be above reproach, but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> entertainment
+which she would give that strange preacher would be a thing long to be
+remembered. And so, almost startled at all that Shiloh was preparing for
+his reception, hoary Christmas approached.</p>
+
+<p>All New York was a dazzling bazar through which the people thronged
+ceaselessly, tumultuously. Everyone was a child again; holly wreaths
+with the red berries gleaming amid the green were everywhere, and the
+white streets were gay with laughter and bustle and life.</p>
+
+<p>On the night before the great day Martha sat before her fire and hummed
+softly to herself. There was a smile upon her face, for she had worked
+and worked well, and now all was ready and to her entire satisfaction.
+Something which shall be nameless simmered in a tin cup on the back of
+the stove before her, and every now and then she broke her reverie to
+sip of it. It smelled sweet and pungent and suspicious, but, then&mdash;this
+was Christmas Eve. She was half drowsing when a brisk knock startled her
+into wakefulness. Thinking it was one of the neighbours in for a call
+she bade the visitor enter, without moving. There was a stamping of
+feet, and the door opened and a black man covered with snow stood before
+her. He said nothing. Martha rubbed her eyes and stared at him, and then
+she looked at the cup accusingly, and from it back to the man. Then she
+rubbed her eyes again.</p>
+
+<p>"Wha&mdash;wha&mdash;&mdash;" she stammered, rising slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don' you know me, Marthy, don' you know me; an' don' you want to see
+yo' husban'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madison Mixon, is dat you in de flesh?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's me, Marthy; you tol' me ef evah I made a man o' myse'f, to seek
+you. It's been a long road, but I's tried faithful."</p>
+
+<p>All the memories of other days came rushing over Martha in an
+overwhelming flood. In one moment everything was forgotten save that
+here stood her long delinquent husband. She threw out her arms and took
+a step toward him, but he anticipated her further advance and rushing to
+her clasped her ample form in a close embrace.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span></p><p>"You will tek me back!" he cried, "you will fu'give me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, of co'se, I will, Madison, ef you has made a man of yo'se'f."</p>
+
+<p>"I hopes to prove dat to you."</p>
+
+<p>It was a very pleasant evening that they spent together, and like old
+times to Martha. Never once did it occur to her that this sudden finding
+of a husband might be awkward on the morrow when the visitor came to
+dinner. Nor did she once suspect that Madison might be up to one of his
+old tricks. She accepted him for just what he said he was and intended
+to be.</p>
+
+<p>Her first doubt came the next morning when she began to hurry her
+preparations for church. Madison had been fumbling in his carpet bag and
+was already respectably dressed. His wife looked at him approvingly, but
+the glance turned to one of consternation when he stammered forth that
+he had to go out, as he had some business to attend to.</p>
+
+<p>"What, on de ve'y fust day you hyeah, ain't you goin' to chu'ch wid me?"</p>
+
+<p>"De bus'ness is mighty pressin', but I hopes to see you at chu'ch by de
+time de services begin. Waih does you set?" His hand was on the door.</p>
+
+<p>Martha sank into a chair and the tears came to her eyes, but she choked
+them back. She would not let him see how much she was hurt. She told him
+in a faltering voice where she sat, and he passed out. Then her tears
+came and flooded away the last hope. She had been so proud to think that
+she would walk to church with her husband that morning for the first
+time in so long a while, and now it was all over. For a little while she
+thought that she would not go, and then the memory of all the
+preparations she had made and of the new minister came to her, and she
+went on with her dressing.</p>
+
+<p>The church was crowded that morning when Martha arrived. She looked
+around in vain for some sight of Madison, but she could see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> nothing of
+him, and so she sank into her seat with a sigh. She could just see the
+new minister drooping in his seat behind the reading desk. He was
+evidently deep in meditation, for he did not get up during the hymn.</p>
+
+<p>Then Martha heard the Rev. Silas Todbury speaking. His words did not
+affect her until she found that the whole of his closing sentence was
+flashing through her brain like a flame. "We will now be exho'ted by de
+Reverent Madison Mixon."</p>
+
+<p>She couldn't believe her ears, but stared wildly at the pulpit where the
+new preacher stood. It was Madison. Her first impulse was to rise in her
+seat and stop him. It was another of his tricks, and he should not
+profane the church. But his look and voice silenced her and she sank
+back in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>He preached a powerful sermon, and at its close told something of his
+life and who he was, and Martha found herself all at once the centre of
+attention; and her face glowed and her heart burned within her as the
+people about her nodded and smiled at her through their tears, and
+hurled "Amen" upon "Amen."</p>
+
+<p>Madison hurried to her side after the services. "I des wanted to s'prise
+you a little, Marthy," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She was too happy to answer and, pressing his arm very tightly, she
+walked out among her congratulating friends, and between her husband and
+the Rev. Silas Todbury went proudly home to her Christmas dinner.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Three</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE MISSION OF MR. SCATTERS</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>t took something just short of a revolution to wake up the sleepy
+little town of Miltonville. Through the slow, hot days it drowsed along
+like a lazy dog, only half rousing now and then to snap at some flying
+rumour, and relapsing at once into its pristine somnolence.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a dreamless sleep, however, that held the town in chains. It
+had its dreams&mdash;dreams of greatness, of wealth, of consequence and of
+growth. Granted that there was no effort to realise these visions, they
+were yet there, and, combined with the memory of a past that was not
+without credit, went far to give tone to its dormant spirit.</p>
+
+<p>It was a real spirit, too; the gallant Bourbon spirit of the old South;
+of Kentucky when she is most the daughter of Virginia, as was evidenced
+in the awed respect which all Miltonvillians, white and black alike,
+showed to Major Richardson in his house on the hill. He was part of the
+traditions of the place. It was shown in the conservatism of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> the old
+white families, and a certain stalwart if reflected self-respect in the
+older coloured inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>In all the days since the school had been founded and Mr. Dunkin's
+marriage to the teacher had raised a brief ripple of excitement, these
+coloured people had slumbered. They were still slumbering that hot
+August day, unmindful of the sensation that lay at their very doors,
+heedless of the portents that said as plain as preaching, "Miltonville,
+the time is at hand, awake!"</p>
+
+<p>So it was that that afternoon there were only a few loungers, and these
+not very alert, about the station when the little train wheezed and
+puffed its way into it. It had been so long since anyone save those whom
+they knew had alighted at Miltonville that the loungers had lost faith,
+and with it curiosity, and now they scarcely changed their positions as
+the little engine stopped with a snort of disgust. But in an instant
+indifference had fled as the mist before the sun, and every eye on the
+platform was staring and white. It is the unexpected that always
+happens, and yet humanity never gets accustomed to it. The loafers,
+white and black, had assumed a sitting posture, and then they had stood
+up. For from the cars there had alighted the wonder of a stranger&mdash;a
+Negro stranger, gorgeous of person and attire. He was dressed in a suit
+of black cloth. A long coat was buttoned close around his tall and
+robust form. He was dead black, from his shiny top hat to his not less
+shiny boots, and about him there was the indefinable air of distinction.
+He stood looking about the platform for a moment, and then stepped
+briskly and decisively toward the group that was staring at him with
+wide eyes. There was no hesitation in that step. He walked as a man
+walks who is not in the habit of being stopped, who has not known what
+it is to be told, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me where I can find the residence of Mr. Isaac Jackson?"
+he asked sonorously as he reached the stupefied loungers. His voice was
+deep and clear.</p>
+
+<p>Someone woke from his astonishment and offered to lead him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> thither, and
+together the two started for their destination, the stranger keeping up
+a running fire of comment on the way. Had his companion been a close
+observer and known anything about the matter, he would have found the
+newcomer's English painfully, unforgivably correct. A language should be
+like an easy shoe on a flexible foot, but to one unused to it, it proves
+rather a splint on a broken limb. The stranger stalked about in
+conversational splints until they arrived at Isaac Jackson's door. Then
+giving his guide a dime, he dismissed him with a courtly bow, and
+knocked.</p>
+
+<p>It was a good thing that Martha Ann Jackson had the innate politeness of
+her race well to the fore when she opened the door upon the radiant
+creature, or she would have given voice to the words that were in her
+heart: "Good Lawd, what is dis?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is this the residence of Mr. Isaac Jackson?" in the stranger's suavest
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh, he live hyeah."</p>
+
+<p>"May I see him? I desire to see him upon some business." He handed her
+his card, which she carefully turned upside down, glanced at without
+understanding, and put in her apron pocket as she replied:</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't in jes' now, but ef you'll step in an' wait, I'll sen' one o'
+de chillen aftah him."</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you, madam, I thank you. I will come in and rest from the
+fatigue of my journey. I have travelled a long way, and rest in such a
+pleasant and commodious abode as your own appears to be will prove very
+grateful to me."</p>
+
+<p>She had been half afraid to invite this resplendent figure into her
+humble house, but she felt distinctly flattered at his allusion to the
+home which she had helped Isaac to buy, and by the alacrity with which
+the stranger accepted her invitation.</p>
+
+<p>She ushered him into the front room, mentally thanking her stars that
+she had forced the reluctant Isaac to buy a bright new carpet a couple
+of months before.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span></p><p>A child was despatched to find and bring home the father, while Martha
+Ann, hastily slipping out of her work-dress and into a starched calico,
+came in to keep her visitor company.</p>
+
+<p>His name proved to be Scatters, and he was a most entertaining and
+ingratiating man. It was evident that he had some important business
+with Isaac Jackson, but that it was mysterious was shown by the guarded
+way in which he occasionally hinted at it as he tapped the valise he
+carried and nodded knowingly.</p>
+
+<p>Time had never been when Martha Ann Jackson was so flustered. She was
+charmed and frightened and flattered. She could only leave Mr. Scatters
+long enough to give orders to her daughter, Lucy, to prepare such a
+supper as that household had never seen before; then she returned to sit
+again at his feet and listen to his words of wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>The supper progressed apace, and the savour of it was already in the
+stranger's nostrils. Upon this he grew eloquent and was about to divulge
+his secret to the hungry-eyed woman when the trampling of Isaac's boots
+upon the walk told him that he had only a little while longer to contain
+himself, and at the same time to wait for the fragrant supper.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is seldom that a man is so well impressed with a smooth-tongued
+stranger as is his wife. Usually his hard-headedness puts him on the
+defensive against the blandishments of the man who has won his better
+half's favour, and, however honest the semi-fortunate individual may be,
+he despises him for his attainments. But it was not so in this case.
+Isaac had hardly entered the house and received his visitor's warm
+handclasp before he had become captive to his charm. Business,
+business&mdash;no, his guest had been travelling and he must be both tired
+and hungry. Isaac would hear of no business until they had eaten. Then,
+over a pipe, if the gentleman smoked, they might talk at their ease.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Scatters demurred, but in fact nothing could have pleased him
+better, and the open smile with which he dropped into his place at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span>
+table was very genuine and heartfelt. Genuine, too, were his praises of
+Lucy's cooking; of her flaky buscuits and mealy potatoes. He was pleased
+all through and he did not hesitate to say so.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beaming group that finally rose heavily laden from the supper
+table.</p>
+
+<p>Over a social pipe a little later, Isaac Jackson heard the story that
+made his eyes bulge with interest and his heart throb with eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Scatters began, tapping his host's breast and looking at him
+fixedly, "You had a brother some years ago named John." It was more like
+an accusation than a question.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh, I had a brothah John."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh, huh, and that brother migrated to the West Indies."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh, he went out to some o' dem outlandish places."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, sir, hold on, I am a West Indian myself."</p>
+
+<p>"I do' mean no erfence, 'ceptin' dat John allus was of a rovin'
+dispersition."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, you know no more about your brother after his departure for
+the West Indies?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, suh."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is my mission to tell you the rest of the story. Your brother
+John landed at Cuba, and after working about some years and living
+frugally, he went into the coffee business, in which he became rich."</p>
+
+<p>"Rich?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rich, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, bless my soul, who'd 'a evah thought that of John? Why, suh, I'm
+sho'ly proud to hyeah it. Why don't he come home an' visit a body?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, why?" said Mr. Scatters dramatically. "Now comes the most painful
+part of my mission. 'In the midst of life we are in death.'" Mr.
+Scatters sighed, Isaac sighed and wiped his eyes. "Two years ago your
+brother departed this life."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he saved?" Isaac asked in a choked voice. Scatters gave him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> one
+startled glance, and then answered hastily, "I am happy to say that he
+was."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor John! He gone an' me lef'."</p>
+
+<p>"Even in the midst of our sorrows, however, there is always a ray of
+light. Your brother remembered you in his will."</p>
+
+<p>"Remembered me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Remembered you, and as one of the executors of his estate,"&mdash;Mr.
+Scatters rose and went softly over to his valise, from which he took a
+large square package. He came back with it, holding it as if it were
+something sacred,&mdash;"as one of the executors of his estate, which is now
+settled, I was commissioned to bring you this." He tapped the package.
+"This package, sealed as you see with the seal of Cuba, contains five
+thousand dollars in notes and bonds."</p>
+
+<p>Isaac gasped and reached for the bundle, but it was withdrawn. "I am,
+however, not to deliver it to you yet. There are certain formalities
+which my country demands to be gone through with, after which I deliver
+my message and return to the fairest of lands, to the Gem of the
+Antilles. Let me congratulate you, Mr. Jackson, upon your good fortune."</p>
+
+<p>Isaac yielded up his hand mechanically. He was dazed by the vision of
+this sudden wealth.</p>
+
+<p>"Fi' thousan' dollahs," he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, five thousand dollars. It is a goodly sum, and in the
+meantime, until court convenes, I wish you to recommend some safe place
+in which to put this money, as I do not feel secure with it about my
+person, nor would it be secure if it were known to be in your house."</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon Albert Matthews' grocery would be the safes' place fu' it.
+He's got one o' dem i'on saftes."</p>
+
+<p>"The very place. Let us go there at once, and after that I will not
+encroach upon your hospitality longer, but attempt to find a hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"Hotel nothin'," said Isaac emphatically. "Ef my house ain't too common,
+you'll stay right thaih ontwell co't sets."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span></p><p>"This is very kind of you, Mr. Jackson, but really I couldn't think of
+being such a charge upon you and your good wife."</p>
+
+<p>"'Tain't no charge on us; we'll be glad to have you. Folks hyeah in
+Miltonville has little enough comp'ny, de Lawd knows."</p>
+
+<p>Isaac spoke the truth, and it was as much the knowledge that he would be
+the envy of all the town as his gratitude to Scatters that prompted him
+to prevail upon his visitor to stay.</p>
+
+<p>Scatters was finally persuaded, and the men only paused long enough in
+the house to tell the curiosity-eaten Martha Ann the news, and then
+started for Albert Matthews' store. Scatters carried the precious
+package, and Isaac was armed with an old shotgun lest anyone should
+suspect their treasure and attack them. Five thousand dollars was not to
+be carelessly handled!</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the men were gone, Martha Ann started out upon her rounds,
+and her proud tongue did for the women portion of Miltonville what the
+visit to Matthews' store did for the men. Did Mrs. So-and-So remember
+brother John? Indeed she did. And when the story was told, it was a
+"Well, well, well! he used to be an ol' beau o' mine." Martha Ann found
+no less than twenty women of her acquaintance for whom her brother John
+seemed to have entertained tender feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The corner grocery store kept by Albert Matthews was the general
+gathering-place for the coloured male population of the town. It was a
+small, one-roomed building, almost filled with barrels, boxes, and
+casks.</p>
+
+<p>Pride as well as necessity had prompted Isaac to go to the grocery just
+at this time, when it would be quite the fullest of men. He had not
+calculated wrongly when he reckoned upon the sensation that would be
+made by his entrance with the distinguished-looking stranger. The
+excitement was all the most hungry could have wished for. The men stared
+at Jackson and his companion with wide-open eyes. They left off chewing
+tobacco and telling tales. A half-dozen of them forgot to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> avail
+themselves of the joy of spitting, and Albert Matthews, the proprietor,
+a weazened little brown-skinned man, forgot to lay his hand upon the
+scale in weighing out a pound of sugar.</p>
+
+<p>With a humility that was false on the very face of it, Isaac introduced
+his guest to the grocer and the three went off together mysteriously
+into a corner. The matter was duly explained and the object of the visit
+told. Matthews burned with envy of his neighbour's good fortune.</p>
+
+<p>"I do' reckon, Mistah Scatters, dat we bettah not let de othah folks in
+de sto' know anything 'bout dis hyeah bus'ness of ouahs. I got to be
+'sponsible fu dat money, an' I doesn't want to tek no chances."</p>
+
+<p>"You are perfectly right, sir, perfectly right. You are responsible, not
+only for the money itself, but for the integrity of this seal which
+means the dignity of government."</p>
+
+<p>Matthews looked sufficiently impressed, and together they all went their
+way among the barrels and boxes to the corner where the little safe
+stood. With many turnings and twistings the door was opened, the package
+inclosed and the safe shut again. Then they all rose solemnly and went
+behind the counter to sample something that Matthews had. This was
+necessary as a climax, for they had performed, not a mere deed, but a
+ceremonial.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you'll say nothing about this matter at all, Mr. Matthews,"
+said Scatters, thereby insuring publicity to his affair.</p>
+
+<p>There were a few introductions as the men passed out, but hardly had
+their backs turned when a perfect storm of comment and inquiry broke
+about the grocer's head. So it came to pass, that with many mysterious
+nods and headshakings, Matthews first hinted at and then told the
+story.</p>
+
+<p>For the first few minutes the men could scarcely believe what they had
+heard. It was so utterly unprecedented. Then it dawned upon them that it
+might be so, and discussion and argument ran rife for the next hour.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span></p><p>The story flew like wildfire, there being three things in this world
+which interest all sorts and conditions of men alike: great wealth,
+great beauty, and great love. Whenever Mr. Scatters appeared he was
+greeted with deference and admiration. Any man who had come clear from
+Cuba on such an errand to their fellow-townsman deserved all honour and
+respect. His charming manners confirmed, too, all that preconceived
+notions had said of him. He became a social favourite. It began with Mr.
+and Mrs. Dunkin's calling upon him. Then followed Alonzo Taft, and when
+the former two gave a reception for the visitor, his position was
+assured. Miltonville had not yet arisen to the dignity of having a
+literary society. He now founded one and opened it himself with an
+address so beautiful, so eloquent and moving that Mr. Dunkin bobbed his
+head dizzy in acquiescence, and Aunt Hannah Payne thought she was in
+church and shouted for joy.</p>
+
+<p>The little town had awakened from its long post-bellum slumber and
+accepted with eagerness the upward impulse given it. It stood aside and
+looked on with something like adoration when Mr. Scatters and Mrs.
+Dunkin met and talked of ineffable things&mdash;things far above the ken of
+the average mortal.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Scatters found that his mission was known, he gave up further
+attempts at concealing it and talked freely about the matter. He
+expatiated at length upon the responsibility that devolved upon him and
+his desire to discharge it, and he spoke glowingly of the great
+government whose power was represented by the seal which held the
+package of bonds. Not for one day would he stay away from his beloved
+Cuba, if it were not that that seal had to be broken in the presence of
+the proper authorities. So, however reluctant he might be to stay, it
+was not for him to shirk his task: he must wait for the sitting of
+court.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Jacksons lived in an atmosphere of glory. The womenfolk
+purchased new dresses, and Isaac got a new wagon on the strength of
+their good fortune. It was nothing to what they dreamed of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> doing when
+they had the money positively in hand. Mr. Scatters still remained their
+guest, and they were proud of it.</p>
+
+<p>What pleased them most was that their distinguished visitor seemed not
+to look down upon, but rather to be pleased with, their homely fare.
+Isaac had further cause for pleasure when his guest came to him later
+with a great show of frank confidence to request the loan of fifty
+dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not think of asking even this small favour of you but that I
+have only Cuban money with me and I knew you would feel distressed if
+you knew that I went to the trouble of sending this money away for
+exchange on account of so small a sum."</p>
+
+<p>This was undoubtedly a mark of special confidence. It suddenly made
+Isaac feel as if the grand creature had accepted and labelled him as a
+brother and an equal. He hastened to Matthews' safe, where he kept his
+own earnings; for the grocer was banker as well.</p>
+
+<p>With reverent hands they put aside the package of bonds and together
+counted out the required half a hundred dollars. In a little while Mr.
+Scatters' long, graceful fingers had closed over it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Jackson's cup of joy was now full. It had but one bitter drop to mar
+its sweetness. That was the friendship that had sprung up between the
+Cuban and Mr. Dunkin. They frequently exchanged visits, and sat long
+together engaged in conversation from which Isaac was excluded. This
+galled him. He felt that he had a sort of proprietary interest in his
+guest. And any infringement of this property right he looked upon with
+distinct disfavour. So that it was with no pleasant countenance that he
+greeted Mr. Dunkin when he called on a certain night.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Scatters is gone out," he said, as the old man entered and
+deposited his hat on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's all right, Isaac," said Mr. Dunkin slowly, "I didn't come to see
+de gent'man. I come to see you."</p>
+
+<p>The cloud somewhat lifted from Isaac's brow. Mr. Dunkin was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> man of
+importance and it made a deal of difference whom he was visiting.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed a little bit embarrassed, however, as to how to open
+conversation. He hummed and hawed and was visibly uneasy. He tried to
+descant upon the weather, but the subject failed him. Finally, with an
+effort, he hitched his chair nearer to his host's and said in a low
+voice, "Ike, I reckon you has de confidence of Mistah Scatters?"</p>
+
+<p>"I has," was the proud reply, "I has."</p>
+
+<p>"Hum! uh! huh! Well&mdash;well&mdash;has you evah loant him any money?"</p>
+
+<p>Isaac was aghast. Such impertinence!</p>
+
+<p>"Mistah Dunkin," he began, "I considah&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hol' on, Ike!" broke in Dunkin, laying a soothing hand on the other's
+knee, "don' git on yo' high hoss. Dis hyeah's a impo'tant mattah."</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't got nothin' to say."</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't never tol' you 'bout havin' nothin' but Cubian money on him?"</p>
+
+<p>Isaac started.</p>
+
+<p>"I see he have. He tol' me de same thing."</p>
+
+<p>The two men sat staring suspiciously into each other's faces.</p>
+
+<p>"He got a hun'ed an' fifty dollahs f'om me," said Dunkin.</p>
+
+<p>"I let him have fifty," added Jackson weakly.</p>
+
+<p>"He got a hun'ed an' fifty dollahs f'om thews. Dat's how I come to git
+'spicious. He tol' him de same sto'y."</p>
+
+<p>Again that pregnant look flashed between them, and they both rose and
+went out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>They hurried down to Matthews' grocery. The owner was waiting for them
+there. There was solemnity, but no hesitation, in the manner with which
+they now went to the safe. They took out the package hastily and with
+ruthless hands. This was no ceremonial now. The seal had no longer any
+fears for them. They tore it off. They tore the wrappers. Then paper.
+Neatly folded paper. More wrapping paper. Newspapers. Nothing more. Of
+bills or bonds&mdash;nothing. With the debris of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> the mysterious parcel
+scattered about their feet, they stood up and looked at each other.</p>
+
+<p>"I nevah did believe in furriners nohow," said Mr. Dunkin sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"But he knowed all about my brothah John."</p>
+
+<p>"An' he sho'ly did make mighty fine speeches. Maybe we's missed de
+money." This from the grocer.</p>
+
+<p>Together they went over the papers again, with the same result.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where he went to-night, Ike?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Den I reckon we's seed de las' o' him."</p>
+
+<p>"But he lef' his valise."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, an' he lef' dis," said Dunkin sternly, pointing to the paper on
+the floor. "He sho'ly is mighty keerless of his valybles."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go git de constable," said the practical Matthews.</p>
+
+<p>They did, though they felt that it would be unavailing.</p>
+
+<p>The constable came and waited at Jackson's house. They had been there
+about half an hour, talking the matter over, when what was their
+surprise to hear Mr. Scatters' step coming jauntily up the walk. A
+sudden panic of terror and shame seized them. It was as if they had
+wronged him. Suppose, after all, everything should come right and he
+should be able to explain? They sat and trembled until he entered. Then
+the constable told him his mission.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Scatters was surprised. He was hurt. Indeed, he was distinctly
+grieved that his friends had had so little confidence in him. Had he
+been to them anything but a gentleman, a friend, and an honest man? Had
+he not come a long distance from his home to do one of them a favour?
+They hung their heads. Martha Ann, who was listening at the door, was
+sobbing audibly. What had he done thus to be humiliated? He saw the
+effect of his words and pursued it. Had he not left in the care of one
+of their own number security for his integrity in the shape of the
+bonds?</p>
+
+<p>The effect of his words was magical. Every head went up and three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> pairs
+of flashing eyes were bent upon him. He saw and knew that they knew. He
+had not thought that they would dare to violate the seal around which he
+had woven such a halo. He saw that all was over, and, throwing up his
+hands with a despairing gesture, he bowed graciously and left the room
+with the constable.</p>
+
+<p>All Miltonville had the story next day, and waited no less eagerly than
+before for the "settin' of co't."</p>
+
+<p>To the anger and chagrin of Miltonvillians, Fox Run had the honour and
+distinction of being the county seat, and thither they must go to the
+sessions; but never did they so forget their animosities as on the day
+set for the trial of Scatters. They overlooked the pride of the Fox
+Runners, their cupidity and their vaunting arrogance. They ignored the
+indignity of showing interest in anything that took place in that
+village, and went in force, eager, anxious, and curious. Ahorse, afoot,
+by oxcart, by mule-wagon, white, black, high, low, old, and young of
+both sexes invaded Fox Run and swelled the crowd of onlookers until,
+with pity for the very anxiety of the people, the humane judge decided
+to discard the now inadequate court-room and hold the sessions on the
+village green. Here an impromptu bar was set up, and over against it
+were ranged the benches, chairs, and camp-stools of the spectators.</p>
+
+<p>Every man of prominence in the county was present. Major Richardson,
+though now retired, occupied a distinguished position within the bar.
+Old Captain Howard shook hands familiarly with the judge and nodded to
+the assembly as though he himself had invited them all to be present.
+Former Judge Durbin sat with his successor on the bench.</p>
+
+<p>Court opened and the first case was called. It gained but passing
+attention. There was bigger game to be stalked. A hog-stealing case
+fared a little better on account of the intimateness of the crime
+involved. But nothing was received with such awed silence as the case of
+the State against Joseph Scatters. The charge was obtaining money under
+false pretences, and the plea "Not Guilty."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span></p><p>The witnesses were called and their testimony taken. Mr. Scatters was
+called to testify in his own defence, but refused to do so. The
+prosecution stated its case and proceeded to sum up the depositions of
+the witnesses. As there was no attorney for the defence, the State's
+attorney delivered a short speech, in which the guilt of the defendant
+was plainly set forth. It was as clear as day. Things looked very dark
+for Mr. Scatters of Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>As the lawyer sat down, and ere the case could be given to the jury, he
+rose and asked permission of the Court to say a few words.</p>
+
+<p>This was granted him.</p>
+
+<p>He stood up among them, a magnificent, strong, black figure. His eyes
+swept the assembly, judge, jury, and spectators with a look half
+amusement, half defiance.</p>
+
+<p>"I have pleaded not guilty," he began in a low, distinct voice that
+could be heard in every part of the inclosure, "and I am not guilty of
+the spirit which is charged against me, however near the letter may
+touch me. I did use certain knowledge that I possessed, and the seal
+which I happened to have from an old government position, to
+defraud&mdash;that is the word, if you will&mdash;to defraud these men out of the
+price of their vanity and their cupidity. But it was not a
+long-premeditated thing. I was within a few miles of your town before
+the idea occurred to me. I was in straits. I stepped from the brink of
+great poverty into the midst of what you are pleased to deem a greater
+crime."</p>
+
+<p>The Court held its breath. No such audacity had ever been witnessed in
+the life of Fox Run.</p>
+
+<p>Scatters went on, warming to his subject as he progressed. He was
+eloquent and he was pleasing. A smile flickered over the face of Major
+Richardson and was reflected in the features of many others as the
+speaker burst forth:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, I maintain that instead of imprisoning you should thank me
+for what I have done. Have I not taught your community a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> lesson? Have I
+not put a check upon their credulity and made them wary of unheralded
+strangers?"</p>
+
+<p>He had. There was no disputing that. The judge himself was smiling, and
+the jurymen were nodding at each other.</p>
+
+<p>Scatters had not yet played his trump card. He saw that the time was
+ripe. Straightening his form and raising his great voice, he cried:
+"Gentlemen, I am guilty according to the letter of the law, but from
+that I appeal to the men who make and have made the law. From the hard
+detail of this new day, I appeal to the chivalry of the old South which
+has been told in story and sung in song. From men of vindictiveness I
+appeal to men of mercy. From plebeians to aristocrats. By the memory of
+the sacred names of the Richardsons"&mdash;the Major sat bolt upright and
+dropped his snuffbox&mdash;"the Durbins"&mdash;the ex-judge couldn't for his life
+get his pince-nez on&mdash;"the Howards"&mdash;the captain openly rubbed his
+hands&mdash;"to the memory that those names call up I appeal, and to the
+living and honourable bearers of them present. And to you, gentlemen of
+the jury, the lives of whose fathers went to purchase this dark and
+bloody ground, I appeal from the accusation of these men, who are not my
+victims, not my dupes, but their own."</p>
+
+<p>There was a hush when he was done. The judge read the charge to the
+jury, and it was favourable&mdash;very. And&mdash;well, Scatters had taught the
+darkies a lesson; he had spoken of their families and their traditions,
+he knew their names, and&mdash;oh, well, he was a good fellow after all&mdash;what
+was the use?</p>
+
+<p>The jury did not leave their seats, and the verdict was acquittal.</p>
+
+<p>Scatters thanked the Court and started away; but he met three
+ominous-looking pairs of eyes, and a crowd composed of angry Negroes was
+flocking toward the edge of the green.</p>
+
+<p>He came back.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I had better wait until the excitement subsides," he said to
+Major Richardson.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span></p><p>"No need of that, suh, no need of that. Here, Jim," he called to his
+coachman, "take Mr. Scatters wherever he wants to go, and remember, I
+shall hold you responsible for his safety."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh," said Jim.</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand thanks, Major," said the man with the mission.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, suh. By the way, that was a very fine effort of yours this
+afternoon. I was greatly moved by it. If you'll give me your address
+I'll send you a history of our family, suh, from the time they left
+Vuhginia and before."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Scatters gave him the address, and smiled at the three enemies, who
+still waited on the edge of the green.</p>
+
+<p>"To the station," he said to the driver.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Four</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">A MATTER OF DOCTRINE</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>here was great excitement in Miltonville over the advent of a most
+eloquent and convincing minister from the North. The beauty about the
+Rev. Thaddeus Warwick was that he was purely and simply a man of the
+doctrine. He had no emotions, his sermons were never matters of feeling;
+but he insisted so strongly upon the constant presentation of the tenets
+of his creed that his presence in a town was always marked by the
+enthusiasm and joy of religious disputation.</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Jasper Hayward, coloured, was a man quite of another stripe.
+With him it was not so much what a man held as what he felt. The
+difference in their characteristics, however, did not prevent him from
+attending Dr. Warwick's series of sermons, where, from the vantage point
+of the gallery, he drank in, without assimilating, that divine's words
+of wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>Especially was he edified on the night that his white brother held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span>
+forth upon the doctrine of predestination. It was not that he understood
+it at all, but that it sounded well and the words had a rich ring as he
+champed over them again and again.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hayward was a man for the time and knew that his congregation
+desired something new, and if he could supply it he was willing to take
+lessons even from a white co-worker who had neither "de spi'it ner de
+fiah." Because, as he was prone to admit to himself, "dey was sump'in'
+in de unnerstannin'."</p>
+
+<p>He had no idea what plagiarism is, and without a single thought of
+wrong, he intended to reproduce for his people the religious wisdom
+which he acquired at the white church. He was an innocent beggar going
+to the doors of the well-provided for cold spiritual victuals to warm
+over for his own family. And it would not be plagiarism either, for this
+very warming-over process would save it from that and make his own
+whatever he brought. He would season with the pepper of his homely wit,
+sprinkle it with the salt of his home-made philosophy, then, hot with
+the fire of his crude eloquence, serve to his people a dish his very
+own. But to the true purveyor of original dishes it is never pleasant to
+know that someone else holds the secret of the groundwork of his
+invention.</p>
+
+<p>It was then something of a shock to the Reverend Mr. Hayward to be
+accosted by Isaac Middleton, one of his members, just as he was leaving
+the gallery on the night of this most edifying of sermons.</p>
+
+<p>Isaac laid a hand upon his shoulder and smiled at him benevolently.</p>
+
+<p>"How do, Brothah Hayward," he said, "you been sittin' unner de drippin's
+of de gospel, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I has been listenin' to de wo'ds of my fellow-laborah in de
+vineya'd of de Lawd," replied the preacher with some dignity, for he saw
+vanishing the vision of his own glory in a revivified sermon on
+predestination.</p>
+
+<p>Isaac linked his arm familiarly in his pastor's as they went out upon
+the street.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span></p><p>"Well, what you t'ink erbout pre-o'dination an' fo'-destination any how?"</p>
+
+<p>"It sutny has been pussented to us in a powahful light dis eve'nin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, suh, hit opened up my eyes. I do' know when I's hyeahed a sehmon
+dat done my soul mo' good."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a upliftin' episode."</p>
+
+<p>"Seem lak 'co'din' to de way de brothah 'lucidated de matter to-night
+dat evaht'ing done sot out an' cut an' dried fu' us. Well dat's gwine to
+he'p me lots."</p>
+
+<p>"De gospel is allus a he'p."</p>
+
+<p>"But not allus in dis way. You see I ain't a eddicated man lak you,
+Brothah Hayward."</p>
+
+<p>"We can't all have de same 'vantages," the preacher condescended. "But
+what I feels, I feels, an' what I unnerstan's, I unnerstan's. The
+Scripture tell us to get unnerstannin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dat's what I's been a-doin' to-night. I's been a-doubtin' an'
+a-doubtin', a-foolin' erroun' an' wonderin', but now I unnerstan'."</p>
+
+<p>"'Splain yo'se'f, Brothah Middleton," said the preacher.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, suh, I will to you. You knows Miss Sally Briggs? Huh, what say?"</p>
+
+<p>The Reverend Hayward had given a half discernible start and an
+exclamation had fallen from his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"What say?" repeated his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"I knows de sistah ve'y well, she bein' a membah of my flock."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I been gwine in comp'ny wit dat ooman fu' de longes'. You ain't
+nevah tasted none o' huh cookin', has you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I has 'sperienced de sistah's puffo'mances in dat line."</p>
+
+<p>"She is the cookin'est ooman I evah seed in all my life, but
+howsomedever, I been gwine all dis time an' I ain' nevah said de wo'd. I
+nevah could git clean erway f'om huh widout somep'n' drawin' me back,
+an' I didn't know what hit was."</p>
+
+<p>The preacher was restless.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span></p><p>"Hit was des dis away, Brothah Hayward, I was allus lingerin' on de
+brink, feahful to la'nch away, but now I's a-gwine to la'nch, case dat
+all dis time tain't been nuffin but fo'-destination dat been a-holdin' me
+on."</p>
+
+<p>"Ahem," said the minister; "we mus' not be in too big a hu'y to put ouah
+human weaknesses upon some divine cause."</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't a-doin' dat, dough I ain't a-sputin' dat de lady is a mos'
+oncommon fine lookin' pusson."</p>
+
+<p>"I has only seed huh wid de eye of de spi'it," was the virtuous answer,
+"an' to dat eye all t'ings dat are good are beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh, an' lookin' wid de cookin' eye, hit seem lak' I des
+fo'destinated fu' to ma'y dat ooman."</p>
+
+<p>"You say you ain't axe huh yit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yit, but I's gwine to ez soon ez evah I gets de chanst now."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh, huh," said the preacher, and he began to hasten his steps homeward.</p>
+
+<p>"Seems lak you in a pow'ful hu'y to-night," said his companion, with
+some difficulty accommodating his own step to the preacher's masterly
+strides. He was a short man and his pastor was tall and gaunt.</p>
+
+<p>"I has somp'n' on my min,' Brothah Middleton, dat I wants to thrash out
+to-night in de sollertude of my own chambah," was the solemn reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I ain' gwine keep erlong wid you an' pestah you wid my chattah,
+Brothah Hayward," and at the next corner Isaac Middleton turned off and
+went his way, with a cheery "so long, may de Lawd set wid you in yo'
+meddertations."</p>
+
+<p>"So long," said his pastor hastily. Then he did what would be strange in
+any man, but seemed stranger in so virtuous a minister. He checked his
+hasty pace, and, after furtively watching Middleton out of sight, turned
+and retraced his steps in a direction exactly opposite to the one in
+which he had been going, and toward the cottage of the very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> Sister
+Griggs concerning whose charms the minister's parishioner had held
+forth.</p>
+
+<p>It was late, but the pastor knew that the woman whom he sought was
+industrious and often worked late, and with ever increasing eagerness he
+hurried on. He was fully rewarded for his perseverance when the light
+from the window of his intended hostess gleamed upon him, and when she
+stood in the full glow of it as the door opened in answer to his knock.</p>
+
+<p>"La, Brothah Hayward, ef it ain't you; howdy; come in."</p>
+
+<p>"Howdy, howdy, Sistah Griggs, how you come on?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I's des tol'able," industriously dusting a chair. "How's yo'se'f?"</p>
+
+<p>"I's right smaht, thankee ma'am."</p>
+
+<p>"W'y, Brothah Hayward, ain't you los' down in dis paht of de town?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, Sistah Griggs, de shep'erd ain't nevah los' no whaih dey's
+any of de flock." Then looking around the room at the piles of ironed
+clothes, he added: "You sutny is a indust'ious ooman."</p>
+
+<p>"I was des 'bout finishin' up some i'onin' I had fu' de white folks,"
+smiled Sister Griggs, taking down her ironing-board and resting it in
+the corner. "Allus when I gits thoo my wo'k at nights I's putty well
+tiahed out an' has to eat a snack; set by, Brothah Hayward, while I
+fixes us a bite."</p>
+
+<p>"La, sistah, hit don't skacely seem right fu' me to be a-comin' in hyeah
+lettin' you fix fu' me at dis time o' night, an' you mighty nigh
+tuckahed out, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Tsch, Brothah Hayward, taint no ha'dah lookin' out fu' two dan it is
+lookin' out fu' one."</p>
+
+<p>Hayward flashed a quick upward glance at his hostess' face and then
+repeated slowly, "Yes'm, dat sutny is de trufe. I ain't nevah t'ought o'
+that befo'. Hit ain't no ha'dah lookin' out fu' two dan hit is fu'
+one,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> and though he was usually an incessant talker, he lapsed into a
+brown study.</p>
+
+<p>Be it known that the Rev. Mr. Hayward was a man of a very level head,
+and that his bachelorhood was a matter of economy. He had long
+considered matrimony in the light of a most desirable estate, but one
+which he feared to embrace until the rewards for his labours began
+looking up a little better. But now the matter was being presented to
+him in an entirely different light. "Hit ain't no ha'dah lookin' out fu'
+two dan fu' one." Might that not be the truth after all. One had to have
+food. It would take very little more to do for two. One had to have a
+home to live in. The same house would shelter two. One had to wear
+clothes. Well, now, there came the rub. But he thought of donation
+parties, and smiled. Instead of being an extravagance, might not this
+union of two beings be an economy? Somebody to cook the food, somebody
+to keep the house, and somebody to mend the clothes.</p>
+
+<p>His reverie was broken in upon by Sally Griggs' voice. "Hit do seem lak
+you mighty deep in t'ought dis evenin', Brothah Hayward. I done spoke to
+you twicet."</p>
+
+<p>"Scuse me, Sistah Griggs, my min' has been mighty deeply 'sorbed in a
+little mattah o' doctrine. What you say to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I say set up to the table an' have a bite to eat; tain't much, but
+'sich ez I have'&mdash;you know what de 'postle said."</p>
+
+<p>The preacher's eyes glistened as they took in the well-filled board.
+There was fervour in the blessing which he asked that made amends for
+its brevity. Then he fell to.</p>
+
+<p>Isaac Middleton was right. This woman was a genius among cooks. Isaac
+Middleton was also wrong. He, a layman, had no right to raise his eyes
+to her. She was the prize of the elect, not the quarry of any chance
+pursuer. As he ate and talked, his admiration for Sally grew as did his
+indignation at Middleton's presumption.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the fair one plied him with delicacies, and paid deferential<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>
+attention whenever he opened his mouth to give vent to an opinion. An
+admirable wife she would make, indeed.</p>
+
+<p>At last supper was over and his chair pushed back from the table. With a
+long sigh of content, he stretched his long legs, tilted back and said:
+"Well, you done settled de case ez fur ez I is concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"What dat, Brothah Hayward?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I do' know's I's quite prepahed to tell you yit."</p>
+
+<p>"Hyeah now, don' you remembah ol' Mis' Eve? Taint nevah right to git a
+lady's cur'osity riz."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nemmine, nemmine, I ain't gwine keep yo' cur'osity up long. You
+see, Sistah Griggs, you done 'lucidated one p'int to me dis night dat
+meks it plumb needful fu' me to speak."</p>
+
+<p>She was looking at him with wide open eyes of expectation.</p>
+
+<p>"You made de 'emark to-night, dat it ain't no ha'dah lookin' out aftah
+two dan one."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Brothah Hayward!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sistah Sally, I reckernizes dat, an' I want to know ef you won't let me
+look out aftah we two? Will you ma'y me?"</p>
+
+<p>She picked nervously at her apron, and her eyes sought the floor
+modestly as she answered, "Why, Brothah Hayward, I ain't fittin' fu' no
+sich eddicated man ez you. S'posin' you'd git to be pu'sidin' elder, er
+bishop, er somp'n' er othah, whaih'd I be?"</p>
+
+<p>He waved his hand magnanimously. "Sistah Griggs, Sally, whatevah high
+place I may be fo'destined to I shall tek my wife up wid me."</p>
+
+<p>This was enough, and with her hearty yes, the Rev. Mr. Hayward had
+Sister Sally close in his clerical arms. They were not through their
+mutual felicitations, which were indeed so enthusiastic as to drown the
+sound of a knocking at the door and the ominous scraping of feet, when
+the door opened to admit Isaac Middleton, just as the preacher was
+imprinting a very decided kiss upon his fiancee's cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Wha'&mdash;wha'" exclaimed Middleton.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span></p><p>The preacher turned. "Dat you, Isaac?" he said complacently. "You must
+'scuse ouah 'pearance, we des got ingaged."</p>
+
+<p>The fair Sally blushed unseen.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried Isaac. "Ingaged, aftah what I tol' you to-night." His face
+was a thundercloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh."</p>
+
+<p>"An' is dat de way you stan' up fu' fo'destination?"</p>
+
+<p>This time it was the preacher's turn to darken angrily as he replied,
+"Look a-hyeah, Ike Middleton, all I got to say to you is dat whenevah a
+lady cook to please me lak dis lady do, an' whenevah I love one lak I
+love huh, an' she seems to love me back, I's a-gwine to pop de question
+to huh, fo'destination er no fo'destination, so dah!"</p>
+
+<p>The moment was pregnant with tragic possibilities. The lady still stood
+with bowed head, but her hand had stolen into her minister's. Isaac
+paused, and the situation overwhelmed him. Crushed with anger and defeat
+he turned toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>On the threshold he paused again to say, "Well, all I got to say to you,
+Hayward, don' you nevah talk to me no mor' nuffin' 'bout doctrine!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Five</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">OLD ABE'S CONVERSION</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he Negro population of the little Southern town of Danvers was in a
+state of excitement such as it seldom reached except at revivals,
+baptisms, or on Emancipation Day. The cause of the commotion was the
+anticipated return of the Rev. Abram Dixon's only son, Robert, who,
+having taken up his father's life-work and graduated at one of the
+schools, had been called to a city church.</p>
+
+<p>When Robert's ambition to take a college course first became the subject
+of the village gossip, some said that it was an attempt to force
+Providence. If Robert were called to preach, they said, he would be
+endowed with the power from on high, and no intervention of the schools
+was necessary. Abram Dixon himself had at first rather leaned to this
+side of the case. He had expressed his firm belief in the theory that if
+you opened your mouth, the Lord would fill it. As for him, he had no
+thought of what he should say to his people when he rose to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> speak. He
+trusted to the inspiration of the moment, and dashed blindly into
+speech, coherent or otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>Himself a plantation exhorter of the ancient type, he had known no
+school except the fields where he had ploughed and sowed, the woods and
+the overhanging sky. He had sat under no teacher except the birds and
+the trees and the winds of heaven. If he did not fail utterly, if his
+labour was not without fruit, it was because he lived close to nature,
+and so, near to nature's God. With him religion was a matter of emotion,
+and he relied for his results more upon a command of feeling than upon
+an appeal to reason. So it was not strange that he should look upon his
+son's determination to learn to be a preacher as unjustified by the real
+demands of the ministry.</p>
+
+<p>But as the boy had a will of his own and his father a boundless pride in
+him, the day came when, despite wagging heads, Robert Dixon went away to
+be enrolled among the students of a growing college. Since then six
+years had passed. Robert had spent his school vacations in teaching; and
+now, for the first time, he was coming home, a full-fledged minister of
+the gospel.</p>
+
+<p>It was rather a shock to the old man's sensibilities that his son's
+congregation should give him a vacation, and that the young minister
+should accept; but he consented to regard it as of the new order of
+things, and was glad that he was to have his boy with him again,
+although he murmured to himself, as he read his son's letter through his
+bone-bowed spectacles: "Vacation, vacation, an' I wonder ef he reckons
+de devil's goin' to take one at de same time?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a joyous meeting between father and son. The old man held his boy
+off and looked at him with proud eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Robbie," he said, "you&mdash;you's a man!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I'm trying to be, father." The young man's voice was deep,
+and comported well with his fine chest and broad shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"You's a bigger man den yo' father ever was!" said his mother
+admiringly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span></p><p>"Oh, well, father never had the advantage of playing football."</p>
+
+<p>The father turned on him aghast. "Playin' football!" he exclaimed. "You
+don't mean to tell me dat dey 'lowed men learnin' to be preachers to
+play sich games?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, they believe in a sound mind in a sound body, and one seems to
+be as necessary as the other in fighting evil."</p>
+
+<p>Abram Dixon shook his head solemnly. The world was turning upside down
+for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Football!" he muttered, as they sat down to supper.</p>
+
+<p>Robert was sorry that he had spoken of the game, because he saw that it
+grieved his father. He had come intending to avoid rather than to combat
+his parent's prejudices. There was no condescension in his thought of
+them and their ways. They were different; that was all. He had learned
+new ways. They had retained the old. Even to himself he did not say,
+"But my way is the better one."</p>
+
+<p>His father was very full of eager curiosity as to his son's conduct of
+his church, and the son was equally glad to talk of his work, for his
+whole soul was in it.</p>
+
+<p>"We do a good deal in the way of charity work among the churchless and
+almost homeless city children; and, father, it would do your heart good
+if you could only see the little ones gathered together learning the
+first principles of decent living."</p>
+
+<p>"Mebbe so," replied the father doubtfully, "but what you doin' in de way
+of teachin' dem to die decent?"</p>
+
+<p>The son hesitated for a moment, and then he answered gently, "We think
+that one is the companion of the other, and that the best way to prepare
+them for the future is to keep them clean and good in the present."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you give 'em good strong doctern, er do you give 'em milk and
+water?"</p>
+
+<p>"I try to tell them the truth as I see it and believe it. I try to hold
+up before them the right and the good and the clean and beautiful."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p><p>"Humph!" exclaimed the old man, and a look of suspicion flashed across
+his dusky face. "I want you to preach fer me Sunday."</p>
+
+<p>It was as if he had said, "I have no faith in your style of preaching
+the gospel. I am going to put you to the test."</p>
+
+<p>Robert faltered. He knew his preaching would not please his father or
+his people, and he shrank from the ordeal. It seemed like setting them
+all at defiance and attempting to enforce his ideas over their own. Then
+a perception of his cowardice struck him, and he threw off the feeling
+that was possessing him. He looked up to find his father watching him
+keenly, and he remembered that he had not yet answered.</p>
+
+<p>"I had not thought of preaching here," he said, "but I will relieve you
+if you wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"De folks will want to hyeah you an' see what you kin do," pursued his
+father tactlessly. "You know dey was a lot of 'em dat said I oughn't ha'
+let you go away to school. I hope you'll silence 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Robert thought of the opposition his father's friends had shown to his
+ambitions, and his face grew hot at the memory. He felt his entire
+inability to please them now.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, father, that I can silence those who opposed my going
+away or even please those who didn't, but I shall try to please One."</p>
+
+<p>It was now Thursday evening, and he had until Saturday night to prepare
+his sermon. He knew Danvers, and remembered what a chill fell on its
+congregations, white or black, when a preacher appeared before them with
+a manuscript or notes. So, out of concession to their prejudices, he
+decided not to write his sermon, but to go through it carefully and get
+it well in hand. His work was often interfered with by the frequent
+summons to see old friends who stayed long, not talking much, but
+looking at him with some awe and a good deal of contempt. His trial was
+a little sorer than he had expected, but he bore it all with the
+good-natured philosophy which his school life and work in a city had
+taught him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span></p><p>The Sunday dawned, a beautiful, Southern summer morning; the lazy hum of
+the bees and the scent of wild honeysuckle were in the air; the Sabbath
+was full of the quiet and peace of God; and yet the congregation which
+filled the little chapel at Danvers came with restless and turbulent
+hearts, and their faces said plainly: "Rob Dixon, we have not come here
+to listen to God's word. We have come here to put you on trial. Do you
+hear? On trial."</p>
+
+<p>And the thought, "On trial," was ringing in the young minister's mind as
+he rose to speak to them. His sermon was a very quiet, practical one; a
+sermon that sought to bring religion before them as a matter of
+every-day life. It was altogether different from the torrent of speech
+that usually flowed from that pulpit. The people grew restless under
+this spiritual reserve. They wanted something to sanction, something to
+shout for, and here was this man talking to them as simply and quietly
+as if he were not in church.</p>
+
+<p>As Uncle Isham Jones said, "De man never fetched an amen"; and the
+people resented his ineffectiveness. Even Robert's father sat with his
+head bowed in his hands, broken and ashamed of his son; and when,
+without a flourish, the preacher sat down, after talking twenty-two
+minutes by the clock, a shiver of surprise ran over the whole church.
+His father had never pounded the desk for less than an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Disappointment, even disgust, was written on every face. The singing was
+spiritless, and as the people filed out of church and gathered in knots
+about the door, the old-time head-shaking was resumed, and the comments
+were many and unfavourable.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's what his schoolin' done fo' him," said one.</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't nothin' mo'n a lecter," was another's criticism.</p>
+
+<p>"Put him 'side o' his father," said one of the Rev. Abram Dixon's loyal
+members, "and bless my soul, de ol' man would preach all roun' him, and
+he ain't been to no college, neither!"</p>
+
+<p>Robert and his father walked home in silence together. When they were in
+the house, the old man turned to his son and said:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span></p><p>"Is dat de way dey teach you to preach at college?"</p>
+
+<p>"I followed my instructions as nearly as possible, father."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Lawd he'p dey preachin', den! Why, befo' I'd ha' been in dat
+pulpit five minutes, I'd ha' had dem people moanin' an' hollerin' all
+over de church."</p>
+
+<p>"And would they have lived any more cleanly the next day?"</p>
+
+<p>The old man looked at his son sadly, and shook his head as at one of the
+unenlightened.</p>
+
+<p>Robert did not preach in his father's church again before his visit came
+to a close; but before going he said, "I want you to promise me you'll
+come up and visit me, father. I want you to see the work I am trying to
+do. I don't say that my way is best or that my work is a higher work,
+but I do want you to see that I am in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't doubtin' you mean well, Robbie," said his father, "but I guess
+I'd be a good deal out o' place up thaih."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you wouldn't, father. You come up and see me. Promise me."</p>
+
+<p>And the old man promised.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, however, until nearly a year later that the Rev. Abram Dixon
+went up to visit his son's church. Robert met him at the station, and
+took him to the little parsonage which the young clergyman's people had
+provided for him. It was a very simple place, and an aged woman served
+the young man as cook and caretaker; but Abram Dixon was astonished at
+what seemed to him both vainglory and extravagance.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't you livin' kin' o' high fo' yo' raisin', Robbie?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The young man laughed. "If you'd see how some of the people live here,
+father, you'd hardly say so."</p>
+
+<p>Abram looked at the chintz-covered sofa and shook his head at its
+luxury, but Robert, on coming back after a brief absence, found his
+father sound asleep upon the comfortable lounge.</p>
+
+<p>On the next day they went out together to see something of the city. By
+the habit of years, Abram Dixon was an early riser, and his son was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span>
+like him; so they were abroad somewhat before business was astir in the
+town. They walked through the commercial portion and down along the
+wharves and levees. On every side the same sight assailed their eyes:
+black boys of all ages and sizes, the waifs and strays of the city, lay
+stretched here and there on the wharves or curled on doorsills, stealing
+what sleep they could before the relentless day should drive them forth
+to beg a pittance for subsistence.</p>
+
+<p>"Such as these we try to get into our flock and do something for," said
+Robert.</p>
+
+<p>His father looked on sympathetically, and yet hardly with full
+understanding. There was poverty in his own little village, yes, even
+squalour, but he had never seen anything just like this. At home almost
+everyone found some open door, and rare was the wanderer who slept
+out-of-doors except from choice.</p>
+
+<p>At nine o'clock they went to the police court, and the old minister saw
+many of his race appear as prisoners, receiving brief attention and long
+sentences. Finally a boy was arraigned for theft. He was a little,
+wobegone fellow hardly ten years of age. He was charged with stealing
+cakes from a bakery. The judge was about to deal with him as quickly as
+with the others, and Abram's heart bled for the child, when he saw a
+negro call the judge's attention. He turned to find that Robert had left
+his side. There was a whispered consultation, and then the old preacher
+heard with joy, "As this is his first offence and a trustworthy person
+comes forward to take charge of him, sentence upon the prisoner will be
+suspended."</p>
+
+<p>Robert came back to his father holding the boy by the hand, and together
+they made their way from the crowded room.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad! I'm so glad!" said the old man brokenly.</p>
+
+<p>"We often have to do this. We try to save them from the first contact
+with the prison and all that it means. There is no reformatory for black
+boys here, and they may not go to the institutions for the white; so for
+the slightest offence they are sent to jail, where they are placed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> with
+the most hardened criminals. When released they are branded forever, and
+their course is usually downward."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in a low voice, that what he said might not reach the ears of
+the little ragamuffin who trudged by his side.</p>
+
+<p>Abram looked down on the child with a sympathetic heart.</p>
+
+<p>"What made you steal dem cakes?" he asked kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"I was hongry," was the simple reply.</p>
+
+<p>The old man said no more until he had reached the parsonage, and then
+when he saw how the little fellow ate and how tenderly his son
+ministered to him, he murmured to himself, "Feed my lambs"; and then
+turning to his son, he said, "Robbie, dey's some'p'n in 'dis, dey's
+some'p'n in it, I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>That night there was a boy's class in the lower room of Robert Dixon's
+little church. Boys of all sorts and conditions were there, and Abram
+listened as his son told them the old, sweet stories in the simplest
+possible manner and talked to them in his cheery, practical way. The old
+preacher looked into the eyes of the street gamins about him, and he
+began to wonder. Some of them were fierce, unruly-looking youngsters,
+inclined to meanness and rowdyism, but one and all, they seemed under
+the spell of their leader's voice. At last Robert said, "Boys, this is
+my father. He's a preacher, too. I want you to come up and shake hands
+with him." Then they crowded round the old man readily and heartily, and
+when they were outside the church, he heard them pause for a moment, and
+then three rousing cheers rang out with the vociferated explanation,
+"Fo' de minister's pap!"</p>
+
+<p>Abram held his son's hand long that night, and looked with tear-dimmed
+eyes at the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't understan'," he said. "I didn't understan'."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll preach for me Sunday, father?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't daih, honey. I wouldn't daih."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you will, pap."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span></p><p>He had not used the word for a long time, and at sound of it his father
+yielded.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange service that Sunday morning. The son introduced the
+father, and the father, looking at his son, who seemed so short a time
+ago unlearned in the ways of the world, gave as his text, "A little
+child shall lead them."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke of his own conceit and vainglory, the pride of his age and
+experience, and then he told of the lesson he had learned. "Why,
+people," he said, "I feels like a new convert!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a gentler gospel than he had ever preached before, and in the
+congregation there were many eyes as wet as his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Robbie," he said, when the service was over, "I believe I had to come
+up here to be converted." And Robbie smiled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Six</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE RACE QUESTION</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">S</span>cene&mdash;Race track. <i>Enter old coloured man, seating himself.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Oomph, oomph. De work of de devil sho' do p'ospah. How 'do, suh? Des
+tol'able, thankee, suh. How you come on? Oh, I was des a-sayin' how de
+wo'k of de ol' boy do p'ospah. Doesn't I frequent the racetrack? No,
+suh; no, suh. I's Baptis' myse'f, an' I 'low hit's all devil's doin's.
+Wouldn't 'a' be'n hyeah to-day, but I got a boy named Jim dat's long
+gone in sin an' he gwine ride one dem hosses. Oomph, dat boy! I sut'ny
+has talked to him and labohed wid him night an' day, but it was allers
+in vain, an' I's feahed dat de day of his reckonin' is at han'.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't I nevah been intrusted in racin'? Humph, you don't s'pose I been
+dead all my life, does you? What you laffin' at? Oh, scuse me, scuse me,
+you unnerstan' what I means. You don' give a ol' man time to splain
+hisse'f. What I means is dat dey has been days when I walked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> in de
+counsels of de on-gawdly and set in de seats of sinnahs; and long erbout
+dem times I did tek most ovahly strong to racin'.</p>
+
+<p>"How long dat been? Oh, dat's way long back, 'fo' I got religion, mo'n
+thuty years ago, dough I got to own I has fell from grace several times
+sense.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh, I ust to ride. Ki-yi! I nevah furgit de day dat my ol' Mas'
+Jack put me on 'June Boy,' his black geldin', an' say to me, 'Si,' says
+he, 'if you don' ride de tail offen Cunnel Scott's mare, "No Quit," I's
+gwine to larrup you twell you cain't set in de saddle no mo'.' Hyah,
+hyah. My ol' Mas' was a mighty han' fu' a joke. I knowed he wan't gwine
+to do nuffin' to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I win? Why, whut you spec' I's doin' hyeah ef I hadn' winned? W'y,
+ef I'd 'a' let dat Scott maih beat my 'June Boy' I'd 'a' drowned myse'f
+in Bull Skin Crick.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh, I winned; w'y, at de finish I come down dat track lak hit was
+de Jedgment Day an' I was de las' one up! Ef I didn't race dat maih's
+tail clean off, I 'low I made hit do a lot o' switchin'. An' aftah dat
+my wife Mandy she ma'ed me. Hyah, hyah, I ain't bin much on hol'in' de
+reins sence.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh! dey comin' in to wa'm up. Dat Jim, dat Jim, dat my boy; you nasty
+putrid little rascal. Des a hundred an' eight, suh, des a hundred an'
+eight. Yas, suh, dat's my Jim; I don't know whaih he gits his dev'ment
+at.</p>
+
+<p>"What's de mattah wid dat boy? Whyn't he hunch hisse'f up on dat saddle
+right? Jim, Jim, whyn't you limber up, boy; hunch yo'se'f up on dat hoss
+lak you belonged to him and knowed you was dah. What I done showed you?
+De black raskil, goin' out dah tryin' to disgrace his own daddy. Hyeah
+he come back. Dat's bettah, you scoun'ril.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's a right smaht-lookin' hoss he's a-ridin', but I ain't a-trustin'
+dat bay wid de white feet&mdash;dat is, not altogethah. She's a favourwright
+too; but dey's sumpin' else in dis worl' sides playin' favourwrights.
+Jim bettah had win dis race. His hoss ain't a five to one shot, but I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span>
+spec's to go way fum hyeah wid money ernuff to mek a donation on de
+pa'sonage.</p>
+
+<p>"Does I bet? Well, I don' des call hit bettin'; but I resks a little
+w'en I t'inks I kin he'p de cause. 'Tain't gamblin', o' co'se; I
+wouldn't gamble fu nothin', dough my ol' Mastah did ust to say dat a
+honest gamblah was ez good ez a hones' preachah an' mos' nigh ez skace.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out dah, man, dey's off, dat nasty bay maih wid de white feet
+leadin' right fu'm 'de pos'. I knowed it! I knowed it! I had my eye on
+huh all de time. Oh, Jim, Jim, why didn't you git in bettah, way back
+dah fouf? Dah go de gong! I knowed dat wasn't no staht. Troop back dah,
+you raskils, hyah, hyah.</p>
+
+<p>"I wush dat boy wouldn't do so much jummying erroun' wid dat hoss. Fust
+t'ing he know he ain't gwine to know whaih he's at.</p>
+
+<p>"Dah, dah dey go ag'in. Hit's a sho' t'ing dis time. Bettah, Jim,
+bettah. Dey didn't leave you dis time. Hug dat bay mare, hug her close,
+boy. Don't press dat hoss yit. He holdin' back a lot o' t'ings.</p>
+
+<p>"He's gainin'! doggone my cats, he's gainin'! an' dat hoss o' his'n
+gwine des ez stiddy ez a rockin'-chair. Jim allus was a good boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound these spec's, I cain't see 'em skacely; huh, you say dey's
+neck an' neck; now I see 'em! now I see 'em! and Jimmy's a-ridin'
+like&mdash;&mdash;Huh, huh, I laik to said sumpin'.</p>
+
+<p>"De bay maih's done huh bes', she's done huh bes'! Dey's turned into the
+stretch an' still see-sawin'. Let him out, Jimmy, let him out! Dat boy
+done th'owed de reins away. Come on, Jimmy, come on! He's leadin' by a
+nose. Come on, I tell you, you black rapscallion, come on! Give 'em
+hell, Jimmy! give 'em hell! Under de wire an' a len'th ahead. Doggone my
+cats! wake me up w'en dat othah hoss comes in.</p>
+
+<p>"No, suh, I ain't gwine stay no longah, I don't app'ove o' racin', I's
+gwine 'roun' an' see dis hyeah bookmakah an' den I's gwine dreckly home,
+suh, dreckly home. I's Baptis' myse'f, an' I don't app'ove o' no sich
+doin's!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Seven</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">A DEFENDER OF THE FAITH</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>here was a very animated discussion going on, on the lower floor of the
+house Number Ten "D" Street. House Number Ten was the middle one of a
+row of more frames, which formed what was put down on the real estate
+agent's list as a coloured neighbourhood. The inhabitants of the little
+cottages were people so poor that they were constantly staggering on the
+verge of the abyss, which they had been taught to dread and scorn, and
+why, clearly. Life with them was no dream, but a hard, terrible reality,
+which meant increasing struggle, and little wonder then that the
+children of such parents should see the day before Christmas come
+without hope of any holiday cheer.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas; what did it mean to them? The pitiful little dark
+rag-muffins, save that the happy, well-dressed people who passed the
+shanties seemed further away from their life, save that mother toiled
+later in the evening at her work, if there was work, and that father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span>
+drank more gin and prayed louder in consequence; save that, perhaps&mdash;and
+there was always a donation&mdash;that there might be a little increase in
+the amount of cold victuals that big sister brought home, and there
+might be turkey-dressing in it.</p>
+
+<p>But there was a warm discussion in Number Ten, and that is the principal
+thing. The next in importance is that Miss Arabella Coe, reporter, who
+had been down that way looking mainly for a Christmas story, heard the
+sound of voices raised in debate, and paused to listen. It was not a
+very polite thing for Miss Coe to do, but then Miss Coe was a reporter
+and reporters are not scrupulous about being polite when there is
+anything to hear. Besides, the pitch to which the lusty young voices
+within were raised argued that the owners did not care if the outside
+world shared in the conversation. So Arabella listened, and after a
+while she passed through the gate and peeped into the room between the
+broken slats of a shutter.</p>
+
+<p>It was a mean little place, quite what might be expected from its
+exterior. A cook stove sat in the middle of the floor with a smoky fire
+in it, and about it were clustered four or five black children ranging
+from a toddler of two to a boy of ten. They all showed differing degrees
+of dirt and raggedness, but all were far and beyond the point of
+respectability.</p>
+
+<p>One of the group, the older boy, sat upon the bed and was holding forth
+to his brothers and sisters not without many murmurs of doubt and
+disbelief.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he was saying, "I tell you dey hain't no such thing as a Santy
+Claus. Dat's somep'n dat yo' folks jes' git up to make you be good long
+'bout Christmas time. I know."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Tom, you know what mammy said," said a dreamy-eyed little chap,
+who sat on a broken stool with his chin on his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Aw, mammy," said the orator, "she's jes' a-stuffin' you. She don'
+believe in no Santy Claus hersel', less'n why'nt he bring huh de dress
+she prayed fu' last Christmas." He was very wise, this old man of ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span>
+years, and he had sold papers on the avenue where many things are
+learned, both good and bad.</p>
+
+<p>"But what you got to say about pappy?" pursued the believer. "He say
+dey's a Santy Claus, and dat he comes down de chimbly; and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Whut's de mattah wid you; look at dat stove pipe; how you s'pose
+anybody go'n' to git in hyeah th'oo de chimbly?"</p>
+
+<p>They all looked up at the narrow, rusty stove pipe and the sigh of
+hopelessness brought the tears to Arabella's eyes. The children seemed
+utterly nonplussed, and Tom was swelling at his triumph. "How's any
+Santy Claus go'n' to come down th'oo that, I want to know," he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>But the faith of childhood is stronger than reason. Tom's little sister
+piped up, "I don't know how, but he comes th'roo' that away anyhow. He
+brung Mamie Davith a doll and it had thoot on it out o' the chimbly."</p>
+
+<p>It was now Tom's turn to be stumped, but he wouldn't let it be known. He
+only said, "Aw," contemptuously and coughed for more crushing arguments.</p>
+
+<p>"I knows dey's a Santy Claus," said dreamy-eyed Sam.</p>
+
+<p>"Ef dey is why'n't he never come here?" retorted Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"I jes' been thinkin' maybe ouah house is so little he miss it in de
+night; dey says he's a ol' man an' I 'low his sight ain' good."</p>
+
+<p>Tom was stricken into silence for a moment by this entirely new view of
+the matter, and then finding no answer to it, he said "Aw" again and
+looked superior, but warningly so.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe Thanty's white an' don' go to see col'red people," said the
+little girl.</p>
+
+<p>"But I do know coloured people's houses he's been at," contended Sam.
+"Aw, dem col'red folks dat's got the money, dem's de only ones dat Santy
+Claus fin's, you bet."</p>
+
+<p>Arabella at the window shuddered at the tone of the sceptic; it reminded
+her so much of the world she knew, and it was hard to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> believe that her
+friends who prided themselves on their unbelief could have anything in
+common with a little coloured newsboy down on "D" Street.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell you what," said Sam again, "let's try an' see if dey is a Santy.
+We'll put a light in the winder, so if he's ol' he can see us anyhow,
+an' we'll pray right hard fu' him to come."</p>
+
+<p>"Aw," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Ith been good all thish month," chirped the little girl.</p>
+
+<p>The other children joined with enthusiasm in Sam's plan, though Tom sat
+upon the bed and looked scornfully on.</p>
+
+<p>Arabella escaped from the window just as Sam brought the smoky lamp and
+set it on the sill, but she still stood outside the palings of the fence
+and looked in. She saw four little forms get down on their knees and she
+crept up near again to hear.</p>
+
+<p>Following Sam's lead they began, "Oh, Santy," but Tom's voice broke in,
+"Don't you know the Lord don't 'low you to pray to nobody but Him?"</p>
+
+<p>Sam paused, puzzled for a minute, then he led on: "Please 'scuse, good
+Lord, we started wrong, but won't you please, sir, send Santy Clause
+around. Amen." And they got up from their knees satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Aw," said Tom as Arabella was turning wet-eyed away.</p>
+
+<p>It was a good thing the reporter left as soon as she did, for in a few
+minutes a big woman pushed in at the gate and entered the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Mammy, mammy," shrieked the children.</p>
+
+<p>"Lawsy, me," said Martha, laughing, "who evah did see sich children?
+Bless dey hearts, an' dey done sot dey lamp in de winder, too, so's dey
+po' ol' mammy kin see to git in."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke she was taking the lamp away to set it on the table where
+she had placed her basket, but the cry of the children stopped her. "Oh,
+no, mammy, don't take it, don't take it, dat's to light Santy Claus in."</p>
+
+<p>She paused a minute bewildered and then the light broke over her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> face.
+She smiled and then a rush of tears quenched the smile. She gathered the
+children into her arms and said, "I's feared, honey, ol' man Santy ain'
+gwine fu' you to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Wah'd I tell you?" sneered Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"You hush yo' mouf," said his mother, and she left the lamp where it
+was.</p>
+
+<p>As Arabella Coe wended her way home that night her brain was busy with
+many thoughts. "I've got my story at last," she told herself, "and I'll
+go on up and write it." But she did not go up to write it. She came to
+the parting of the ways. One led home, the other to the newspaper office
+where she worked. She laughed nervously, and took the former way. Once
+in her room she went through her small store of savings. There was very
+little there, then she looked down ruefully at her worn boots. She did
+need a new pair. Then, holding her money in her hand, she sat down to
+think.</p>
+
+<p>"It's really a shame," she said to herself, "those children will have no
+Christmas at all, and they'll never believe in Santa Claus again. They
+will lose their faith forever and from this it will go to other things."
+She sat there dreaming for a long while and the vision of a very
+different childhood came before her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear old place," she murmured softly, "I believed in Santa Claus until
+I was thirteen, and that oldest boy is scarcely ten." Suddenly she
+sprung to her feet. "Hooray," she cried, "I'll be defender of the
+faith," and she went out into the lighted streets again.</p>
+
+<p>The shopkeepers looked queerly at Arabella that night as she bought as
+if she were the mother of a large and growing family, and she appeared
+too young for that. Finally, there was a dress for mother.</p>
+
+<p>She carried them down on "D" Street and placed them stealthily at the
+door of Number Ten. She put a note among the things, which read: "I am
+getting old and didn't see your house last year, also I am getting fat
+and couldn't get down that little stove pipe of yours this year. You
+must excuse me. Santa Claus." Then looking wilfully at her shoes, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>
+nevertheless with a glow on her face, she went up to the office to write
+her story.</p>
+
+<p>There were joyous times at Number Ten the next day. Mother was really
+surprised, and the children saw it.</p>
+
+<p>"Wha'd I tell you," said dreamy Sam.</p>
+
+<p>Tom said nothing then, but when he went down to the avenue to sell the
+morning papers, all resplendent in a new muffler, he strode up to a boy
+and remarked belligerently, "Say, if you says de ain't no Santy Claus
+again, I'll punch yo' head."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Eight</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">CAHOOTS</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n the centre of the quaint old Virginia grave-yard stood two monuments
+side by side&mdash;two plain granite shafts exactly alike. On one was
+inscribed the name Robert Vaughan Fairfax and the year 1864. On the
+other was the simple and perplexing inscription, "Cahoots." Nothing
+more.</p>
+
+<p>The place had been the orchard of one of the ante-bellum mansions before
+the dead that were brought back from the terrible field of Malvern Hill
+and laid there had given it a start as a cemetery. Many familiar names
+were chiselled on the granite head-stones, and anyone conversant with
+Virginia genealogy would have known them to belong to some of the best
+families of the Old Dominion. But "Cahoots,"&mdash;who or what was he?</p>
+
+<p>My interest, not to say curiosity, was aroused. There must be a whole
+story in those two shafts with their simple inscriptions, a life-drama<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span>
+or perhaps a tragedy. And who was more likely to know it than the
+postmaster of the quaint little old town. Just after the war, as if
+tired with its exertions to repel the invader, the old place had fallen
+asleep and was still drowsing.</p>
+
+<p>I left the cemetery&mdash;if such it could be called&mdash;and wended my way up
+the main street to the ancient building which did duty as post-office.
+The man in charge, a grizzled old fellow with an empty sleeve, sat
+behind a small screen. He looked up as I entered and put out his hand
+toward the mailboxes, waiting for me to mention my name. But instead I
+said: "I am not expecting any mail. I only wanted to ask a few
+questions."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, what can I do for you?" he asked with some interest.</p>
+
+<p>"I've just been up there walking through the cemetery," I returned, "and
+I am anxious to know the story, if there be one, of two monuments which
+I saw there."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean Fairfax and Cahoots."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a stranger about here, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said again, "and so there is a story?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a story and I'll tell it to you. Come in and sit down." He
+opened a wire door into his little cage, and I seated myself on a stool
+and gave my attention to him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just such a story," he began, "as you can hear in any of the
+Southern States&mdash;wherever there were good masters and faithful slaves.
+This particular tale is a part of our county history, and there ain't
+one of the old residents but could tell it to you word for word and fact
+for fact. In the days before our misunderstanding with the North, the
+Fairfaxes were the leading people in this section. By leading, I mean
+not only the wealthiest, not only the biggest land-owners, but that
+their name counted for more in social circles and political councils
+than any other hereabout. It is natural to expect that such a family
+should wish to preserve its own name down a direct line. So it was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span>
+source of great grief to old Fairfax that his first three children were
+girls, pretty, healthy, plump enough little things, but girls for all
+that, and consequently a disappointment to their father's pride of
+family. When the fourth child came and it proved to be a boy, the
+Fairfax plantation couldn't hold the Fairfax joy and it flowed out and
+mellowed the whole county.</p>
+
+<p>"They do say that Fairfax Fairfax was in one of his further tobacco
+fields when the good news was brought to him, and that after giving
+orders that all the darkies should knock off work and take a holiday, in
+his haste and excitement he jumped down from his horse and ran all the
+way to the house. I give the story only for what it is worth. But if it
+is true, it is the first case of a man of that name and family
+forgetting himself in an emergency.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course, the advent of a young male Fairfax would under any
+circumstances have proven a great event, although it was afterwards
+duplicated, but there would have been no story to tell, there would have
+been no 'Cahoots,' if by some fortuitous circumstance one of the slave
+women had not happened to bring into the world that day and almost at
+the same time that her mistress was introducing young Vaughan Fairfax to
+the light, a little black pickaninny of her own. Well, if you're a
+Southern man, and I take it that you are, you know that nothing ever
+happens in the quarters that the big house doesn't know. So the news was
+soon at the white father's ears and nothing would do him but that the
+black baby must be brought to the house and be introduced to the white
+one. The little black fellow came in all rolled in his bundle of shawls
+and was laid for a few minutes beside his little lord and master. Side
+by side they lay blinking at the light equally strange to both, and then
+the master took the black child's hand and put it in that of the
+white's. With the convulsive gesture common to babyhood the little hands
+clutched in a feeble grasp.</p>
+
+<p>"'Dah now,' old Doshy said&mdash;she was the nurse that had brought the
+pickaninny up&mdash;'dey done tol' each othah howdy.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span></p><p>"'Told each other howdy nothing,' said old Fairfax solemnly, 'they have
+made a silent compact of eternal friendship, and I propose to ratify it
+right here.'</p>
+
+<p>"He was a religious man, and so there with all the darkies clustered
+around in superstitious awe, and with the white face of his wife looking
+at him from among the pillows, he knelt and offered a prayer, and asked
+a blessing upon the two children just come into the world. And through
+it all those diminutive specimens of humanity lay there blinking with
+their hands still clasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they named the white child Robert Vaughan, and they began calling
+the little darky Ben, until an incident in later life gave him the name
+that clung to him till the last, and which the Fairfaxes have had
+chiseled on his tomb-stone.</p>
+
+<p>"The incident occurred when the two boys were about five years old. They
+were as thick as thieves, and two greater scamps and greater cronies
+never tramped together over a Virginia plantation. In the matter of
+deviltry they were remarkably precocious, and it was really wonderful
+what an amount of mischief those two could do. As was natural, the white
+boy planned the deeds, and the black one was his willing coadjutor in
+carrying them out.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile, the proud father was smilingly indulgent to their pranks,
+but even with him the climax was reached when one of his fine young
+hounds was nearly driven into fits by the clatter of a tin can tied to
+its tail. Then the two culprits were summoned to appear before the
+paternal court of inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"They came hand in hand, and with no great show of fear or
+embarrassment. They had gotten off so many times before that they were
+perfectly confident of their power in this case to cajole the judge. But
+to their surprise he was all sternness and severity.</p>
+
+<p>"'Now look here,' he said, after expatiating on the cruel treatment
+which the dog had received. 'I want to know which one of you tied the
+can to Spot's tail?'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span></p><p>"Robert Vaughan looked at Ben, and Ben looked back at him. Silence
+there, and nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you hear my question?' old Fairfax asked with rising voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Robert Vaughan looked straight ahead of him, and Ben dug his big toe
+into the sand at the foot of the veranda, but neither answered.</p>
+
+<p>"'Robert Vaughan Fairfax,' said his father, 'who played that trick on
+Spot? Answer me, do you hear?'</p>
+
+<p>"The Fairfax heir seemed suddenly to have grown deaf and dumb, and the
+father turned to the black boy. His voice took on the tone of command
+which he had hardly used to his son. 'Who played that trick on Spot?
+Answer me, Ben.'</p>
+
+<p>"The little darky dug harder and harder into the sand, and flashed a
+furtive glance from under his brows at his fellow-conspirator. Then he
+drawled out, 'I done it.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You didn't,' came back the instant retort from his young master, 'I
+did it myself.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I done it,' repeated Ben, and 'You didn't,' reiterated his young
+master.</p>
+
+<p>"The father sat and looked on at the dispute, and his mouth twitched
+suspiciously, but he spoke up sternly. 'Well, if I can't get the truth
+out of you this way, I'll try some other plan. Mandy,' he hailed a
+servant, 'put these boys on a diet of bread and water until they are
+ready to answer my questions truthfully.'</p>
+
+<p>"The culprits were led away to their punishment. Of course it would have
+just been meat to Mandy to have stolen something to the youngsters, but
+her master kept such a close eye upon her that she couldn't, and when
+brought back at the end of three hours, their fare had left the
+prisoners rather hungry. But they had evidently disputed the matter
+between themselves, and from the cloud on their faces when they
+reappeared before their stern judge, it was still unsettled.</p>
+
+<p>"To the repetition of the question, Vaughan answered again, 'I did it,'
+and then his father tried Ben again.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span></p><p>"After several efforts, and an imploring glance at his boy master, the
+little black stammered out:</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, I reckon&mdash;I reckon, Mas,' me an' Mas' Vaughan, we done it in
+cahoots.'</p>
+
+<p>"Old Fairfax Fairfax had a keen sense of humour, and as he looked down
+on the strangely old young darky and took in his answer, the
+circumstance became too much for his gravity, and his relaxing laugh
+sent the culprits rolling and tumbling in the sand in an ectasy of
+relief from the strained situation.</p>
+
+<p>"'Cahoots&mdash;I reckon it was "Cahoots,"' the judge said. 'You ought to be
+named that, you little black rascal!' Well, the story got around, and so
+it was, and from that day forth the black boy was 'Cahoots.' Cahoots,
+whether on the plantation, at home, in the halls of the Northern
+College, where he accompanied his young master, or in the tragic moments
+of the great war-drama played out on the field of Malvern.</p>
+
+<p>"As they were in childhood, so, inseparable through youth and young
+manhood, Robert Fairfax and Cahoots grew up. They were together in
+everything, and when the call came that summoned the young Virginian
+from his college to fight for the banner of his State, Cahoots was the
+one who changed from the ease of a gentleman's valet to the hardship of
+a soldier's body-servant.</p>
+
+<p>"The last words Fairfax Fairfax said as his son cantered away in his
+gray suit were addressed to Cahoots: 'Take good care of your Mas'
+Vaughan, Cahoots, and don't come back without him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I won't, Mastah,' Cahoots flung back and galloped after his lifelong
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the war brought hard times both for master and man, and there
+were no flowery beds of ease even for the officers who wore the gray.
+Robert Fairfax took the fortunes of the conflict like a man and a
+Virginia gentleman, and with him Cahoots.</p>
+
+<p>"It was at Malvern Hill that the young Confederate led his troops<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> into
+battle, and all day long the booming of the cannon and the crash of
+musketry rising above the cries of the wounded and dying came to the
+ears of the slave waiting in his tent for his master's return. Then in
+the afternoon a scattered fragment came straggling back into the camp.
+Cahoots went out to meet them. The firing still went on.</p>
+
+<p>"'Whah's Mas' Bob?' his voice pierced through the cannon's thunder.</p>
+
+<p>"'He fell at the front, early in the battle.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Whah's his body den, ef he fell?'</p>
+
+<p>"'We didn't have time to look for dead bodies in that murderous fire. It
+was all we could do to get our living bodies away.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But I promised not to go back without him.' It was a wail of anguish
+from the slave.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, you'll have to.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I won't. Whah did he fall?'</p>
+
+<p>"Someone sketched briefly the approximate locality of Robert Fairfax's
+resting place, and on the final word Cahoots tore away.</p>
+
+<p>"The merciless shot of the Federals was still raking the field. But amid
+it all an old prairie schooner, gotten from God knows where, started out
+from the dismantled camp across the field. 'Some fool going to his
+death,' said one of the gray soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>"A ragged, tattered remnant of the wagon came back. The horses were
+bleeding and staggering in their steps. The very harness was cut by the
+balls that had grazed it. But with a light in his eyes and the look of a
+hero, Cahoots leaped from the tattered vehicle and began dragging out
+the body of his master.</p>
+
+<p>"He had found him far to the front in an abandoned position and brought
+him back over the field of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>"'How did you do it?' They asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"'I jes' had to do it,' he said. 'I promised not to go home widout him,
+and I didn't keer ef I did git killed. I wanted to die ef I couldn't
+find Mas' Bob's body.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span></p><p>"He carried the body home, and mourned at the burial, and a year later
+came back to the regiment with the son who had come after Robert, and
+was now just of fighting age. He went all through this campaign, and
+when the war was over, the two struck away into the mountains. They came
+back after a while, neither one having taken the oath of allegiance, and
+if there were any rebels Cahoots was as great a one to the day of his
+death as his master. That tomb-stone, you see it looks old, was placed
+there at the old master's request when his dead son came home from
+Malvern Hill, for he said when Cahoots went to the other side they must
+not be separated; that accounts for its look of age, but it was not
+until last year that we laid Cahoots&mdash;Cahoots still though an old
+man&mdash;beside his master. And many a man that had owned his people, and
+many another that had fought to continue that ownership, dropped a tear
+on his grave."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Nine</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE PROMOTER</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">E</span>ven as early as September, in the year of 1870, the newly emancipated
+had awakened to the perception of the commercial advantages of freedom,
+and had begun to lay snares to catch the fleet and elusive dollar. Those
+controversialists who say that the Negro's only idea of freedom was to
+live without work are either wrong, malicious, or they did not know
+Little Africa when the boom was on; when every little African, fresh
+from the fields and cabins, dreamed only of untold wealth and of
+mansions in which he would have been thoroughly uncomfortable. These
+were the devil's sunny days, and early and late his mowers were in the
+field. These were the days of benefit societies that only benefited the
+shrewdest man; of mutual insurance associations, of wild building
+companies, and of gilt-edged land schemes wherein the unwary became
+bogged. This also was the day of Mr. Jason Buford, who, having been free
+before the war, knew a thing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> or two, and now had set himself up as a
+promoter. Truly he had profited by the example of the white men for whom
+he had so long acted as messenger and factotum.</p>
+
+<p>As he frequently remarked when for purposes of business he wished to air
+his Biblical knowledge, "I jest takes the Scripter fur my motter an'
+foller that ol' passage where it says, 'Make hay while the sun shines,
+fur the night cometh when no man kin work.'"</p>
+
+<p>It is related that one of Mr. Buford's customers was an old plantation
+exhorter. At the first suggestion of a Biblical quotation the old
+gentleman closed his eyes and got ready with his best amen. But as the
+import of the words dawned on him he opened his eyes in surprise, and
+the amen died a-borning. "But do hit say dat?" he asked earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly does read that way," said the promoter glibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Uh, huh," replied the old man, settling himself back in his chair. "I
+been preachin' dat t'ing wrong fu' mo' dan fo'ty yeahs. Dat's whut comes
+o' not bein' able to read de wo'd fu' yo'se'f."</p>
+
+<p>Buford had no sense of the pathetic or he could never have done what he
+did&mdash;sell to the old gentleman, on the strength of the knowledge he had
+imparted to him, a house and lot upon terms so easy that he might drowse
+along for a little time and then wake to find himself both homeless and
+penniless. This was the promoter's method, and for so long a time had it
+proved successful that he had now grown mildly affluent and had set up a
+buggy in which to drive about and see his numerous purchasers and
+tenants.</p>
+
+<p>Buford was a suave little yellow fellow, with a manner that suggested
+the training of some old Southern butler father, or at least, an
+experience as a likely house-boy. He was polite, plausible, and more
+than all, resourceful. All of this he had been for years, but in all
+these years he had never so risen to the height of his own uniqueness as
+when he conceived and carried into execution the idea of the "Buford
+Colonizing Company."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span></p><p>Humanity has always been looking for an Eldorado, and, however mixed the
+metaphor may be, has been searching for a Moses to lead it thereto.
+Behold, then, Jason Buford in the r&ocirc;le of Moses. And equipped he was to
+carry off his part with the very best advantage, for though he might not
+bring water from the rock, he could come as near as any other man to
+getting blood from a turnip.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty of the man's scheme was that no offering was too small to be
+accepted. Indeed, all was fish that came to his net.</p>
+
+<p>Think of paying fifty cents down and knowing that some time in the dim
+future you would be the owner of property in the very heart of a great
+city where people would rush to buy. It was glowing enough to attract a
+people more worldly wise than were these late slaves. They simply fell
+into the scheme with all their souls; and off their half dollars,
+dollars, and larger sums, Mr. Buford waxed opulent. The land meanwhile
+did not materialise.</p>
+
+<p>It was just at this time that Sister Jane Callender came upon the scene
+and made glad the heart of the new-fledged Moses. He had heard of Sister
+Jane before, and he had greeted her coming with a sparkling of eyes and
+a rubbing of hands that betokened a joy with a good financial basis.</p>
+
+<p>The truth about the newcomer was that she had just about received her
+pension, or that due to her deceased husband, and she would therefore be
+rich, rich to the point where avarice would lie in wait for her.</p>
+
+<p>Sis' Jane settled in Mr. Buford's bailiwick, joined the church he
+attended, and seemed only waiting with her dollars for the very call
+which he was destined to make. She was hardly settled in a little
+three-room cottage before he hastened to her side, kindly intent, or its
+counterfeit, beaming from his features. He found a weak-looking old lady
+propped in a great chair, while another stout and healthy-looking woman
+ministered to her wants or stewed about the house in order to be doing
+something.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span></p><p>"Ah, which&mdash;which is Sis' Jane Callender," he asked, rubbing his hands
+for all the world like a clothing dealer over a good customer.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's Sis' Jane in de cheer," said the animated one, pointing to her
+charge. "She feelin' mighty po'ly dis evenin'. What might be yo' name?"
+She was promptly told.</p>
+
+<p>"Sis' Jane, hyeah one de good brothahs come to see you to offah his
+suvices if you need anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanky, brothah, charity," said the weak voice, "sit yo'se'f down. You
+set down, Aunt Dicey. Tain't no use a runnin' roun' waitin' on me. I
+ain't long fu' dis worl' nohow, mistah."</p>
+
+<p>"Buford is my name an' I came in to see if I could be of any assistance
+to you, a-fixin' up yo' mattahs er seein' to anything for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Hit's mighty kind o' you to come, dough I don' 'low I'll need much
+fixin' fu' now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we hope you'll soon be better, Sistah Callender."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevah no mo', suh, 'til I reach the Kingdom."</p>
+
+<p>"Sis' Jane Callender, she have been mighty sick," broke in Aunt Dicey
+Fairfax, "but I reckon she gwine pull thoo', the Lawd willin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Amen," said Mr. Buford.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh, uh, children, I done hyeahd de washin' of de waters of Jerdon."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Sistah Callendah, we hope to see you well and happy in de
+injoyment of de pension dat I understan' de gov'ment is goin' to give
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"La, chile, I reckon de white folks gwine to git dat money. I ain't
+nevah gwine to live to 'ceive it. Des' aftah I been wo'kin' so long fu'
+it, too."</p>
+
+<p>The small eyes of Mr. Buford glittered with anxiety and avarice. What,
+was this rich plum about to slip from his grasp, just as he was about to
+pluck it? It should not be. He leaned over the old lady with intense
+eagerness in his gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"You must live to receive it," he said, "we need that money for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span>
+race. It must not go back to the white folks. Ain't you got nobody to
+leave it to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a chick ner a chile, 'ceptin' Sis' Dicey Fairfax here."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Buford breathed again. "Then leave it to her, by all means," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"I don' want to have nothin' to do with de money of de daid," said Sis'
+Dicey Fairfax.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't talk dat away, Sis' Dicey," said the sick woman. "Brother
+Buford is right, case you sut'ny has been good to me sence I been layin'
+hyeah on de bed of affliction, an' dey ain't nobody more fitterner to
+have dat money den you is. Ef de Lawd des lets me live long enough, I's
+gwine to mek my will in yo' favoh."</p>
+
+<p>"De Lawd's will be done," replied the other with resignation, and Mr.
+Buford echoed with an "Amen!"</p>
+
+<p>He stayed very long that evening, planning and talking with the two old
+women, who received his words as the Gospel. Two weeks later the
+<i>Ethiopian Banner</i>, which was the organ of Little Africa, announced that
+Sis' Jane Callender had received a back pension which amounted to more
+than five hundred dollars. Thereafter Mr. Buford was seen frequently in
+the little cottage, until one day, after a lapse of three or four weeks,
+a policeman entered Sis' Jane Callender's cottage and led her away
+amidst great excitement to prison. She was charged with pension fraud,
+and against her protestations, was locked up to await the action of the
+Grand Jury.</p>
+
+<p>The promoter was very active in his client's behalf, but in spite of all
+his efforts she was indicted and came up for trial.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great day for the denizens of Little Africa, and they crowded
+the court room to look upon this stranger who had come among them to
+grow so rich, and then suddenly to fall so low.</p>
+
+<p>The prosecuting attorney was a young Southerner, and when he saw the
+prisoner at the bar he started violently, but checked himself. When the
+prisoner saw him, however, she made no effort at self control.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span></p><p>"Lawd o' mussy," she cried, spreading out her black arms, "if it ain't
+Miss Lou's little Bobby."</p>
+
+<p>The judge checked the hilarity of the audience; the prosecutor
+maintained his dignity by main force, and the bailiff succeeded in
+keeping the old lady in her place, although she admonished him: "Pshaw,
+chile, you needn't fool wid me, I nussed dat boy's mammy when she borned
+him."</p>
+
+<p>It was too much for the young attorney, and he would have been less a
+man if it had not been. He came over and shook her hand warmly, and this
+time no one laughed.</p>
+
+<p>It was really not worth while prolonging the case, and the prosecution
+was nervous. The way that old black woman took the court and its
+officers into her bosom was enough to disconcert any ordinary tribunal.
+She patronised the judge openly before the hearing began and insisted
+upon holding a gentle motherly conversation with the foreman of the
+jury.</p>
+
+<p>She was called to the stand as the very first witness.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your name?" asked the attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Bobby, what is you axin' me dat fu'? You know what my name is, and
+you one of de Fairfax fambly, too. I 'low ef yo' mammy was hyeah, she'd
+mek you 'membah; she'd put you in yo' place."</p>
+
+<p>The judge rapped for order.</p>
+
+<p>"That is just a manner of proceeding," he said; "you must answer the
+question, so the rest of the court may know."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, suh, 'scuse me, my name hit's Dicey Fairfax."</p>
+
+<p>The attorney for the defence threw up his hands and turned purple. He
+had a dozen witnesses there to prove that they had known the woman as
+Jane Callender.</p>
+
+<p>"But did you not give your name as Jane Callender?"</p>
+
+<p>"I object," thundered the defence.</p>
+
+<p>"Do, hush, man," Sis' Dicey exclaimed, and then turning to the
+prosecutor, "La, honey, you know Jane Callender ain't my real name,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> you
+knows dat yo'se'f. It's des my bus'ness name. W'y, Sis' Jane Callender
+done daid an' gone to glory too long 'go fu' to talk erbout."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you admit to the court that your name is not Jane Callender?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wha's de use o' my 'mittin', don' you know it yo'se'f, suh? Has I got
+to come hyeah at dis late day an' p'ove my name an' redentify befo' my
+ol' Miss's own chile? Mas' Bob, I nevah did t'ink you'd ac' dat away.
+Freedom sutny has done tuk erway yo' mannahs."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, yes, that's all right, but we want to establish the fact that
+your name is Dicey Fairfax."</p>
+
+<p>"Cose it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor, I object&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor," said Fairfax coldly, "will you grant me the liberty of
+conducting the examination in a way somewhat out of the ordinary lines?
+I believe that my brother for the defence will have nothing to complain
+of. I believe that I understand the situation and shall be able to get
+the truth more easily by employing methods that are not altogether
+technical."</p>
+
+<p>The court seemed to understand a thing or two himself, and overruled the
+defence's objection.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mrs. Fairfax&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Dicey snorted. "Hoomph? What? Mis' Fairfax? What ou say, Bobby
+Fairfax? What you call me dat fu'? My name Aunt Dicey to you an' I want
+you to un'erstan' dat right hyeah. Ef you keep on foolin' wid me, I
+'spec' my patience gwine waih claih out."</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me. Well, Aunt Dicey, why did you take the name of Jane
+Callender if your name is really Dicey Fairfax?"</p>
+
+<p>"W'y, I done tol' you, Bobby, dat Sis' Jane Callender was des' my
+bus'ness name."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how were you to use this business name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was des dis away. Sis' Jane Callender, she gwine git huh
+pension, but la, chile, she tuk down sick unto deaf, an' Brothah<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span>
+Buford, he say dat she ought to mek a will in favoh of somebody, so's de
+money would stay 'mongst ouah folks, an' so, bimeby, she 'greed she mek
+a will."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is Brother Buford, Aunt Dicey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Brothah Buford? Oh, he's de gemman whut come an' offered to 'ten' to
+Sis' Jane Callender's bus'ness fu' huh. He's a moughty clevah man."</p>
+
+<p>"And he told her she ought to make a will?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yas, suh. So she 'greed she gwine mek a will, an' she say to me, 'Sis
+Dicey, you sut'ny has been good to me sence I been layin' hyeah on dis
+bed of 'fliction, an' I gwine will all my proputy to you.' Well, I don't
+want to tek de money, an' she des mos' nigh fo'ce it on me, so I say
+yes, an' Brothah Buford he des sot an' talk to us, an' he say dat he
+come to-morror to bring a lawyer to draw up de will. But bless Gawd,
+honey, Sis' Callender died dat night, an' de will wasn't made, so when
+Brothah Buford come bright an' early next mornin', I was layin' Sis'
+Callender out. Brothah Buford was mighty much moved, he was. I nevah did
+see a strange pusson tek anything so hard in all my life, an' den he
+talk to me, an' he say, 'Now, Sis' Dicey, is you notified any de
+neighbours yit?' an' I said no I hain't notified no one of de
+neighbours, case I ain't 'quainted wid none o' dem yit, an' he say, 'How
+erbout de doctah? Is he 'quainted wid de diseased?' an' I tol' him no,
+he des come in, da's all. 'Well,' he say, 'cose you un'erstan' now dat
+you is Sis' Jane Callender, caise you inhe'it huh name, an' when de
+doctah come to mek out de 'stiffycate, you mus' tell him dat Sis' Dicey
+Fairfax is de name of de diseased, an' it'll be all right, an' aftah dis
+you got to go by de name o' Jane Callender, caise it's a bus'ness name
+you done inhe'it.' Well, dat's whut I done, an' dat's huccome I been
+Jane Callender in de bus'ness 'sactions, an' Dicey Fairfax at home. Now,
+you un'erstan', don't you? It wuz my inhe'ited name."</p>
+
+<p>"But don't you know that what you have done is a penitentiary offence?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span></p><p>"Who you stan'in' up talkin' to dat erway, you nasty impident little
+scoun'el? Don't you talk to me dat erway. I reckon ef yo' mammy was
+hyeah she sut'ny would tend to yo' case. You alluse was sassier an'
+pearter den yo' brother Nelse, an' he had to go an' git killed in de
+wah, an' you&mdash;you&mdash;w'y, jedge, I'se spanked dat boy mo' times den I kin
+tell you fu' hus impidence. I don't see how you evah gits erlong wid
+him."</p>
+
+<p>The court repressed a ripple that ran around. But there was no smile on
+the smooth-shaven, clear-cut face of the young Southerner. Turning to
+the attorney for the defence, he said: "Will you take the witness?" But
+that gentleman, waving one helpless hand, shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"That will do, then," said young Fairfax. "Your Honor," he went on,
+addressing the court, "I have no desire to prosecute this case further.
+You all see the trend of it just as I see, and it would be folly to
+continue the examination of any of the rest of these witnesses. We have
+got that story from Aunt Dicey herself as straight as an arrow from a
+bow. While technically she is guilty; while according to the facts she
+is a criminal according to the motive and the intent of her actions, she
+is as innocent as the whitest soul among us." He could not repress the
+youthful Southerner's love for this little bit of rhetoric.</p>
+
+<p>"And I believe that nothing is to be gained by going further into the
+matter, save for the purpose of finding out the whereabouts of this
+Brother Buford, and attending to his case as the facts warrant. But
+before we do this, I want to see the stamp of crime wiped away from the
+name of my Aunt Dicey there, and I beg leave of the court to enter a
+nolle prosse. There is only one other thing I must ask of Aunt Dicey,
+and that is that she return the money that was illegally gotten, and
+give us information concerning the whereabouts of Buford."</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Dicey looked up in excitement, "W'y, chile, ef dat money was got
+illegal, I don' want it, but I do know whut I gwine to do, cause I done
+'vested it all wid Brothah Buford in his colorednization<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> comp'ny." The
+court drew its breath. It had been expecting some such <i>d&eacute;nouement</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"And where is the office of this company situated?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I des can't tell dat," said the old lady. "W'y, la, man, Brothah
+Buford was in co't to-day. Whaih is he? Brothah Buford, whaih you?" But
+no answer came from the surrounding spectators. Brother Buford had faded
+away. The old lady, however, after due conventions, was permitted to go
+home.</p>
+
+<p>It was with joy in her heart that Aunt Dicey Fairfax went back to her
+little cottage after her dismissal, but her face clouded when soon after
+Robert Fairfax came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Hyeah you come as usual," she said with well-feigned anger. "Tryin' to
+sof' soap me aftah you been carryin' on. You ain't changed one mite fu'
+all yo' bein' a man. What you talk to me dat away in co't fu'?"</p>
+
+<p>Fairfax's face was very grave. "It was necessary, Aunt Dicey," he said.
+"You know I'm a lawyer now, and there are certain things that lawyers
+have to do whether they like it or not. You don't understand. That man
+Buford is a scoundrel, and he came very near leading you into a very
+dangerous and criminal act. I am glad I was near to save you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, honey, chile, I didn't know dat. Set down an' tell me all erbout
+it."</p>
+
+<p>This the attorney did, and the old lady's indignation blazed forth.
+"Well, I hope to de Lawd you'll fin' dat rascal an' larrup him ontwell
+he cain't stan' straight."</p>
+
+<p>"No, we're going to do better than that and a great deal better. If we
+find him we are going to send him where he won't inveigle any more
+innocent people into rascality, and you're going to help us."</p>
+
+<p>"W'y, sut'ny, chile, I'll do all I kin to he'p you git dat rascal, but I
+don't know whaih he lives, case he's allus come hyeah to see me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span></p><p>"He'll come back some day. In the meantime we will be laying for him."</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Dicey was putting some very flaky biscuits into the oven, and
+perhaps the memory of other days made the young lawyer prolong his visit
+and his explanation. When, however, he left, it was with well-laid plans
+to catch Jason Buford napping.</p>
+
+<p>It did not take long. Stealthily that same evening a tapping came at
+Aunt Dicey's door. She opened it, and a small, crouching figure crept
+in. It was Mr. Buford. He turned down the collar of his coat which he
+had had closely up about his face and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, Sis' Callender, you sut'ny have spoiled us all."</p>
+
+<p>"La, Brothah Buford, come in hyeah an' set down. Whaih you been?"</p>
+
+<p>"I been hidin' fu' feah of that testimony you give in the court room.
+What did you do that fu'?"</p>
+
+<p>"La, me, I didn't know, you didn't 'splain to me in de fust."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see, you spoiled it, an' I've got to git out of town as soon
+as I kin. Sis' Callender, dese hyeah white people is mighty slippery,
+and they might catch me. But I want to beg you to go on away from hyeah
+so's you won't be hyeah to testify if dey does. Hyeah's a hundred
+dollars of yo' money right down, and you leave hyeah to-morrer mornin'
+an' go erway as far as you kin git."</p>
+
+<p>"La, man, I's puffectly willin' to he'p you, you know dat."</p>
+
+<p>"Cose, cose," he answered hurriedly, "we col'red people has got to stan'
+together."</p>
+
+<p>"But what about de res' of dat money dat I been 'vestin' wid you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm goin' to pay intrus' on that," answered the promoter glibly.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, all right." Aunt Dicey had made several trips to the little
+back room just off her sitting room as she talked with the promoter.
+Three times in the window had she waved a lighted lamp. Three times
+without success. But at the last "all right," she went into the room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>
+again. This time the waving lamp was answered by the sudden flash of a
+lantern outside.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," she said, as she returned to the room, "set down an' lemme
+fix you some suppah."</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't hardly got the time. I got to git away from hyeah." But the
+smell of the new baked biscuits was in his nostrils and he could not
+resist the temptation to sit down. He was eating hastily, but with
+appreciation, when the door opened and two minions of the law entered.</p>
+
+<p>Buford sprang up and turned to flee, but at the back door, her large
+form a towering and impassive barrier, stood Aunt Dicey.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't hu'y, Brothah Buford," she said calmly, "set down an' he'p
+yo'se'f. Dese hyeah's my friends."</p>
+
+<p>It was the next day that Robert Fairfax saw him in his cell. The man's
+face was ashen with coward's terror. He was like a caught rat though,
+bitingly on the defensive.</p>
+
+<p>"You see we've got you, Buford," said Fairfax coldly to him. "It is as
+well to confess."</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't got nothin' to say," said Buford cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You will have something to say later on unless you say it now. I don't
+want to intimidate you, but Aunt Dicey's word will be taken in any court
+in the United States against yours, and I see a few years hard labour
+for you between good stout walls."</p>
+
+<p>The little promoter showed his teeth in an impotent snarl. "What do you
+want me to do?" he asked, weakening.</p>
+
+<p>"First, I want you to give back every cent of the money that you got out
+of Dicey Fairfax. Second, I want you to give up to every one of those
+Negroes that you have cheated every cent of the property you have
+accumulated by fraudulent means. Third, I want you to leave this place,
+and never come back so long as God leaves breath in your dirty body. If
+you do this, I will save you&mdash;you are not worth the saving&mdash;from the pen
+or worse. If you don't, I will make this place so hot for you that hell
+will seem like an icebox beside it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span></p><p>The little yellow man was cowering in his cell before the attorney's
+indignation. His lips were drawn back over his teeth in something that
+was neither a snarl nor a smile. His eyes were bulging and
+fear-stricken, and his hands clasped and unclasped themselves nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;" he faltered, "do you want to send me out without a cent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Without a cent, without a cent," said Fairfax tensely.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't do it," the rat in him again showed fight. "I won't do it. I'll
+stay hyeah an' fight you. You can't prove anything on me."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, all right," and the attorney turned toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, wait," called the man, "I will do it, my God! I will do it. Jest
+let me out o' hyeah, don't keep me caged up. I'll go away from hyeah."</p>
+
+<p>Fairfax turned back to him coldly, "You will keep your word?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I will return at once and take the confession."</p>
+
+<p>And so the thing was done. Jason Buford, stripped of his ill-gotten
+gains, left the neighbourhood of Little Africa forever. And Aunt Dicey,
+no longer a wealthy woman and a capitalist, is baking golden brown
+biscuits for a certain young attorney and his wife, who has the bad
+habit of rousing her anger by references to her business name and her
+investments with a promoter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Ten</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE WISDOM OF SILENCE</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">J</span>eremiah Anderson was free. He had been free for ten years, and he was
+proud of it. He had been proud of it from the beginning, and that was
+the reason that he was one of the first to cast off the bonds of his old
+relations, and move from the plantation and take up land for himself. He
+was anxious to cut himself off from all that bound him to his former
+life. So strong was this feeling in him that he would not consent to
+stay on and work for his one-time owner even for a full wage.</p>
+
+<p>To the proposition of the planter and the gibes of some of his more
+dependent fellows he answered, "No, suh, I's free, an' I sholy is able
+to tek keer o' myse'f. I done been fattenin' frogs fu' othah people's
+snakes too long now."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Jerry," said Samuel Brabant, "I don't mean you any harm. The
+thing's done. You don't belong to me any more, but naturally, I take an
+interest in you, and want to do what I can to give you a start.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> It's
+more than the Northern government has done for you, although such wise
+men ought to know that you have had no training in caring for
+yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>There was a slight sneer in the Southerner's voice. Jerry perceived it
+and thought it directed against him. Instantly his pride rose and his
+neck stiffened.</p>
+
+<p>"Nemmine me," he answered, "nemmine me. I's free, an' w'en a man's free,
+he's free."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, go your own way. You may have to come back to me some time.
+If you have to come, come. I don't blame you now. It must be a great
+thing to you, this dream&mdash;this nightmare." Jerry looked at him. "Oh, it
+isn't a nightmare now, but some day, maybe, it will be, then come to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>The master turned away from the newly made freeman, and Jerry went forth
+into the world which was henceforth to be his. He took with him his few
+belongings; these largely represented by his wife and four lusty-eating
+children. Besides, he owned a little money, which he had got working for
+others when his master's task was done. Thus, bur'dened and equipped, he
+set out to tempt Fortune.</p>
+
+<p>He might do one of two things&mdash;farm land upon shares for one of his
+short-handed neighbours, or buy a farm, mortgage it, and pay for it as
+he could. As was natural for Jerry, and not uncommendable, he chose at
+once the latter course, bargained for his twenty acres&mdash;for land was
+cheap then, bought his mule, built his cabin, and set up his household
+goods.</p>
+
+<p>Now, slavery may give a man the habit of work, but it cannot imbue him
+with the natural thrift that long years of self-dependence brings. There
+were times when Jerry's freedom tugged too strongly at his easy
+inclination, drawing him away to idle when he should have toiled. What
+was the use of freedom, asked an inward voice, if one might not rest
+when one would? If he might not stop midway the furrow to listen and
+laugh at a droll story or tell one? If he might not go a-fishing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> when
+all the forces of nature invited and the jay-bird called from the tree
+and gave forth saucy banter like the fiery, blue shrew that she was?</p>
+
+<p>There were times when his compunction held Jerry to his task, but more
+often he turned an end furrow and laid his misgivings snugly under it
+and was away to the woods or the creek. There was joy and a loaf for the
+present. What more could he ask?</p>
+
+<p>The first year Fortune laughed at him, and her laugh is very different
+from her smile. She sent the swift rains to wash up the new planted
+seed, and the hungry birds to devour them. She sent the fierce sun to
+scorch the young crops, and the clinging weeds to hug the fresh
+greenness of his hope to death. She sent&mdash;cruellest jest of all&mdash;another
+baby to be fed, and so weakened Cindy Ann that for many days she could
+not work beside her husband in the fields.</p>
+
+<p>Poverty began to teach the unlessoned delver in the soil the thrift
+which he needed; but he ended his first twelve months with barely enough
+to eat, and nothing paid on his land or his mule. Broken and
+discouraged, the words of his old master came to him. But he was proud
+with an obstinate pride and he shut his lips together so that he might
+not groan. He would not go to his master. Anything rather than that.</p>
+
+<p>In that place sat certain beasts of prey, dealers, and lenders of money,
+who had their lairs somewhere within the boundaries of that wide and
+mysterious domain called The Law. They had their risks to run, but so
+must all beasts that eat flesh or drink blood. To them went Jerry, and
+they were kind to him. They gave him of their store. They gave him food
+and seed, but they were to own all that they gave him from what he
+raised, and they were to take their toll first from the new crops.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the black had been warned against these same beasts, for others had
+fallen a prey to them even in so short a time as their emancipation
+measured, and they saw themselves the re-manacled slaves of a hopeless
+and ever-growing debt, but Jerry would not be warned. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> chewed the
+warnings like husks between his teeth, and got no substance from them.</p>
+
+<p>Then, Fortune, who deals in surprises, played him another trick. She
+smiled upon him. His second year was better than his first, and the
+brokers swore over his paid up note. Cindy Ann was strong again and the
+oldest boy was big enough to help with the work.</p>
+
+<p>Samuel Brabant was displeased, not because he felt any malice toward his
+former servant, but for the reason that any man with the natural amount
+of human vanity must feel himself agrieved just as his cherished
+prophecy is about to come true. Isaiah himself could not have been above
+it. How much less, then, the uninspired Mr. Brabant, who had his "I told
+you so," all ready. He had been ready to help Jerry after giving him
+admonitions, but here it was not needed. An unused "I told you so,"
+however kindly, is an acid that turns the milk of human kindness sour.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry went on gaining in prosperity. The third year treated him better
+than the second, and the fourth better than the third. During the fifth
+he enlarged his farm and his house and took pride in the fact that his
+oldest boy, Matthew, was away at school. By the tenth year of his
+freedom he was arrogantly out of debt. Then his pride was too much for
+him. During all these years of his struggle the words of his master had
+been as gall in his mouth. Now he spat them out with a boast. He talked
+much in the market-place, and where many people gathered, he was much
+there, giving himself as a bright and shining example.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh," he would chuckle to any listeners he could find, "Ol' Mas'
+Brabant, he say, 'Stay hyeah, stay hyeah, you do' know how to tek keer
+o' yo'se'f yit.' But I des' look at my two han's an' I say to myse'f,
+whut I been doin' wid dese all dese yeahs&mdash;tekin' keer o' myse'f an'
+him, too. I wo'k in de fiel', he set in de big house an' smoke. I wo'k
+in de fiel', his son go away to college an' come back a graduate. Das
+hit. Well, w'en freedom come, I des' bent an' boun' I ain' gwine do it
+no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> mo' an' I didn't. Now look at me. I sets down w'en I wants to. I
+does my own wo'kin' an' my own smokin'. I don't owe a cent, an' dis yeah
+my boy gwine graduate f'om de school. Dat's me, an' I ain' called on ol'
+Mas' yit."</p>
+
+<p>Now, an example is always an odious thing, because, first of all, it is
+always insolent even when it is bad, and there were those who listened
+to Jerry who had not been so successful as he, some even who had stayed
+on the plantation and as yet did not even own the mule they ploughed
+with. The hearts of those were filled with rage and their mouths with
+envy. Some of the sting of the latter got into their retelling of
+Jerry's talk and made it worse than it was.</p>
+
+<p>Old Samuel Brabant laughed and said, "Well, Jerry's not dead yet, and
+although I don't wish him any harm, my prophecy might come true yet."</p>
+
+<p>There were others who, hearing, did not laugh, or if they did, it was
+with a mere strained thinning of the lips that had no element of mirth
+in it. Temper and tolerance were short ten years after sixty-three.</p>
+
+<p>The foolish farmer's boastings bore fruit, and one night when he and his
+family had gone to church he returned to find his house and barn in
+ashes, his mules burned and his crop ruined. It had been very quietly
+done and quickly. The glare against the sky had attracted few from the
+nearby town, and them too late to be of service.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry camped that night across the road from what remained of his former
+dwelling. Cindy Ann and the children, worn out and worried, went to
+sleep in spite of themselves, but he sat there all night long, his chin
+between his knees, gazing at what had been his pride.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the beasts lay in wait for him again, and when he came to them
+they showed their fangs in greeting. And the velvet was over their
+claws. He had escaped them before. He had impugned their skill in the
+hunt, and they were ravenous for him. Now he was fatter, too. He went
+away from them with hard terms, and a sickness at his heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> But he had
+not said "Yes" to the terms. He was going home to consider the almost
+hopeless conditions under which they would let him build again.</p>
+
+<p>They were staying with a neighbour in town pending his negotiations and
+thither he went to ponder on his circumstances. Then it was that Cindy
+Ann came into the equation. She demanded to know what was to be done and
+how it was to be gone about.</p>
+
+<p>"But Cindy Ann, honey, you do' know nuffin' 'bout bus'ness."</p>
+
+<p>"T'ain't whut I knows, but whut I got a right to know," was her
+response.</p>
+
+<p>"I do' see huccome you got any right to be a-pryin' into dese hyeah
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"I's got de same right I had to w'ok an' struggle erlong an' he'p you
+get whut we's done los'."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry winced and ended by telling her all.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat ain't nuffin' but owdacious robbery," said Cindy Ann. "Dem people
+sees dat you got a little some'p'n, an' dey ain't gwine stop ontwell
+dey's bu'nt an' stoled evah blessed cent f'om you. Je'miah, don't you
+have nuffin' mo' to do wid 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"I got to, Cindy Ann."</p>
+
+<p>"Whut fu' you got to?"</p>
+
+<p>"How I gwine buil' a cabin an' a ba'n an' buy a mule less'n I deal wid
+'em?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dah's Mas' Sam Brabant. He'd he'p you out."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry rose up, his eyes flashing fire. "Cindy Ann," he said, "you a
+fool, you ain't got no mo' pride den a guinea hen, an' you got a heap
+less sense. W'y, befo' I go to ol' Mas' Sam Brabant fu' a cent, I'd
+sta've out in de road."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" said Cindy Ann, shutting her mouth on her impatience.</p>
+
+<p>One gets tired of thinking and saying how much more sense a woman has
+than a man when she comes in where his sense stops and his pride
+begins.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span></p><p>With the recklessness of despair Jerry slept late that next morning, but
+he might have awakened early without spoiling his wife's plans. She was
+up betimes, had gone on her mission and returned before her spouse
+awoke.</p>
+
+<p>It was about ten o'clock when Brabant came to see him. Jerry grew sullen
+at once as his master approached, but his pride stiffened. This white
+man should see that misfortune could not weaken him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Jerry," said his former master, "you would not come to me, eh, so
+I must come to you. You let a little remark of mine keep you from your
+best friend, and put you in the way of losing the labour of years."</p>
+
+<p>Jerry made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"You've proved yourself able to work well, but Jerry," pausing, "you
+haven't yet shown that you're able to take care of yourself, you don't
+know how to keep your mouth shut."</p>
+
+<p>The ex-slave tried to prove this a lie by negative pantomime.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to lend you the money to start again."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you will, if you don't, I'll lend it to Cindy Ann, and let her
+build in her own name. She's got more sense than you, and she knows how
+to keep still when things go well."</p>
+
+<p>"Mas' Sam," cried Jerry, rising quickly, "don' len' dat money to Cindy
+Ann. W'y ef a ooman's got anything she nevah lets you hyeah de las' of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you take it, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh; yes, suh, an' thank 'e, Mas' Sam." There were sobs some place
+back in his throat. "An' nex' time ef I evah gets a sta't agin, I'll
+keep my mouf shet. Fac' is, I'll come to you, Mas' Sam, an' borry fu' de
+sake o' hidin'."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Eleven</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE TRIUMPH OF OL' MIS' PEASE</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">B</span>etween the two women, the feud began in this way: When Ann Pease
+divorced her handsome but profligate spouse, William, Nancy Rogers had,
+with reprehensible haste, taken him for better or for worse. Of course,
+it proved for worse, but Ann Pease had never forgiven her.</p>
+
+<p>"'Pears lak to me," she said, "dat she was des a-waitin' fu' to step
+inter my shoes, no mattah how I got outen 'em, whethah I died or
+divo'ced."</p>
+
+<p>It was in the hey-day of Nancy Rogers' youth, and she was still
+hot-tempered, so she retorted that "Ann Pease sut'ny did unmind huh' o'
+de dawg in de mangah." The friends of the two women took sides, and a
+war began which waged hotly between them&mdash;a war which for the first few
+weeks threatened the unity of Mt. Pisgah Church.</p>
+
+<p>But the church in all times has been something of a selfish institution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span>
+and has known how to take care of itself. Now, Mt. Pisgah, of necessity,
+must recognise divorce, and of equal necessity, re-marriage. So when the
+Rev. Isaiah Johnson had been appealed to, he had spread his fat hands,
+closed his eyes and said solemnly, "Whom God hath j'ined, let no man put
+asundah;" peace, or at best, apparent peace, settled upon the troubled
+waters.</p>
+
+<p>The solidity of Mt. Pisgah was assured, the two factions again spoke to
+each other, both gave collections on the same Sunday; but between the
+two principals there was no abatement of their relentless animosity.</p>
+
+<p>Ann Pease as it happened was a "puffessor," while the new Mrs. Pease was
+out of the fold; a gay, frivolous person who had never sought or found
+grace. She laughed when a black wag said of the two that "they might
+bofe be 'peas,' but dey wasn't out o' de same pod." But on its being
+repeated to Sister Pease, she resented it with Christian indignation,
+sniffed and remarked that "Ef Wi'yum choosed to pick out one o' de
+onregenerate an' hang huh ez a millstone erroun' his neck, it wasn't
+none o' huh bus'ness what happened to him w'en dey pulled up de tares
+f'om de wheat."</p>
+
+<p>There were some ultra-malicious ones who said that Sister Pease, seeing
+her former husband in the possession of another, had begun to regret her
+step, for the unregenerate William was good-looking after all, and the
+"times" that he and his equally sinful wife had together were the wonder
+and disgust, the envy and horror of the whole community, who watched
+them with varying moods of eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>Sister Ann Pease went her way apparently undisturbed. Religion has an
+arrogance of its own, and when at the end of the year the good widow
+remained unmarried she could toss her head, go her way, and look down
+from a far height upon the "po' sinnahs"; indeed, she had rather the
+better of her frailer sister in the sympathies of the people.</p>
+
+<p>As one sister feelingly remarked, "Dat ooman des baihin' dat man in huh
+prayahs, an' I 'low she'll mou'n him into glory yit."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span></p><p>One year of married life disillusions, and defiant gaiety cannot live
+upon itself when admiration fails. There is no reward in being daring
+when courage becomes commonplace. The year darkened to winter, and
+bloomed to spring again. The willows feathered along the river banks,
+and the horse-chestnuts budded and burst into beautiful life. Then came
+summer, rejoicing, with arms full of flowers, and autumn with lap full
+of apples and grain, then winter again, and all through the days Nancy
+danced and was gay, but there was a wistfulness in her eyes, and the tug
+of the baby no longer drew her heart. She had come to be "Wi'yum's
+Nancy," while the other, <i>that</i> other was still "Sister Pease," who sat
+above her in the high places of the people's hearts.</p>
+
+<p>And then, oh, blessedness of the winter, the revival came; and both she
+and William, strangely stricken together with the realisation of their
+sins, fell at the mercy seat.</p>
+
+<p>"There is more joy over one sinner that repenteth,"&mdash;but when Will and
+Nancy both "came through" on the same night&mdash;well, Mt. Pisgah's walls
+know the story.</p>
+
+<p>There was triumph in Nancy's face as she proclaimed her conversion, and
+the first person she made for was Sister Pease. She shook her hands and
+embraced her, crying ever aloud between the vociferations of the
+congregation, "Oh, sistah, he'p me praise Him, he'p me praise Him," and
+the elder woman in the cause caught the infection of the moment and
+joined in the general shout.</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards she was not pleased with herself. But then if she hadn't
+shouted, wouldn't it have been worse?</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Isaiah was nothing if not dramatic in his tendencies, and on
+the day when he was to receive William and Nancy Pease into full
+membership with the church, it struck him that nothing could make upon
+his congregation a profounder impression for good than to have the two
+new Peases joined by the elder one, or as the wag would have put it, all
+in one pod. And it was so ordered, and the thing was done.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that the preacher had to labour some with Sister Ann<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> Pease,
+but when he showed her how it was her Christian duty, and if she failed
+of it her rival must advance before her in public opinion, she
+acquiesced. It was an easier matter with "Sister Wi'yum Pease." She
+agreed readily, for she was filled with condescending humility, which on
+every occasion she took the opportunity of displaying toward her rival.</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Isaiah Johnson only made one mistake in his diplomatic
+man&#339;uvring. That was when he whispered to Sister Ann Pease, "Didn't I
+tell you? Des see how easy Sister Wi'yum give in." He was near to losing
+his cause and the wind was completely taken out of his sails when the
+widow replied with a snort, "Give in, my Lawd! Dat ooman's got a right
+to give in; ain't she got 'uligion an' de man, too?"</p>
+
+<p>However, the storm blew over, and by the time service was begun they
+were all seated together on a front bench, Sister Nancy, William, and
+Sister Ann.</p>
+
+<p>Now was the psychological moment, and after a soul-stirring hymn the
+preacher rose and announced his text&mdash;"Behold how good and how pleasant
+it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."</p>
+
+<p>Someone in the back part of the church suggested trinity as a substitute
+and started a titter, but the preacher had already got his dramatic
+momentum, and was sweeping along in a tumultuous tide of oratory. Right
+at his three victims did he aim his fiery eloquence, and ever and again
+he came back to his theme, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for
+brethren to dwell together in unity," even though Ann Pease had turned
+her back on William, whose head was low bowed, and Nancy was
+ostentatiously weeping into a yellow silk handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>The sermon spurred on to a tempestuous close, and then came the climax
+when the doors of the church were opened. William and Nancy immediately
+went up to end their probation, and after a few whispered remarks the
+minister shook hands with each of them, then raising his voice he said:
+"Now, brothahs and sistahs, befo' you all gives dese<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> lambs de right
+han' o' fellowship to welcome dem to de fol', I want Sister Ann Pease to
+come up an' be de first to bid 'em God speed on the gospel way." Ann
+Pease visibly swelled, but she marched up, and without looking at
+either, shook hands with each of her enemies.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallelujah, praise de Lord," shouted the preacher, clapping his hands,
+"Behold how good and how pleasant it is; and now let the congregation in
+gineral come aroun' and welcome Brothah and Sistah Pease."</p>
+
+<p>His rich bass voice broke into "Bless Be the Tie that Binds," and as the
+volume of the hymn, swelled by the full chorus of the congregation,
+rolled away to the rafters of the little church, the people rose and
+marched solemnly round, shaking hands with the new members and with each
+other.</p>
+
+<p>Brother and Sister Pease were the last to leave church that day, but
+they found Ann waiting for them at the door. She walked straight up to
+them and spoke: "Nancy Rogers," she said, "I know you; I kin see claih
+thoo you, and you ain't a foolin' me one bit. All I got to say is dat I
+has done my Christian duty, an' I ain't gwine do no mo', so don' you
+speak to me fo'm dis day out."</p>
+
+<p>For the brief space of a second there was something like a gleam in
+Nancy's eyes, but she replied in all meekness, "I's a full-blown
+Christian now, an' I feel it my bounden duty to speak to you, Sis'
+Pease, an' I's gwine t' speak."</p>
+
+<p>Ignoring this defiance the other woman turned to her former husband. She
+looked at him with unveiled contempt, then she said slowly, "An' ez fu'
+Wi'yum, Gawd he'p you."</p>
+
+<p>Here all intercourse between these warring spirits might have ended but
+for Nancy Pease's persistent civility. She would speak to her rival on
+every occasion, and even call upon her if she could gain admittance to
+the house. And now the last drop of bitterness fell into the widow's
+cup, for the community, to distinguish between them, began calling her
+"Ol' Sis' Pease." This was the climax of her sorrows, and she who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> had
+been so devout came no more to the church; she who had been so cheerful
+and companionable grew morose and sour and shut her doors against her
+friends. She was as one dead to her old world. The one bit of vivid life
+about her was her lasting hatred of the woman who bore her name. In vain
+the preacher sought to break down the barrier of her animosity. She had
+built it of adamant, and his was a losing fight. So for several years
+the feud went on, and those who had known Ann in her cheerier days
+forgot that knowledge and spoke of her with open aversion as "dat awful
+ol' Mis' Pease." The while Nancy, in spite of "Wi'yum's" industrial
+vagaries, had flourished and waxed opulent. She continued to flaunt her
+Christian humility in the eyes of her own circle, and to withhold her
+pity from the poor, lonely old woman whom hate had made bitter and to
+whom the world, after all, had not been over-kind. But prosperity is
+usually cruel, and one needs the prick of the thorn one's self to know
+how it stings his brother.</p>
+
+<p>She was startled one day, however, out of her usual placidity. Sister
+Martin, one of her neighbours, dropped in and settling herself with a
+sigh announced the important news, "Well, bless Gawd, ol' Sis' Pease is
+gone at last."</p>
+
+<p>Nancy dropped the plate she had been polishing, and unheeded, it smashed
+into bits on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Wha'&mdash;what!" she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm," Sister Martin assured her, "de ol' lady done passed away."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know she was sick; w'en she die?"</p>
+
+<p>"She done shet huh eyes on dis worl' o' sorror des a few minutes ago.
+She ain't bin sick mo'n two days."</p>
+
+<p>Nancy had come to herself now, and casting her eyes up in an excess of
+Christian zeal, she said: "Well, she wouldn't let me do nuffin' fu' huh
+in life, but I sut'ny shell try to do my duty by huh in death," and
+drying her hands and throwing a shawl over her head, she hastened over
+to her dead enemy's house.</p>
+
+<p>The news had spread quickly and the neighbourhood had just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> begun to
+gather in the little room which held the rigid form. Nancy entered and
+made her way through the group about the bed, waving the others aside
+imperiously.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my Christian duty," she said solemnly, "to lay Sis' Pease out,
+an' I's gwine do it." She bent over the bed. Now there are a dozen
+truthful women who will vouch for the truth of what happened. When Nancy
+leaned over the bed, as if in obedience to the power of an electric
+shock, the corpse's eyes flew open, Ann Pease rose up in bed and
+pointing a trembling finger at her frightened namesake exclaimed: "Go
+'way f'om me, Nancy Rogers, don't you daih to tech me. You ain't got de
+come-uppance of me yit. Don't you daih to lay me out."</p>
+
+<p>Most of this remark, it seems, fell on empty air, for the room was
+cleared in a twinkling. Women holding high numerous skirts over their
+heavy shoes fled in a panic, and close in their wake panted Nancy Pease.</p>
+
+<p>There have been conflicting stories about the matter, but there are
+those who maintain that after having delivered her ultimatum, old Mis'
+Pease immediately resumed the natural condition of a dead person. In
+fact there was no one there to see, and the old lady did not really die
+until night, and when they found her, there was a smile of triumph on
+her face.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy did not help to lay her out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Twelve</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE LYNCHING OF JUBE BENSON</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">G</span>ordon Fairfax's library held but three men, but the air was dense with
+clouds of smoke. The talk had drifted from one topic to another much as
+the smoke wreaths had puffed, floated, and thinned away. Then Handon
+Gay, who was an ambitious young reporter, spoke of a lynching story in a
+recent magazine, and the matter of punishment without trial put new life
+into the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to see a real lynching," said Gay rather callously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I should hardly express it that way," said Fairfax, "but if a
+real, live lynching were to come my way, I should not avoid it."</p>
+
+<p>"I should," spoke the other from the depths of his chair, where he had
+been puffing in moody silence. Judged by his hair, which was freely
+sprinkled with gray, the speaker might have been a man of forty-five or
+fifty, but his face, though lined and serious, was youthful, the face of
+a man hardly past thirty.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span></p><p>"What, you, Dr. Melville? Why, I thought that you physicians wouldn't
+weaken at anything."</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen one such affair," said the doctor gravely, "in fact, I took
+a prominent part in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us about it," said the reporter, feeling for his pencil and
+notebook, which he was, nevertheless, careful to hide from the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>The men drew their chairs eagerly up to the doctor's, but for a minute
+he did not seem to see them, but sat gazing abstractedly into the fire,
+then he took a long draw upon his cigar and began:</p>
+
+<p>"I can see it all very vividly now. It was in the summer time and about
+seven years ago. I was practising at the time down in the little town of
+Bradford. It was a small and primitive place, just the location for an
+impecunious medical man, recently out of college.</p>
+
+<p>"In lieu of a regular office, I attended to business in the first of two
+rooms which I rented from Hiram Daly, one of the more prosperous of the
+townsmen. Here I boarded and here also came my patients&mdash;white and
+black&mdash;whites from every section, and blacks from 'nigger town,' as the
+west portion of the place was called.</p>
+
+<p>"The people about me were most of them coarse and rough, but they were
+simple and generous, and as time passed on I had about abandoned my
+intention of seeking distinction in wider fields and determined to
+settle into the place of a modest country doctor. This was rather a
+strange conclusion for a young man to arrive at, and I will not deny
+that the presence in the house of my host's beautiful young daughter,
+Annie, had something to do with my decision. She was a beautiful young
+girl of seventeen or eighteen, and very far superior to her
+surroundings. She had a native grace and a pleasing way about her that
+made everybody that came under her spell her abject slave. White and
+black who knew her loved her, and none, I thought, more deeply and
+respectfully than Jube Benson, the black man of all work about the
+place.</p>
+
+<p>"He was a fellow whom everybody trusted; an apparently steady-going,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span>
+grinning sort, as we used to call him. Well, he was completely under
+Miss Annie's thumb, and would fetch and carry for her like a faithful
+dog. As soon as he saw that I began to care for Annie, and anybody could
+see that, he transferred some of his allegiance to me and became my
+faithful servitor also. Never did a man have a more devoted adherent in
+his wooing than did I, and many a one of Annie's tasks which he
+volunteered to do gave her an extra hour with me. You can imagine that I
+liked the boy and you need not wonder any more that as both wooing and
+my practice waxed apace, I was content to give up my great ambitions and
+stay just where I was.</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't a very pleasant thing, then, to have an epidemic of typhoid
+break out in the town that kept me going so that I hardly had time for
+the courting that a fellow wants to carry on with his sweetheart while
+he is still young enough to call her his girl. I fumed, but duty was
+duty, and I kept to my work night and day. It was now that Jube proved
+how invaluable he was as a coadjutor. He not only took messages to
+Annie, but brought sometimes little ones from her to me, and he would
+tell me little secret things that he had overheard her say that made me
+throb with joy and swear at him for repeating his mistress'
+conversation. But best of all, Jube was a perfect Cerberus, and no one
+on earth could have been more effective in keeping away or deluding the
+other young fellows who visited the Dalys. He would tell me of it
+afterwards, chuckling softly to himself. 'An,' Doctah, I say to Mistah
+Hemp Stevens, "'Scuse us, Mistah Stevens, but Miss Annie, she des gone
+out," an' den he go outer de gate lookin' moughty lonesome. When Sam
+Elkins come, I say, "Sh, Mistah Elkins, Miss Annie, she done tuk down,"
+an' he say, "What, Jube, you don' reckon hit de&mdash;&mdash;" Den he stop an'
+look skeert, an' I say, "I feared hit is, Mistah Elkins," an' sheks my
+haid ez solemn. He goes outer de gate lookin' lak his bes' frien' done
+daid, an' all de time Miss Annie behine de cu'tain ovah de po'ch des' a
+laffin' fit to kill.'</p>
+
+<p>"Jube was a most admirable liar, but what could I do? He knew that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> I
+was a young fool of a hypocrite, and when I would rebuke him for these
+deceptions, he would give way and roll on the floor in an excess of
+delighted laughter until from very contagion I had to join him&mdash;and,
+well, there was no need of my preaching when there had been no beginning
+to his repentance and when there must ensue a continuance of his
+wrong-doing.</p>
+
+<p>"This thing went on for over three months, and then, pouf! I was down
+like a shot. My patients were nearly all up, but the reaction from
+overwork made me an easy victim of the lurking germs. Then Jube loomed
+up as a nurse. He put everyone else aside, and with the doctor, a friend
+of mine from a neighbouring town, took entire charge of me. Even Annie
+herself was put aside, and I was cared for as tenderly as a baby. Tom,
+that was my physician and friend, told me all about it afterward with
+tears in his eyes. Only he was a big, blunt man and his expressions did
+not convey all that he meant. He told me how my nigger had nursed me as
+if I were a sick kitten and he my mother. Of how fiercely he guarded his
+right to be the sole one to 'do' for me, as he called it, and how, when
+the crisis came, he hovered, weeping, but hopeful, at my bedside, until
+it was safely passed, when they drove him, weak and exhausted, from the
+room. As for me, I knew little about it at the time, and cared less. I
+was too busy in my fight with death. To my chimerical vision there was
+only a black but gentle demon that came and went, alternating with a
+white fairy, who would insist on coming in on her head, growing larger
+and larger and then dissolving. But the pathos and devotion in the story
+lost nothing in my blunt friend's telling.</p>
+
+<p>"It was during the period of a long convalescence, however, that I came
+to know my humble ally as he really was, devoted to the point of
+abjectness. There were times when for very shame at his goodness to me,
+I would beg him to go away, to do something else. He would go, but
+before I had time to realise that I was not being ministered to, he
+would be back at my side, grinning and pottering just the same. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span>
+manufactured duties for the joy of performing them. He pretended to see
+desires in me that I never had, because he liked to pander to them, and
+when I became entirely exasperated, and ripped out a good round oath, he
+chuckled with the remark, 'Dah, now, you sholy is gittin' well. Nevah
+did hyeah a man anywhaih nigh Jo'dan's sho' cuss lak dat.'</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I grew to love him, love him, oh, yes, I loved him as well&mdash;oh,
+what am I saying? All human love and gratitude are damned poor things;
+excuse me, gentlemen, this isn't a pleasant story. The truth is usually
+a nasty thing to stand.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not six months after that that my friendship to Jube, which he
+had been at such great pains to win, was put to too severe a test.</p>
+
+<p>"It was in the summer time again, and as business was slack, I had
+ridden over to see my friend, Dr. Tom. I had spent a good part of the
+day there, and it was past four o'clock when I rode leisurely into
+Bradford. I was in a particularly joyous mood and no premonition of the
+impending catastrophe oppressed me. No sense of sorrow, present or to
+come, forced itself upon me, even when I saw men hurrying through the
+almost deserted streets. When I got within sight of my home and saw a
+crowd surrounding it, I was only interested sufficiently to spur my
+horse into a jog trot, which brought me up to the throng, when something
+in the sullen, settled horror in the men's faces gave me a sudden, sick
+thrill. They whispered a word to me, and without a thought, save for
+Annie, the girl who had been so surely growing into my heart, I leaped
+from the saddle and tore my way through the people to the house.</p>
+
+<p>"It was Annie, poor girl, bruised and bleeding, her face and dress torn
+from struggling. They were gathered round her with white faces, and, oh,
+with what terrible patience they were trying to gain from her fluttering
+lips the name of her murderer. They made way for me and I knelt at her
+side. She was beyond my skill, and my will merged with theirs. One
+thought was in our minds.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span></p><p>"'Who?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Her eyes half opened, 'That black&mdash;&mdash;' She fell back into my arms dead.</p>
+
+<p>"We turned and looked at each other. The mother had broken down and was
+weeping, but the face of the father was like iron.</p>
+
+<p>"'It is enough,' he said; 'Jube has disappeared.' He went to the door
+and said to the expectant crowd, 'She is dead.'</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the angry roar without swelling up like the noise of a flood,
+and then I heard the sudden movement of many feet as the men separated
+into searching parties, and laying the dead girl back upon her couch, I
+took my rifle and went out to join them.</p>
+
+<p>"As if by intuition the knowledge had passed among the men that Jube
+Benson had disappeared, and he, by common consent, was to be the object
+of our search. Fully a dozen of the citizens had seen him hastening
+toward the woods and noted his skulking air, but as he had grinned in
+his old good-natured way they had, at the time, thought nothing of it.
+Now, however, the diabolical reason of his slyness was apparent. He had
+been shrewd enough to disarm suspicion, and by now was far away. Even
+Mrs. Daly, who was visiting with a neighbour, had seen him stepping out
+by a back way, and had said with a laugh, 'I reckon that black rascal's
+a-running off somewhere.' Oh, if she had only known.</p>
+
+<p>"'To the woods! To the woods!' that was the cry, and away we went, each
+with the determination not to shoot, but to bring the culprit alive into
+town, and then to deal with him as his crime deserved.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot describe the feelings I experienced as I went out that night
+to beat the woods for this human tiger. My heart smouldered within me
+like a coal, and I went forward under the impulse of a will that was
+half my own, half some more malignant power's. My throat throbbed drily,
+but water nor whiskey would not have quenched my thirst. The thought has
+come to me since that now I could interpret the panther's desire for
+blood and sympathise with it, but then I thought nothing. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> simply went
+forward, and watched, watched with burning eyes for a familiar form that
+I had looked for as often before with such different emotions.</p>
+
+<p>"Luck or ill-luck, which you will, was with our party, and just as dawn
+was graying the sky, we came upon our quarry crouched in the corner of a
+fence. It was only half light, and we might have passed, but my eyes had
+caught sight of him, and I raised the cry. We levelled our guns and he
+rose and came toward us.</p>
+
+<p>"'I t'ought you wa'n't gwine see me,' he said sullenly, 'I didn't mean
+no harm.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Harm!'</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the men took the word up with oaths, others were ominously
+silent.</p>
+
+<p>"We gathered around him like hungry beasts, and I began to see terror
+dawning in his eyes. He turned to me, 'I's moughty glad you's hyeah,
+doc,' he said, 'you ain't gwine let 'em whup me.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Whip you, you hound,' I said, 'I'm going to see you hanged,' and in
+the excess of my passion I struck him full on the mouth. He made a
+motion as if to resent the blow against even such great odds, but
+controlled himself.</p>
+
+<p>"'W'y, doctah,' he exclaimed in the saddest voice I have ever heard,
+'w'y, doctah! I ain't stole nuffin' o' yo'n, an' I was comin' back. I
+only run off to see my gal, Lucy, ovah to de Centah.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You lie!' I said, and my hands were busy helping the others bind him
+upon a horse. Why did I do it? I don't know. A false education, I
+reckon, one false from the beginning. I saw his black face glooming
+there in the half light, and I could only think of him as a monster.
+It's tradition. At first I was told that the black man would catch me,
+and when I got over that, they taught me that the devil was black, and
+when I had recovered from the sickness of that belief, here were Jube
+and his fellows with faces of menacing blackness. There was only one
+conclusion: This black man stood for all the powers of evil, the result<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span>
+of whose machinations had been gathering in my mind from childhood up.
+But this has nothing to do with what happened.</p>
+
+<p>"After firing a few shots to announce our capture, we rode back into
+town with Jube. The ingathering parties from all directions met us as we
+made our way up to the house. All was very quiet and orderly. There was
+no doubt that it was as the papers would have said, a gathering of the
+best citizens. It was a gathering of stern, determined men, bent on a
+terrible vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>"We took Jube into the house, into the room where the corpse lay. At
+sight of it, he gave a scream like an animal's and his face went the
+colour of storm-blown water. This was enough to condemn him. We divined,
+rather than heard, his cry of 'Miss Ann, Miss Ann, oh, my God, doc, you
+don't t'ink I done it?'</p>
+
+<p>"Hungry hands were ready. We hurried him out into the yard. A rope was
+ready. A tree was at hand. Well, that part was the least of it, save
+that Hiram Daly stepped aside to let me be the first to pull upon the
+rope. It was lax at first. Then it tightened, and I felt the quivering
+soft weight resist my muscles. Other hands joined, and Jube swung off
+his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"No one was masked. We knew each other. Not even the Culprit's face was
+covered, and the last I remember of him as he went into the air was a
+look of sad reproach that will remain with me until I meet him face to
+face again.</p>
+
+<p>"We were tying the end of the rope to a tree, where the dead man might
+hang as a warning to his fellows, when a terrible cry chilled us to the
+marrow.</p>
+
+<p>"'Cut 'im down, cut 'im down, he ain't guilty. We got de one. Cut him
+down, fu' Gawd's sake. Here's de man, we foun' him hidin' in de barn!'</p>
+
+<p>"Jube's brother, Ben, and another Negro, came rushing toward us, half
+dragging, half carrying a miserable-looking wretch between them. Someone
+cut the rope and Jube dropped lifeless to the ground.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span></p><p>"'Oh, my Gawd, he's daid, he's daid!' wailed the brother, but with
+blazing eyes he brought his captive into the centre of the group, and we
+saw in the full light the scratched face of Tom Skinner&mdash;the worst white
+ruffian in the town&mdash;but the face we saw was not as we were accustomed
+to see it, merely smeared with dirt. It was blackened to imitate a
+Negro's.</p>
+
+<p>"God forgive me; I could not wait to try to resuscitate Jube. I knew he
+was already past help, so I rushed into the house and to the dead girl's
+side. In the excitement they had not yet washed or laid her out.
+Carefully, carefully, I searched underneath her broken finger nails.
+There was skin there. I took it out, the little curled pieces, and went
+with it to my office.</p>
+
+<p>"There, determinedly, I examined it under a powerful glass, and read my
+own doom. It was the skin of a white man, and in it were embedded
+strands of short, brown hair or beard.</p>
+
+<p>"How I went out to tell the waiting crowd I do not know, for something
+kept crying in my ears, 'Blood guilty! Blood guilty!'</p>
+
+<p>"The men went away stricken into silence and awe. The new prisoner
+attempted neither denial nor plea. When they were gone I would have
+helped Ben carry his brother in, but he waved me away fiercely, 'You
+he'ped murder my brothah, you dat was <i>his</i> frien', go 'way, go 'way!
+I'll tek him home myse'f' I could only respect his wish, and he and his
+comrade took up the dead man and between them bore him up the street on
+which the sun was now shining full.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw the few men who had not skulked indoors uncover as they passed,
+and I&mdash;I&mdash;stood there between the two murdered ones, while all the while
+something in my ears kept crying, 'Blood guilty! Blood guilty!'"</p>
+
+<p>The doctor's head dropped into his hands and he sat for some time in
+silence, which was broken by neither of the men, then he rose, saying,
+"Gentlemen, that was my last lynching."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Thirteen</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">SCHWALLIGER'S PHILANTHROPY</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>here is no adequate reason why Schwalliger's name should appear upon
+the pages of history. He was decidedly not in good society. He was not
+even respectable as respectability goes. But certain men liked him and
+certain women loved him. He is dead. That is all that will be said of
+the most of us after a while. He was but a weak member of the community,
+but those who loved him did not condemn him, and they shut their eyes to
+his shortcomings because they were a part of him. Without his follies he
+would not have been himself.</p>
+
+<p>Schwalliger was only a race-horse "tout." Ah, don't hold up your hands,
+good friends, for circumstances of birth make most of us what we are,
+whether poets or pickpockets, and if this thick-set, bow-legged black
+man became a "tout" it was because he had to. Old horsemen will tell you
+that Schwalliger&mdash;no one knew where he got the name&mdash;was rolling and
+tumbling about the track at Bennings when he was still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> so short in
+stature that he got the name of the "tadpole." Naturally, he came to
+know much of horses, grew up with them, in fact, and having no wealthy
+father or mother to indulge him in his taste or help him use his
+knowledge, he did the next best thing and used his special education for
+himself in the humble capacity of voluntary adviser to aspiring
+gamesters. He prospered and blossomed out into good clothes of a highly
+ornate pattern. Naturally, like a man in any other business, he had his
+ups and downs, and there were times when the good clothes disappeared
+and he was temporarily forced to return to the occupation of rubbing
+down horses; but these periods of depression were of short duration, and
+at the next turn of fortune's wheel he would again be on top.</p>
+
+<p>"No, thuh," he was wont to say, with his inimitable lisp&mdash;"no, thuh, you
+can't keep a good man down. 'Tain't no use a-talkin', you jeth can't. It
+don't do me no harm to go back to rubbin' now an' then. It jeth nachully
+keepth me on good termth with de hothes."</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, it did seem that his prophecies were surer and his
+knowledge more direct after one of these periods of enforced humility.</p>
+
+<p>There were various things whispered about Schwalliger; that he was no
+more honest than he should be, that he was not as sound as he might be;
+but though it might be claimed, and was, that he would prophesy, on
+occasion, the success of three different horses to three different men,
+no one ever accused him of being less than fair with the women who came
+out from the city to enjoy the races and increase their excitement by
+staking small sums. To these Schwalliger was the soul of courtesy and
+honour, and if they lost upon his advice, he was not happy until he had
+made it up to them again.</p>
+
+<p>One, however, who sets himself to work to give a race-horse tout a
+character may expect to have his labour for his pains. The profession of
+his subject is against him. He may as well put aside his energy and say,
+"Well, perhaps he was a bad lot, but&mdash;&mdash;." The present story is not
+destined to put you more in love with the hero of it, but&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The heat and enthusiasm at Saratoga and the other race-courses was done,
+and autumn and the glory of Bennings had come. The ingratiating
+Schwalliger came back with the horses to his old stamping ground and to
+happiness. The other tracks had not treated him kindly, and but for the
+kindness of his equine friends, whom he slept with and tended, he might
+have come back to Washington on the wooden steps. But he was back, and
+that was happiness for him. Broke?</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Schwalliger, in answer to a trainer's question, "I ain't
+exactly broke, Misthah Johnthon, but I wath pretty badly bent. I goth
+awa jutht ath thoon ath I commenth to feel mythelf crackin', but I'm
+hyeah to git even."</p>
+
+<p>He was only a rubber again, but he began to get even early in the week,
+and by Saturday he was again as like to a rainbow as any of his class.
+He did not, however, throw away his rubber's clothes. He was used to the
+caprices of fortune, and he did not know how soon again he should need
+them. That he was not dressed in them, and yet saved them, made him
+capable of performing his one philanthropy.</p>
+
+<p>Had he not been gorgeously dressed he would not have inspired the
+confidence of the old Negro who came up to him on Tuesday morning,
+disconsolate and weeping.</p>
+
+<p>"Mistah," he said deferentially through his tears, "is you a spo't?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Schwalliger's chest protruded, and his very red lips opened in a
+smile as he answered: "Well, I do' know'th I'm tho much of a thpo't, but
+I think I knowth a thing or two."</p>
+
+<p>"You look lak a spo'tin' gent'man, an' ef you is I thought mebbe you'd
+he'p me out."</p>
+
+<p>"Wha'th the mattah? Up againtht it? You look a little ol' to be doin'
+the gay an' frithky." But Schwalliger's eyes were kind.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you des' how it is, suh. I come f'om down in Ma'lan',
+'case I wanted to see de hosses run. My ol' mastah was moughty fon' of
+sich spo't, an' I kin' o' likes it myse'f, dough I don't nevah bet, suh.
+I's a chu'ch membah. But yistiddy aftahnoon dee was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> two gent'men what I
+seen playin' wid a leetle ball an' some cups ovah it, an' I went up to
+look on, an' lo an' behol', suh, it was one o' dese money-mekin' t'ings.
+W'y, I seen de man des' stan' dere an' mek money by the fis'ful. Well, I
+'low I got sorter wo'ked up. De men dee axed me to bet, but I 'low how I
+was a chu'ch membah an' didn't tek pa't in no sich carryin's on, an' den
+dee said 'twan't nuffin mo' den des' a chu'ch raffle, an' it was mo' fun
+den anyt'ing else. I des' say dat I could fin' de little ball, an' dee
+said I couldn't, an' if I fin' it dee gin me twenty dollahs, an' if I
+didn' I des' gin 'em ten dollahs. I shuk my haid. I wa'n't gwine be
+tempted, an' I try to pull myse'f erway. Ef I'd 'a' gone den 'twould 'a'
+been all right, but I stayed an' I stayed, an' I looked, an' I looked,
+an' it did seem lak it was so easy. At las', mistah, I tried it, an' I
+didn' fin' dat ball, an' dee got my ten dollahs, an' dat was all I had."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh, huh," said Schwalliger grimly, "thell game, an' dey did you." The
+old man shuffled uneasily, but continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, suh, dee done me, an' de worst of it is, I's 'fraid to go home,
+even ef I could get dere, 'case dee boun' to axe me how I los' dat
+money, an' dee ain't no way fu' me to hide it, an' ef dee fin' out I
+been gamblin' I'll git chu'ched fu' it, an' I been a puffessor so
+long&mdash;&mdash;" The old man's voice broke, and Schwalliger smiled the crooked
+smile of a man whose heart is touched.</p>
+
+<p>"Whereth thith push wo'kin'?" he said briefly.</p>
+
+<p>"Right ovah thaih," said the old Negro, indicating a part of the grounds
+not far distant.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, you go on ovah thaih an' wait fu' me; an' if you thee me,
+remembah, you don't thee me. I don't know you, you don't know me, but
+I'll try to thee you out all right."</p>
+
+<p>The old man went on his way, a new light in his eyes at the hope
+Schwalliger had inspired. Schwalliger himself made his way back to the
+stables; his dirty, horsy, rubber's outfit was there. He smiled
+intelligently as he looked at it. He was smiling in a different manner
+when,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> all dressed in it, he came up nearer to the grand stand. It was a
+very inane smile. He looked the very image of simplicity and ignorance,
+like a man who was anxious and ready to be duped. He strolled carelessly
+up to where the little game with the little ball was going on, and stood
+there looking foolishly on. The three young men&mdash;ostensibly there was
+only one&mdash;were doing a rushing business. They were playing very
+successfully on that trait of human nature which feels itself glorified
+and exalted when it has got something for nothing. The rustics, black
+and white, and some who had not the excuse of rusticity, were falling
+readily into the trap and losing their hard-earned money. Every now and
+then a man&mdash;one of their confederates, of course, would make a striking
+winning, and this served as a bait for the rest of the spectators.
+Schwalliger looked on with growing interest, always smiling an ignorant,
+simple smile. Finally, as if he could stand it no longer, he ran his
+hand in his pocket and pulled out a roll of money&mdash;money in its most
+beautiful and tempting form, the long, green notes. Then, as if a sudden
+spirit of prudence had taken possession of him, he put it back into his
+pocket, shook his head, and began working his way out of the crowd. But
+the operator of the shell game had caught sight of the bills, and it was
+like the scent of blood to the tiger. His eye was on the simple Negro at
+once, and he called cheerfully:</p>
+
+<p>"Come up, uncle, and try your luck. See how I manipulate this ball. Easy
+enough to find if you're only lucky." He was so flippantly shrewd that
+his newness to the business was insolently apparent to Schwalliger, who
+knew a thing or two himself. Schwalliger smiled again and shook his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, thuh," he said, "I don't play dat."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, come and try your luck anyhow; no harm in it."</p>
+
+<p>Schwalliger took out his money and looked at it again and shook his
+head. He began again his backward movement from the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, "I wouldn' play erroun' hyeah befo' all thethe people,
+becauthe you wouldn't pay me even ef I won."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span></p><p>"Why, of course we would," said the flippant operator; "everybody looks
+alike to us here."</p>
+
+<p>Schwalliger kept moving away, ever and anon sending wistful, inane
+glances back at his tempter.</p>
+
+<p>The bait worked admirably. The man closed up his little folding table,
+and, winking to his confederates, followed the retreating Negro. They
+stayed about with the crowd, while he followed on and on until
+Schwalliger had led him into a short alley between the stables. There he
+paused and allowed his pursuer to catch up with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Thay, mithtah," he said, "what you keep on follerin' me fu'? I do' want
+to play wid you; I ain't got but fo'ty dollahs, an' ef I lothe I'll have
+to walk home."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, my dear fellow, there ain't no way for you to lose. Come, now, let
+me show you." And he set the table down and began to manipulate the ball
+dexterously. "Needn't put no money down. Just see if you can locate the
+ball a few times for fun."</p>
+
+<p>Schwalliger consented, and, greatly to his delight, located the little
+ball four times out of five. He was grinning now and the eye of the
+tempter was gleaming. Schwalliger took out his money.</p>
+
+<p>"How much you got?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Just eighty-five dollars, and I will lay it all against your forty."</p>
+
+<p>"What you got it in?" asked Schwalliger.</p>
+
+<p>"Four fives, four tens, and five five-dollar gold-pieces." And the man
+displayed it ostentatiously. The tout's eyes flashed as he saw his
+opponent put his money back into his waistcoat pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I bet you," he said, and planked his money down.</p>
+
+<p>The operator took the shells and swept the pea first under one then
+under the other, and laid the three side by side. Schwalliger laid his
+hand upon one. He lifted it up and there was nothing there.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha, you've had bad luck," said the operator&mdash;"you lose, you lose.
+Well, I'm sorry for you, old fellow, but we all take chances in this
+little game, you know." He was folding up his table when all of a
+sudden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> a cry arose to heaven from Schwalliger's lips, and he grappled
+with the very shrewd young man, while shriek on shriek of "Murder!
+Robber! Police!" came from his lips. The police at Bennings were not
+slow to answer a call like this, and they came running up, and
+Schwalliger, who, among other things, was something of an actor, told
+his story trembling, incoherently, while the operator looked on aghast.
+Schwalliger demanded protection. He had been robbed. He had bet his
+eighty-five dollars against the operator's forty, and when he had
+accidentally picked out the right shell the operator had grabbed his
+money and attempted to escape. He wanted his money. He had eighty-five
+dollars, he said. "He had fo' fiveth, fo' tenth, and five five-dollar
+gold-pieceth, an' he wanted them."</p>
+
+<p>The policeman was thorough. He made his search at once. It was even as
+Schwalliger had said. The money was on the gambler even as the Negro had
+said. Well, there was nothing but justice to be done. The officers
+returned the eighty-five dollars to Schwalliger, and out of an unusual
+access of clemency bade the operator begone or they would run him in.</p>
+
+<p>When he had gone, Schwalliger turned and winked slowly at the minions of
+the law, and went quietly into a corner with them, and there was the
+sound of the shuffling of silken paper. Later on he found the old man
+and returned him his ten, and went back to don his Jacob's coat.</p>
+
+<p>Who shall say that Schwalliger was not a true philanthropist?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Fourteen</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE INTERFERENCE OF PATSY ANN</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">P</span>atsy Ann Meriweather would have told you that her father, or more
+properly her "pappy," was a "widover," and she would have added in her
+sad little voice, with her mournful eyes upon you, that her mother had
+"bin daid fu' nigh onto fou' yeahs." Then you could have wept for Patsy,
+for her years were only thirteen now, and since the passing away of her
+mother she had been the little mother for her four younger brothers and
+sisters, as well as her father's house-keeper.</p>
+
+<p>But Patsy Ann never complained; she was quite willing to be all that she
+had been until such time as Isaac and Dora, Cassie and little John
+should be old enough to care for themselves, and also to lighten some of
+her domestic burdens. She had never reckoned upon any other manner of
+release. In fact her youthful mind was not able to contemplate the
+possibility of any other manner of change. But the good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> women of
+Patsy's neighbourhood were not the ones to let her remain in this
+deplorable state of ignorance. She was to be enlightened as to other
+changes that might take place in her condition, and of the unspeakable
+horrors that would transpire with them.</p>
+
+<p>It was upon the occasion that little John had taken it into his infant
+head to have the German measles just at the time that Isaac was slowly
+recovering from the chicken-pox. Patsy Ann's powers had been taxed to
+the utmost, and Mrs. Caroline Gibson had been called in from next door
+to superintend the brewing of the saffron tea, and for the general care
+of the fretful sufferer.</p>
+
+<p>To Patsy Ann, then, in ominous tone, spoke this oracle. "Patsy Ann, how
+yo' pappy doin' sence Matildy died?" "Matildy" was the deceased wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he gittin' 'long all right. He was mighty broke up at de fus', but
+he 'low now dat de house go on de same's ef mammy was a-livin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Oom huh," disdainfully; "Oom huh. Yo' mammy bin daid fou' yeahs, ain't
+she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm; mighty nigh."</p>
+
+<p>"Oom huh; fou' yeahs is a mighty long time fu' a colo'd man to wait; but
+we'n he do wait dat long, hit's all de wuss we'n hit do come."</p>
+
+<p>"Pap bin wo'kin right stiddy at de brick-ya'd," said Patsy, in loyal
+defence against some vaguely implied accusation, "an' he done put some
+money in de bank."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad sign, bad sign," and Mrs. Gibson gave her head a fearsome shake.</p>
+
+<p>But just then the shrill voice of little John calling for attention drew
+her away and left Patsy Ann to herself and her meditations.</p>
+
+<p>What could this mean?</p>
+
+<p>When that lady had finished ministering to the sick child and returned,
+Patsy Ann asked her, "Mis' Gibson, what you mean by sayin' 'bad sign,
+bad sign?'"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span></p><p>Again the oracle shook her head sagely. Then she answered, "Chil', you
+do' know de dev'ment dey is in dis worl'."</p>
+
+<p>"But," retorted the child, "my pappy ain' up to no dev'ment, 'case he
+got 'uligion an' bin baptised."</p>
+
+<p>"Oom-m," groaned Sistah Gibson, "dat don' mek a bit o' diffunce. Who is
+any mo' ma'yin' men den de preachahs demse'ves? W'y Brothah 'Lias Scott
+done tempted matermony six times a'ready, an' 's lookin' roun' fu' de
+sebent, an' he's a good man, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Ma'yin'," said Patsy breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, honey, ma'yin', an' I's afeared yo' pappy's got notions in his
+haid, an' w'en a widower git gals in his haid dey ain' no use
+a-pesterin' wid 'em, 'case dey boun' to have dey way."</p>
+
+<p>"Ma'yin'," said Patsy to herself reflectively. "Ma'yin'." She knew what
+it meant, but she had never dreamed of the possibility of such a thing
+in connection with her father. "Ma'yin'," and yet the idea of it did not
+seem so very unalluring.</p>
+
+<p>She spoke her thoughts aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"But ef pap 'u'd ma'y, Mis' Gibson, den I'd git a chanct to go to
+school. He allus sayin' he mighty sorry 'bout me not goin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Dah now, dah now," cried the woman, casting a pitying glance at the
+child, "dat's de las' t'ing. He des a feelin' roun' now. You po',
+ign'ant, mothahless chil'. You ain' nevah had no step-mothah, an' you
+don' know what hit means."</p>
+
+<p>"But she'd tek keer o' the chillen," persisted Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>"Sich tekin' keer of 'em ez hit 'u'd be. She'd keer fu' 'em to dey
+graves. Nobody cain't tell me nuffin 'bout step-mothahs, case I knows
+'em. Dey ain' no ooman goin' to tek keer o' nobody else's chile lak
+she'd tek keer o' huh own," and Patsy felt a choking come into her
+throat and a tight sensation about her heart while she listened as Mrs.
+Gibson regaled her with all the choice horrors that are laid at the door
+of step-mothers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span></p><p>From that hour on, one settled conviction took shape and possessed Patsy
+Ann's mind; never, if she could help it, would she run the risk of
+having a step-mother. Come what may, let her be compelled to do what she
+might, let the hope of school fade from her sight forever and a day&mdash;but
+no step-mother should ever cast her baneful shadow over Patsy Ann's
+home.</p>
+
+<p>Experience of life had made her wise for her years, and so for the time
+she said nothing to her father; but she began to watch him with wary
+eyes, his goings out and his comings in, and to attach new importance to
+trifles that had passed unnoticed before by her childish mind.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, if he greased or blacked his boots before going out of an
+evening her suspicions were immediately aroused and she saw dim visions
+of her father returning, on his arm the terrible ogress whom she had
+come to know by the name of step-mother.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gibson's poison had worked well and rapidly. She had thoroughly
+inoculated the child's mind with the step-mother virus, but she had not
+at the same time made the parent widow-proof, a hard thing to do at
+best. So it came to pass that with a mysterious horror growing within
+her, Patsy Ann saw her father black his boots more and more often and
+fare forth o' nights and Sunday afternoons.</p>
+
+<p>Finally her little heart could contain its sorrow no longer, and one
+night when he was later than usual she could not sleep. So she slipped
+out of bed, turned up the light, and waited for him, determined to have
+it out, then and there.</p>
+
+<p>He came at last and was all surprise to meet the solemn, round eyes of
+his little daughter staring at him from across the table.</p>
+
+<p>"W'y, lady gal," he exclaimed, "what you doin' up at 'his time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I sat up fu' you. I got somep'n' to ax you, pappy." Her voice quivered
+and he snuggled her up in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"What's troublin' my little lady gal now? Is de chillen bin bad?"</p>
+
+<p>She laid her head close against his big breast, and the tears would come
+as she answered, "No, suh; de chillen bin ez good az good could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> be, but
+oh, pappy, pappy, is you got gal in yo' haid an' a-goin' to bring me a
+step-mothah?"</p>
+
+<p>He held her away from him almost harshly and gazed at her as he queried,
+"W'y, you po' baby, you! Who's bin puttin' dis hyeah foolishness in yo'
+haid?" Then his laugh rang out as he patted her head and drew her close
+to him again. "Ef yo' pappy do bring a step-mothah into dis house, Gawd
+knows he'll bring de right kin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Dey ain't no right kin'," answered Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>"You don' know, baby; you don' know. Go to baid an' don' worry."</p>
+
+<p>He sat up a long time watching the candle sputter, then he pulled off
+his boots and tiptoed to Patsy's bedside. He leaned over her. "Po'
+little baby," he said; "what do she know about a step-mothah?" And Patsy
+saw him and heard him, for she was awake then, and far into the night.</p>
+
+<p>In the eyes of the child her father stood convicted. He had "gal in his
+haid," and was going to bring her a step-mother; but it would never be;
+her resolution was taken.</p>
+
+<p>She arose early the next morning and after getting her father off to
+work as usual, she took the children into hand. First she scrubbed them
+assiduously, burnishing their brown faces until they shone again. Then
+she tussled with their refractory locks, and after that she dressed them
+out in all the bravery of their best clothes.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile her tears were falling like rain, though her lips were shut
+tight. The children off her mind, she turned her attention to her own
+toilet, which she made with scrupulous care. Then taking a small
+tin-type of her mother from the bureau drawer, she put it in her bosom,
+and leading her little brood she went out of the house, locking the door
+behind her and placing the key, as was her wont, under the door-step.</p>
+
+<p>Outside she stood for a moment or two, undecided, and then with one
+long, backward glance at her home she turned and went up the street. At
+the first corner she paused again, spat in her hand and struck the
+watery globule with her finger. In the direction the most of the spittle
+flew, she turned. Patsy Ann was fleeing from home and a step-mother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span>,
+and Fate had decided her direction for her, even as Mrs. Gibson's
+counsels had directed her course.</p>
+
+<p>The child had no idea where she was going. She knew no one to whom she
+might turn in her distress. Not even with Mrs. Gibson would she be safe
+from the horror which impended. She had but one impulse in her mind and
+that was to get beyond the reach of the terrible woman, or was it a
+monster? who was surely coming after her. On and on she walked through
+the town with her little band trudging bravely along beside her. People
+turned to look at the funny group and smiled good-naturedly as they
+passed, and one man, a little more amused than the rest, shouted after
+them, "Where you goin', sis, with that orphan's home?"</p>
+
+<p>But Patsy Ann's dignity was impregnable. She walked on with her head in
+the air, the desire for safety tugging at her heart.</p>
+
+<p>The hours passed and the gentle coolness of morning turned into the
+fierce heat of noon, and still with frequent rests they trudged on,
+Patsy ever and anon using her divining hand, unconscious that she was
+doubling and redoubling on her tracks. When the whistles blew for twelve
+she got her little brood into the shade of a poplar tree and set them
+down to the lunch which, thoughtful little mother that she was, she had
+brought with her. After that they all stretched themselves out on the
+grass that bordered the sidewalk, for all the children were tired out,
+and baby John was both sleepy and cross. Even Patsy Ann drowsed and
+finally dropped into the deep slumber of childhood. They looked too
+peaceful and serene for passers-by to bother them, and so they slept and
+slept.</p>
+
+<p>It was past three o'clock when the little guardian awakened with a
+start, and shook her charges into activity. John wept a little at first,
+but after a while took up his journey bravely with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>She had just turned into a side street, discouraged and bewildered, when
+the round face of a coloured woman standing in the doorway of a
+whitewashed cottage caught her eye and attention. Once more she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> paused
+and consulted her watery oracle, then turned to encounter the gaze of
+the round-faced woman. The oracle had spoken and she turned into the
+yard.</p>
+
+<p>"Whaih you goin', honey? You sut'ny look lak you plumb tukahed out. Come
+in an' tell me all 'bout yo'se'f, you po' little t'ing. Dese yo' little
+brothas an' sistahs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm," said Patsy Ann.</p>
+
+<p>"W'y, chil', whaih you goin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don' know," was the truthful answer.</p>
+
+<p>"You don' know? Whaih you live?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I live down on Douglas Street," said Patsy Ann, "an' I's runnin'
+away f'om home an' my step-mothah."</p>
+
+<p>The woman looked keenly at her.</p>
+
+<p>"What yo' name?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"My name's Patsy Ann Meriweather."</p>
+
+<p>"An' is yo' got a step-mothah?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Patsy Ann, "I ain' got none now, but I's sut'ny 'spectin'
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"What you know 'bout step-mothahs, honey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mis' Gibson tol' me. Dey sho'ly is awful, missus, awful."</p>
+
+<p>"Mis' Gibson ain' tol' you right, honey. You come in hyeah and set down.
+You ain' nothin' mo' dan a baby yo'se'f, an' you ain' got no right to be
+trapsein' roun' dis away."</p>
+
+<p>Have you ever eaten muffins? Have you eaten bacon with onions? Have you
+drunk tea? Have you seen your little brother John taken up on a full
+bosom and rocked to sleep in the most motherly way, with the sweetness
+and tenderness that only a mother can give? Well, that was Patsy Ann's
+case to-night.</p>
+
+<p>And then she laid them along like ten-pins crosswise of her bed and sat
+for a long time thinking.</p>
+
+<p>To Maria Adams about six o'clock that night came a troubled and
+disheartened man. It was no less a person than Patsy Ann's father.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span></p><p>"Maria! Maria! What shall I do? Somebody don' stole all my chillen."</p>
+
+<p>Maria, strange to say, was a woman of few words.</p>
+
+<p>"Don' you bothah 'bout de chillen," she said, and she took him by the
+hand and led him to where the five lay sleeping calmly across the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Dey was runnin' f'om home an' dey step-mothah," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Dey run hyeah f'om a step-mothah an' foun' a mothah." It was a tribute
+and a proposal all in one.</p>
+
+<p>When Patsy Ann awakened, the matter was explained to her, and with
+penitent tears she confessed her sins.</p>
+
+<p>"But," she said to Maria Adams, "ef you's de kin' of fo'ks dat dey mek
+step-mothahs out o' I ain' gwine to bothah my haid no mo'."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Fifteen</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE HOME-COMING OF 'RASTUS SMITH</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>here was a great commotion in that part of town which was known as
+"Little Africa," and the cause of it was not far to seek. Contrary to
+the usual thing, this cause was not an excursion down the river, nor a
+revival, baptising, nor an Emancipation Day celebration. None of these
+was it that had aroused the denizens of "Little Africa," and kept them
+talking across the street from window to window, from door to door,
+through alley gates, over backyard fences, where they stood loud-mouthed
+and arms akimboed among laden clothes lines. No, the cause of it all was
+that Erastus Smith, Aunt Mandy Smith's boy, who had gone away from home
+several years before, and who, rumour said, had become a great man, was
+coming back, and "Little Africa," from Douglass Street to Cat Alley, was
+prepared to be dazzled. So few of those who had been born within the
+mile radius which was "Little Africa" went out into the great world and
+came into contact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> with the larger humanity that when one did he became
+a man set apart. And when, besides, he went into a great city and worked
+for a lawyer whose name was known the country over, the place of his
+birth had all the more reason to feel proud of her son.</p>
+
+<p>So there was much talk across the dirty little streets, and Aunt Mandy's
+small house found itself all of a sudden a very popular resort. The old
+women held Erastus up as an example to their sons. The old men told what
+they might have done had they had his chance. The young men cursed him,
+and the young girls giggled and waited.</p>
+
+<p>It was about an hour before the time of the arrival of Erastus, and the
+neighbours had thinned out one by one with a delicacy rather surprising
+in them, in order that the old lady might be alone with her boy for the
+first few minutes. Only one remained to help put the finishing touches
+to the two little rooms which Mrs. Smith called home, and to the
+preparations for the great dinner. The old woman wiped her eyes as she
+said to her companion, "Hit do seem a speshul blessin', Lizy, dat I been
+spaihed to see dat chile once mo' in de flesh. He sholy was mighty nigh
+to my hea't, an' w'en he went erway, I thought it 'ud kill me. But I kin
+see now dat hit uz all fu' de bes'. Think o' 'Rastus comin' home, er big
+man! Who'd evah 'specked dat?"</p>
+
+<p>"Law, Mis' Smif, you sholy is got reason to be mighty thankful. Des'
+look how many young men dere is in dis town what ain't nevah been no
+'count to dey pa'ents, ner anybody else."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's onexpected, Lizy, an' hit's 'spected. 'Rastus allus wuz a
+wonnerful chil', an' de way he tuk to work an' study kin' o' promised
+something f'om de commencement, an' I 'lowed mebbe he tu'n out a
+preachah."</p>
+
+<p>"Tush! yo' kin thank yo' stahs he didn't tu'n out no preachah. Preachahs
+ain't no bettah den anybody else dese days. Dey des go roun' tellin' dey
+lies an' eatin' de whiders an' orphins out o' house an' home."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mebbe hit's bes' he didn' tu'n out dat way. But f'om de way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> he
+used to stan' on de chaih an' 'zort w'en he was a little boy, I thought
+hit was des what he 'ud tu'n out. O' co'se, being' in a law office is
+des as pervidin', but somehow hit do seem mo' worl'y."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I tell you de preachahs is ez worldly ez anybody else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, dat's right, but den 'Rastus, he had de eddication, fo' he
+had gone thoo de Third Readah."</p>
+
+<p>Just then the gate creaked, and a little brown-faced girl, with large,
+mild eyes, pushed open the door and came shyly in.</p>
+
+<p>"Hyeah's some flowahs, Mis' Smif," she said. "I thought mebbe you might
+like to decorate 'Rastus's room," and she wiped the confusion from her
+face with her apron.</p>
+
+<p>"La, chil', thankee. Dese is mighty pu'tty posies." These were the
+laurels which Sally Martin had brought to lay at the feet of her
+home-coming hero. No one in Cat Alley but that queer, quiet little girl
+would have thought of decorating anybody's room with flowers, but she
+had peculiar notions.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days, when they were children, and before Erastus had gone
+away to become great, they had gone up and down together along the
+byways of their locality, and had loved as children love. Later, when
+Erastus began keeping company, it was upon Sally that he bestowed his
+affections. No one, not even her mother, knew how she had waited for him
+all these years that he had been gone, few in reality, but so long and
+so many to her.</p>
+
+<p>And now he was coming home. She scorched something in the ironing that
+day because tears of joy were blinding her eyes. Her thoughts were busy
+with the meeting that was to be. She had a brand new dress for the
+occasion&mdash;a lawn, with dark blue dots, and a blue sash&mdash;and there was a
+new hat, wonderful with the flowers of summer, and for both of them she
+had spent her hard-earned savings, because she wished to be radiant in
+the eyes of the man who loved her.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, Erastus had not written her; but he must have been busy, and
+writing was hard work. She knew that herself, and realised it all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> the
+more as she penned the loving little scrawls which at first she used to
+send him. Now they would not have to do any writing any more; they could
+say what they wanted to each other. He was coming home at last, and she
+had waited long.</p>
+
+<p>They paint angels with shining faces and halos, but for real radiance
+one should have looked into the dark eyes of Sally as she sped home
+after her contribution to her lover's reception.</p>
+
+<p>When the last one of the neighbours had gone Aunt Mandy sat down to rest
+herself and to await the great event. She had not sat there long before
+the gate creaked. She arose and hastened to the window. A young man was
+coming down the path. Was that 'Rastus? Could that be her 'Rastus, that
+gorgeous creature with the shiny shoes and the nobby suit and the
+carelessly-swung cane? But he was knocking at her door, and she opened
+it and took him into her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, howdy, honey, howdy; hit do beat all to see you agin, a great big,
+grown-up man. You're lookin' des' lak one o' de big folks up in town."</p>
+
+<p>Erastus submitted to her endearments with a somewhat condescending
+grace, as who should say, "Well, poor old fool, let her go on this time;
+she doesn't know any better." He smiled superiorly when the old woman
+wept glad tears, as mothers have a way of doing over returned sons,
+however great fools these sons may be. She set him down to the dinner
+which she had prepared for him, and with loving patience drew from his
+pompous and reluctant lips some of the story of his doings and some
+little word about the places he had seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," he said, crossing his legs, "as soon as Mr. Carrington saw
+that I was pretty bright, he took me right up and gave me a good job,
+and I have been working for him right straight along for seven years
+now. Of course, it don't do to let white folks know all you're thinking;
+but I have kept my ears and my eyes right open, and I guess I know just
+about as much about law as he does himself. When I save<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> up a little
+more I'm going to put on the finishing touches and hang out my shingle."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you nevah think no mo' 'bout bein' a preachah, 'Rastus?" his
+mother asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Haw, haw! Preachah? Well, I guess not; no preaching in mine; there's
+nothing in it. In law you always have a chance to get into politics and
+be the president of your ward club or something like that, and from that
+on it's an easy matter to go on up. You can trust me to know the wires."
+And so the tenor of his boastful talk ran on, his mother a little bit
+awed and not altogether satisfied with the new 'Rastus that had returned
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>He did not stay in long that evening, although his mother told him some
+of the neighbours were going to drop in. He said he wanted to go about
+and see something of the town. He paused just long enough to glance at
+the flowers in his room, and to his mother's remark, "Sally Ma'tin brung
+dem in," he returned answer, "Who on earth is Sally Martin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, 'Rastus," exclaimed his mother, "does yo' 'tend lak yo' don't
+'member little Sally Ma'tin yo' used to go wid almos' f'om de time you
+was babies? W'y, I'm s'prised at you."</p>
+
+<p>"She has slipped my mind," said the young man.</p>
+
+<p>For a long while the neighbours who had come and Aunt Mandy sat up to
+wait for Erastus, but he did not come in until the last one was gone. In
+fact, he did not get in until nearly four o'clock in the morning,
+looking a little weak, but at least in the best of spirits, and he
+vouchsafed to his waiting mother the remark that "the little old town
+wasn't so bad, after all."</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Mandy preferred the request that she had had in mind for some time,
+that he would go to church the next day, and he consented, because his
+trunk had come.</p>
+
+<p>It was a glorious Sunday morning, and the old lady was very proud<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> in
+her stiff gingham dress as she saw her son come into the room arrayed in
+his long coat, shiny hat, and shinier shoes. Well, if it was true that
+he was changed, he was still her 'Rastus, and a great comfort to her.
+There was no vanity about the old woman, but she paused before the glass
+a longer time than usual, settling her bonnet strings, for she must look
+right, she told herself, to walk to church with that elegant son of
+hers. When he was all ready, with cane in hand, and she was pausing with
+the key in the door, he said, "Just walk on, mother, I'll catch you in a
+minute or two." She went on and left him.</p>
+
+<p>He did not catch her that morning on her way to church, and it was a
+sore disappointment, but it was somewhat compensated for when she saw
+him stalking into the chapel in all his glory, and every head in the
+house turned to behold him.</p>
+
+<p>There was one other woman in "Little Africa" that morning who stopped
+for a longer time than usual before her looking-glass and who had never
+found her bonnet strings quite so refractory before. In spite of the
+vexation of flowers that wouldn't settle and ribbons that wouldn't tie,
+a very glad face looked back at Sally Martin from her little mirror. She
+was going to see 'Rastus, 'Rastus of the old days in which they used to
+walk hand in hand. He had told her when he went away that some day he
+would come back and marry her. Her heart fluttered hotly under her
+dotted lawn, and it took another application of the chamois to take the
+perspiration from her face. People had laughed at her, but that morning
+she would be vindicated. He would walk home with her before the whole
+church. Already she saw him bowing before her, hat in hand, and heard
+the set phrase, "May I have the pleasure of your company home?" and she
+saw herself sailing away upon his arm.</p>
+
+<p>She was very happy as she sat in church that morning, as happy as Mrs.
+Smith herself, and as proud when she saw the object of her affections
+swinging up the aisle to the collection table, and from the ring she
+knew that it could not be less than a half dollar that he put in.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span></p><p>There was a special note of praise in her voice as she joined in singing
+the doxology that morning, and her heart kept quivering and fluttering
+like a frightened bird as the people gathered in groups, chattering and
+shaking hands, and he drew nearer to her. Now they were almost together;
+in a moment their eyes would meet. Her breath came quickly; he had
+looked at her, surely he must have seen her. His mother was just behind
+him, and he did not speak. Maybe she had changed, maybe he had forgotten
+her. An unaccustomed boldness took possession of her, and she determined
+that she would not be overlooked. She pressed forward. She saw his
+mother take his arm and heard her whisper, "Dere's Sally Ma'tin" this
+time, and she knew that he looked at her. He bowed as if to a stranger,
+and was past her the next minute. When she saw him again he was swinging
+out of the door between two admiring lines of church-goers who separated
+on the pavement. There was a brazen yellow girl on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>She felt weak and sick as she hid behind the crowd as well as she could,
+and for that morning she thanked God that she was small.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Mandy trudged home alone, and when the street was cleared and the
+sexton was about to lock up, the girl slipped out of the church and down
+to her own little house. In the friendly shelter of her room she took
+off her gay attire and laid it away, and then sat down at the window and
+looked dully out. For her, the light of day had gone out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="major" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span></p>
+<h3><i>Sixteen</i></h3>
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="chapter">THE BOY AND THE BAYONET</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>t was June, and nearing the closing time of school. The air was full of
+the sound of bustle and preparation for the final exercises, field day,
+and drills. Drills especially, for nothing so gladdens the heart of the
+Washington mother, be she black or white, as seeing her boy in the blue
+cadet's uniform, marching proudly to the huzzas of an admiring crowd.
+Then she forgets the many nights when he has come in tired out and dusty
+from his practice drill, and feels only the pride and elation of the
+result.</p>
+
+<p>Although Tom did all he could outside of study hours, there were many
+days of hard work for Hannah Davis, when her son went into the High
+School. But she took it upon herself gladly, since it gave Bud the
+chance to learn, that she wanted him to have. When, however, he entered
+the Cadet Corps it seemed to her as if the first steps toward the
+fulfilment of all her hopes had been made. It was a hard pull to her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>
+getting the uniform, but Bud himself helped manfully, and when his
+mother saw him rigged out in all his regimentals, she felt that she had
+not toiled in vain. And in fact it was worth all the trouble and expense
+just to see the joy and pride of "little sister," who adored Bud.</p>
+
+<p>As the time for the competitive drill drew near there was an air of
+suppressed excitement about the little house on "D" Street, where the
+three lived. All day long "little sister," who was never very well and
+did not go to school, sat and looked out of the window on the
+uninteresting prospect of a dusty thoroughfare lined on either side with
+dull red brick houses, all of the same ugly pattern, interspersed with
+older, uglier, and viler frame shanties. In the evening Hannah hurried
+home to get supper against the time when Bud should return, hungry and
+tired from his drilling, and the chore work which followed hard upon its
+heels.</p>
+
+<p>Things were all cheerful, however, for as they applied themselves to the
+supper, the boy, with glowing face, would tell just how his company "A"
+was getting on, and what they were going to do to companies "B" and "C."
+It was not boasting so much as the expression of a confidence, founded
+upon the hard work he was doing, and Hannah and the "little sister"
+shared that with him.</p>
+
+<p>The child often, listening to her brother, would clap her hands or cry,
+"Oh, Bud, you're just splendid an' I know you'll beat 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"If hard work'll beat 'em, we've got 'em beat," Bud would reply, and
+Hannah, to add an admonitory check to her own confidence, would break in
+with, "Now, don't you be too sho', son; dey ain't been no man so good
+dat dey wasn't somebody bettah." But all the while her face and manner
+were disputing what her words expressed.</p>
+
+<p>The great day came, and it was a wonderful crowd of people that packed
+the great baseball grounds to overflowing. It seemed that all of
+Washington's coloured population was out, when there were really only
+about one-tenth of them there. It was an enthusiastic, banner-waving,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span>
+shouting, hallooing crowd. Its component parts were strictly and frankly
+partisan, and so separated themselves into sections differentiated by
+the colours of the flags they carried and the ribbons they wore. Side
+yelled defiance at side, and party bantered party. Here the blue and
+white of Company "A" flaunted audaciously on the breeze beside the very
+seats over which the crimson and gray of "B" were flying, and these in
+their turn nodded defiance over the imaginary barrier between themselves
+and "C's" black and yellow.</p>
+
+<p>The band was thundering out "Sousa's High School Cadet's March," the
+school officials, the judges, and reporters, and some with less purpose
+were bustling about, discussing and conferring. Altogether doing nothing
+much with beautiful unanimity. All was noise, hurry, gaiety, and
+turbulence. In the midst of it all, with blue and white rosettes pinned
+on their breasts, sat two spectators, tense and silent, while the
+breakers of movement and sound struck and broke around them. It meant
+too much to Hannah and "little sister" for them to laugh and shout. Bud
+was with Company "A," and so the whole programme was more like a
+religious ceremonial to them. The blare of the brass to them might have
+been the trumpet call to battle in old Judea, and the far-thrown tones
+of the megaphone the voice of a prophet proclaiming from the hill-top.</p>
+
+<p>Hannah's face glowed with expectation, and "little sister" sat very
+still and held her mother's hand save when amid a burst of cheers
+Company "A" swept into the parade ground at a quick step, then she
+sprang up, crying shrilly, "There's Bud, there's Bud, I see him," and
+then settled back into her seat overcome with embarrassment. The
+mother's eyes danced as soon as the sister's had singled out their dear
+one from the midst of the blue-coated boys, and it was an effort for her
+to keep from following her little daughter's example even to echoing her
+words.</p>
+
+<p>Company "A" came swinging down the field toward the judges in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> manner
+that called for more enthusiastic huzzas that carried even the Freshman
+of other commands "off their feet." They were, indeed, a set of
+fine-looking young fellows, brisk, straight, and soldierly in bearing.
+Their captain was proud of them, and his very step showed it. He was
+like a skilled operator pressing the key of some great mechanism, and at
+his command they moved like clockwork. Seen from the side it was as if
+they were all bound together by inflexible iron bars, and as the end man
+moved all must move with him. The crowd was full of exclamations of
+praise and admiration, but a tense quiet enveloped them as Company "A"
+came from columns of four into line for volley firing. This was a real
+test; it meant not only grace and precision of movement, singleness of
+attention and steadiness, but quickness tempered by self-control. At the
+command the volley rang forth like a single shot. This was again the
+signal for wild cheering and the blue and white streamers kissed the
+sunlight with swift impulsive kisses. Hannah and Little Sister drew
+closer together and pressed hands.</p>
+
+<p>The "A" adherents, however, were considerably cooled when the next
+volley came out, badly scattering, with one shot entirely apart and
+before the rest. Bud's mother did not entirely understand the sudden
+quieting of the adherents; they felt vaguely that all was not as it
+should be, and the chill of fear laid hold upon their hearts. What if
+Bud's company, (it was always Bud's company to them), what if his
+company should lose. But, of course, that couldn't be. Bud himself had
+said that they would win. Suppose, though, they didn't; and with these
+thoughts they were miserable until the cheering again told them that the
+company had redeemed itself.</p>
+
+<p>Someone behind Hannah said, "They are doing splendidly, they'll win,
+they'll win yet in spite of the second volley."</p>
+
+<p>Company "A," in columns of fours, had executed the right oblique in
+double time, and halted amid cheers; then formed left halt into line
+without halting. The next movement was one looked forward to with much
+anxiety on account of its difficulty. The order was marching by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> fours
+to fix or unfix bayonets. They were going at a quick step, but the boys'
+hands were steady&mdash;hope was bright in their hearts. They were doing it
+rapidly and freely, when suddenly from the ranks there was the bright
+gleam of steel lower down than it should have been. A gasp broke from
+the breasts of Company "A's" friends. The blue and white drooped
+disconsolately, while a few heartless ones who wore other colours
+attempted to hiss. Someone had dropped his bayonet. But with muscles
+unquivering, without a turned head, the company moved on as if nothing
+had happened, while one of the judges, an army officer, stepped into the
+wake of the boys and picked up the fallen steel.</p>
+
+<p>No two eyes had seen half so quickly as Hannah and Little Sister's who
+the blunderer was. In the whole drill there had been but one figure for
+them, and that was Bud, Bud, and it was he who had dropped his bayonet.
+Anxious, nervous with the desire to please them, perhaps with a shade
+too much of thought of them looking on with their hearts in their eyes,
+he had fumbled, and lost all that he was striving for. His head went
+round and round and all seemed black before him.</p>
+
+<p>He executed the movements in a dazed way. The applause, generous and
+sympathetic, as his company left the parade ground, came to him from
+afar off, and like a wounded animal he crept away from his comrades, not
+because their reproaches stung him, for he did not hear them, but
+because he wanted to think what his mother and "Little Sister" would
+say, but his misery was as nothing to that of the two who sat up there
+amid the ranks of the blue and white holding each other's hands with a
+despairing grip. To Bud all of the rest of the contest was a horrid
+nightmare; he hardly knew when the three companies were marched back to
+receive the judges' decision. The applause that greeted Company "B" when
+the blue ribbons were pinned on the members' coats meant nothing to his
+ears. He had disgraced himself and his company. What would his mother
+and his "Little Sister" say?</p>
+
+<p>To Hannah and "Little Sister," as to Bud, all of the remainder of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span>
+drill was a misery. The one interest they had had in it failed, and not
+even the dropping of his gun by one of Company "E" when on the march,
+halting in line, could raise their spirits. The little girl tried to be
+brave, but when it was all over she was glad to hurry out before the
+crowd got started and to hasten away home. Once there and her tears
+flowed freely; she hid her face in her mother's dress, and sobbed as if
+her heart would break.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't cry, Baby! don't cry, Lammie, dis ain't da las' time da wah goin'
+to be a drill. Bud'll have a chance anotha time and den he'll show 'em
+somethin'; bless you, I spec' he'll be a captain." But this consolation
+of philosophy was nothing to "Little Sister." It was so terrible to her,
+this failure of Bud's. She couldn't blame him, she couldn't blame anyone
+else, and she had not yet learned to lay all such unfathomed
+catastrophes at the door of fate. What to her was the thought of another
+day; what did it matter to her whether he was a captain or a private?
+She didn't even know the meaning of the words, but "Little Sister," from
+the time she knew Bud was a private, knew that that was much better than
+being captain or any of those other things with a long name, so that
+settled it.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother finally set about getting the supper, while "Little Sister"
+drooped disconsolately in her own little splint-bottomed chair. She sat
+there weeping silently until she heard the sound of Bud's step, then she
+sprang up and ran away to hide. She didn't dare to face him with tears
+in her eyes. Bud came in without a word and sat down in the dark front
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat you, Bud?" asked his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Yassum."</p>
+
+<p>"Bettah come now, supper's puty 'nigh ready."</p>
+
+<p>"I don' want no supper."</p>
+
+<p>"You bettah come on, Bud, I reckon you mighty tired."</p>
+
+<p>He did not reply, but just then a pair of thin arms were put around his
+neck and a soft cheek was placed close to his own.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span></p><p>"Come on, Buddie," whispered "Little Sister," "Mammy an' me know you
+didn't mean to do it, an' we don' keer."</p>
+
+<p>Bud threw his arms around his little sister and held her tightly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's only you an' ma I care about," he said, "though I am sorry I
+spoiled the company's drill; they say "B" would have won anyway on
+account of our bad firing, but I did want you and ma to be proud."</p>
+
+<p>"We is proud," she whispered, "we's mos' prouder dan if you'd won," and
+pretty soon she led him by the hand out to supper.</p>
+
+<p>Hannah did all she could to cheer the boy and to encourage him to hope
+for next year, but he had little to say in reply, and went to bed early.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning, though it neared school time, Bud lingered around and
+seemed in no disposition to get ready to go.</p>
+
+<p>"Bettah git ready fer school," said Hannah cheerily to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe I want to go any more," Bud replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Not go any more? Why ain't you shamed to talk that way! O' cose you a
+goin' to school."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm ashamed to show my face to the boys."</p>
+
+<p>"What you say about de boys? De boys ain't a-goin' to give you no
+edgication when you need it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't want to go, ma; you don't know how I feel."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm kinder sorry I let you go into dat company," said Hannah musingly;
+"'cause it was de teachin' I wanted you to git, not de prancin' and
+steppin'; but I did t'ink it would make mo' of a man of you, an' it
+ain't. Yo' pappy was a po' man, ha'd wo'kin', an' he wasn't high-toned
+neither, but from the time I first see him to the day of his death I
+nevah seen him back down because he was afeared of anything," and Hannah
+turned to her work.</p>
+
+<p>"Little Sister" went up to Bud and slipped her hand in his. "You ain't
+a-goin' to back down, is you, Buddie?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Bud stoutly, as he braced his shoulders, "I'm a-goin'."</p>
+
+<p>But no persuasion could make him wear his uniform.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span></p><p>The boys were a little cold to him, and some were brutal. But most of
+them recognised the fact that what had happened to Tom Harris might have
+happened to any one of them. Besides, since the percentage had been
+shown, it was found that "B" had outpointed them in many ways, and so
+their loss was not due to the one grave error. Bud's heart sank when he
+dropped into his seat in the Assembly Hall to find seated on the
+platform one of the blue-coated officers who had acted as judge the day
+before. After the opening exercises were over he was called upon to
+address the school. He spoke readily and pleasantly, laying especial
+stress upon the value of discipline; toward the end of his address he
+said: "I suppose Company 'A' is heaping accusations upon the head of the
+young man who dropped his bayonet yesterday." Tom could have died. "It
+was most regrettable," the officer continued, "but to me the most
+significant thing at the drill was the conduct of that cadet afterward.
+I saw the whole proceeding; I saw that he did not pause for an instant,
+that he did not even turn his head, and it appeared to me as one of the
+finest bits of self-control I had ever seen in any youth; had he
+forgotten himself for a moment and stopped, however quickly, to secure
+the weapon, the next line would have been interfered with and your whole
+movement thrown into confusion." There were a half hundred eyes glancing
+furtively at Bud, and the light began to dawn in his face. "This boy has
+shown what discipline means, and I for one want to shake hands with him,
+if he is here."</p>
+
+<p>When he had concluded the Principal called Bud forward, and the boys,
+even his detractors, cheered as the officer took his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you not in uniform, sir?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I was ashamed to wear it after yesterday," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be ashamed to wear your uniform," the officer said to him, and
+Bud could have fallen on his knees and thanked him.</p>
+
+<p>There were no more jeers from his comrades now, and when he related it
+all at home that evening there were two more happy hearts in that South
+Washington cottage.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span></p><p>"I told you we was more prouder dan if you'd won," said "Little Sister."</p>
+
+<p>"An' what did I tell you 'bout backin' out?" asked his mother.</p>
+
+<p>Bud was too happy and too busy to answer; he was brushing his uniform.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The heart of happy hollow, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/24716.txt b/24716.txt
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+++ b/24716.txt
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+Project Gutenberg's The heart of happy hollow, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The heart of happy hollow
+       A collection of stories
+
+Author: Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
+Release Date: February 29, 2008 [EBook #24716]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART OF HAPPY HOLLOW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Bergquist, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Dialect and inconsistent spelling have been preserved.
+
+In The Scapegoat, Part II, text appears to be missing between
+"hard" and "brought" in the sentence "The school-teacher is
+giving you a pretty hard brought the school-children in for
+chorus singing, secured an able orator, and the best essayist
+in town."
+
+
+
+
+  THE HEART OF
+  HAPPY HOLLOW
+
+  _A Collection of Stories_
+
+  PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
+
+  Reprint, 1904
+  Dodd, Mead and Co., New York.
+
+
+
+
+_Contents_
+
+
+  _Foreword_  3
+
+  _One_: THE SCAPEGOAT  5
+
+  _Two_: ONE CHRISTMAS AT SHILOH  21
+
+  _Three_: THE MISSION OF MR. SCATTERS  29
+
+  _Four_: A MATTER OF DOCTRINE  45
+
+  _Five_: OLD ABE'S CONVERSION  53
+
+  _Six_: THE RACE QUESTION  63
+
+  _Seven_: A DEFENDER OF THE FAITH  67
+
+  _Eight_: CAHOOTS  73
+
+  _Nine_: THE PROMOTER  81
+
+  _Ten_: THE WISDOM OF SILENCE  95
+
+  _Eleven_: THE TRIUMPH OF OL' MIS' PEASE  103
+
+  _Twelve_: THE LYNCHING OF JUBE BENSON  111
+
+  _Thirteen_: SCHWALLIGER'S PHILANTHROPY  121
+
+  _Fourteen_: THE INTERFERENCE OF PATSY ANN  129
+
+  _Fifteen_: THE HOME-COMING OF 'RASTUS SMITH  137
+
+  _Sixteen_: THE BOY AND THE BAYONET  145
+
+
+
+
+To My Friend
+Ezra M. Kuhns
+
+
+
+
+_Foreword_
+
+
+Happy Hollow; are you wondering where it is? Wherever Negroes colonise
+in the cities or villages, north or south, wherever the hod carrier, the
+porter, and the waiter are the society men of the town; wherever the
+picnic and the excursion are the chief summer diversion, and the revival
+the winter time of repentance, wherever the cheese cloth veil obtains at
+a wedding, and the little white hearse goes by with black mourners in
+the one carriage behind, there--there--is Happy Hollow. Wherever
+laughter and tears rub elbows day by day, and the spirit of labour and
+laziness shake hands, there--there--is Happy Hollow, and of some of it
+may the following pages show the heart.
+
+The Author.
+
+
+
+
+_One_
+
+THE SCAPEGOAT
+
+
+I
+
+The law is usually supposed to be a stern mistress, not to be lightly
+wooed, and yielding only to the most ardent pursuit. But even law, like
+love, sits more easily on some natures than on others.
+
+This was the case with Mr. Robinson Asbury. Mr. Asbury had started life
+as a bootblack in the growing town of Cadgers. From this he had risen
+one step and become porter and messenger in a barber-shop. This rise
+fired his ambition, and he was not content until he had learned to use
+the shears and the razor and had a chair of his own. From this, in a man
+of Robinson's temperament, it was only a step to a shop of his own, and
+he placed it where it would do the most good.
+
+Fully one-half of the population of Cadgers was composed of Negroes, and
+with their usual tendency to colonise, a tendency encouraged, and in
+fact compelled, by circumstances, they had gathered into one part of
+the town. Here in alleys, and streets as dirty and hardly wider, they
+thronged like ants.
+
+It was in this place that Mr. Asbury set up his shop, and he won the
+hearts of his prospective customers by putting up the significant sign,
+"Equal Rights Barber-Shop." This legend was quite unnecessary, because
+there was only one race about, to patronise the place. But it was a
+delicate sop to the people's vanity, and it served its purpose.
+
+Asbury came to be known as a clever fellow, and his business grew. The
+shop really became a sort of club, and, on Saturday nights especially,
+was the gathering-place of the men of the whole Negro quarter. He kept
+the illustrated and race journals there, and those who cared neither to
+talk nor listen to someone else might see pictured the doings of high
+society in very short skirts or read in the Negro papers how Miss Boston
+had entertained Miss Blueford to tea on such and such an afternoon.
+Also, he kept the policy returns, which was wise, if not moral.
+
+It was his wisdom rather more than his morality that made the party
+managers after a while cast their glances toward him as a man who might
+be useful to their interests. It would be well to have a man--a shrewd,
+powerful man--down in that part of the town who could carry his people's
+vote in his vest pocket, and who at any time its delivery might be
+needed, could hand it over without hesitation. Asbury seemed that man,
+and they settled upon him. They gave him money, and they gave him power
+and patronage. He took it all silently and he carried out his bargain
+faithfully. His hands and his lips alike closed tightly when there was
+anything within them. It was not long before he found himself the big
+Negro of the district and, of necessity, of the town. The time came
+when, at a critical moment, the managers saw that they had not reckoned
+without their host in choosing this barber of the black district as the
+leader of his people.
+
+Now, so much success must have satisfied any other man. But in many
+ways Mr. Asbury was unique. For a long time he himself had done very
+little shaving--except of notes, to keep his hand in. His time had been
+otherwise employed. In the evening hours he had been wooing the
+coquettish Dame Law, and, wonderful to say, she had yielded easily to
+his advances.
+
+It was against the advice of his friends that he asked for admission to
+the bar. They felt that he could do more good in the place where he was.
+
+"You see, Robinson," said old Judge Davis, "it's just like this: If
+you're not admitted, it'll hurt you with the people; if you are
+admitted, you'll move uptown to an office and get out of touch with
+them."
+
+Asbury smiled an inscrutable smile. Then he whispered something into the
+judge's ear that made the old man wrinkle from his neck up with
+appreciative smiles.
+
+"Asbury," he said, "you are--you are--well, you ought to be white,
+that's all. When we find a black man like you we send him to State's
+prison. If you were white, you'd go to the Senate."
+
+The Negro laughed confidently.
+
+He was admitted to the bar soon after, whether by merit or by connivance
+is not to be told.
+
+"Now he will move uptown," said the black community. "Well, that's the
+way with a coloured man when he gets a start."
+
+But they did not know Asbury Robinson yet. He was a man of surprises,
+and they were destined to disappointment. He did not move uptown. He
+built an office in a small open space next his shop, and there hung out
+his shingle.
+
+"I will never desert the people who have done so much to elevate me,"
+said Mr. Asbury.
+
+"I will live among them and I will die among them."
+
+This was a strong card for the barber-lawyer. The people seized upon the
+statement as expressing a nobility of an altogether unique brand.
+
+They held a mass meeting and indorsed him. They made resolutions that
+extolled him, and the Negro band came around and serenaded him, playing
+various things in varied time.
+
+All this was very sweet to Mr. Asbury, and the party managers chuckled
+with satisfaction and said, "That Asbury, that Asbury!"
+
+Now there is a fable extant of a man who tried to please everybody, and
+his failure is a matter of record. Robinson Asbury was not more
+successful. But be it said that his ill success was due to no fault or
+shortcoming of his.
+
+For a long time his growing power had been looked upon with disfavour by
+the coloured law firm of Bingo & Latchett. Both Mr. Bingo and Mr.
+Latchett themselves aspired to be Negro leaders in Cadgers, and they
+were delivering Emancipation Day orations and riding at the head of
+processions when Mr. Asbury was blacking boots. Is it any wonder, then,
+that they viewed with alarm his sudden rise? They kept their counsel,
+however, and treated with him, for it was best. They allowed him his
+scope without open revolt until the day upon which he hung out his
+shingle. This was the last straw. They could stand no more. Asbury had
+stolen their other chances from them, and now he was poaching upon the
+last of their preserves. So Mr. Bingo and Mr. Latchett put their heads
+together to plan the downfall of their common enemy.
+
+The plot was deep and embraced the formation of an opposing faction made
+up of the best Negroes of the town. It would have looked too much like
+what it was for the gentlemen to show themselves in the matter, and so
+they took into their confidence Mr. Isaac Morton, the principal of the
+coloured school, and it was under his ostensible leadership that the new
+faction finally came into being.
+
+Mr. Morton was really an innocent young man, and he had ideals which
+should never have been exposed to the air. When the wily confederates
+came to him with their plan he believed that his worth had been
+recognised, and at last he was to be what Nature destined him for--a
+leader.
+
+The better class of Negroes--by that is meant those who were
+particularly envious of Asbury's success--flocked to the new man's
+standard. But whether the race be white or black, political virtue is
+always in a minority, so Asbury could afford to smile at the force
+arrayed against him.
+
+The new faction met together and resolved. They resolved, among other
+things, that Mr. Asbury was an enemy to his race and a menace to
+civilisation. They decided that he should be abolished; but, as they
+couldn't get out an injunction against him, and as he had the whole
+undignified but still voting black belt behind him, he went serenely on
+his way.
+
+"They're after you hot and heavy, Asbury," said one of his friends to
+him.
+
+"Oh, yes," was the reply, "they're after me, but after a while I'll get
+so far away that they'll be running in front."
+
+"It's all the best people, they say."
+
+"Yes. Well, it's good to be one of the best people, but your vote only
+counts one just the same."
+
+The time came, however, when Mr. Asbury's theory was put to the test.
+The Cadgerites celebrated the first of January as Emancipation Day. On
+this day there was a large procession, with speechmaking in the
+afternoon and fireworks at night. It was the custom to concede the
+leadership of the coloured people of the town to the man who managed to
+lead the procession. For two years past this honour had fallen, of
+course, to Robinson Asbury, and there had been no disposition on the
+part of anybody to try conclusions with him.
+
+Mr. Morton's faction changed all this. When Asbury went to work to
+solicit contributions for the celebration, he suddenly became aware that
+he had a fight upon his hands. All the better-class Negroes were
+staying out of it. The next thing he knew was that plans were on foot
+for a rival demonstration.
+
+"Oh," he said to himself, "that's it, is it? Well, if they want a fight
+they can have it."
+
+He had a talk with the party managers, and he had another with Judge
+Davis.
+
+"All I want is a little lift, judge," he said, "and I'll make 'em think
+the sky has turned loose and is vomiting niggers."
+
+The judge believed that he could do it. So did the party managers.
+Asbury got his lift. Emancipation Day came.
+
+There were two parades. At least, there was one parade and the shadow of
+another. Asbury's, however, was not the shadow. There was a great deal
+of substance about it--substance made up of many people, many banners,
+and numerous bands. He did not have the best people. Indeed, among his
+cohorts there were a good many of the pronounced rag-tag and bobtail.
+But he had noise and numbers. In such cases, nothing more is needed. The
+success of Asbury's side of the affair did everything to confirm his
+friends in their good opinion of him.
+
+When he found himself defeated, Mr. Silas Bingo saw that it would be
+policy to placate his rival's just anger against him. He called upon him
+at his office the day after the celebration.
+
+"Well, Asbury," he said, "you beat us, didn't you?"
+
+"It wasn't a question of beating," said the other calmly. "It was only
+an inquiry as to who were the people--the few or the many."
+
+"Well, it was well done, and you've shown that you are a manager. I
+confess that I haven't always thought that you were doing the wisest
+thing in living down here and catering to this class of people when you
+might, with your ability, to be much more to the better class."
+
+"What do they base their claims of being better on?"
+
+"Oh, there ain't any use discussing that. We can't get along without
+you, we see that. So I, for one, have decided to work with you for
+harmony."
+
+"Harmony. Yes, that's what we want."
+
+"If I can do anything to help you at any time, why you have only to
+command me."
+
+"I am glad to find such a friend in you. Be sure, if I ever need you,
+Bingo, I'll call on you."
+
+"And I'll be ready to serve you."
+
+Asbury smiled when his visitor was gone. He smiled, and knitted his
+brow. "I wonder what Bingo's got up his sleeve," he said. "He'll bear
+watching."
+
+It may have been pride at his triumph, it may have been gratitude at his
+helpers, but Asbury went into the ensuing campaign with reckless
+enthusiasm. He did the most daring things for the party's sake. Bingo,
+true to his promise, was ever at his side ready to serve him. Finally,
+association and immunity made danger less fearsome; the rival no longer
+appeared a menace.
+
+With the generosity born of obstacles overcome, Asbury determined to
+forgive Bingo and give him a chance. He let him in on a deal, and from
+that time they worked amicably together until the election came and
+passed.
+
+It was a close election and many things had had to be done, but there
+were men there ready and waiting to do them. They were successful, and
+then the first cry of the defeated party was, as usual, "Fraud! Fraud!"
+The cry was taken up by the jealous, the disgruntled, and the virtuous.
+
+Someone remembered how two years ago the registration books had been
+stolen. It was known upon good authority that money had been freely
+used. Men held up their hands in horror at the suggestion that the Negro
+vote had been juggled with, as if that were a new thing. From their
+pulpits ministers denounced the machine and bade their hearers rise and
+throw off the yoke of a corrupt municipal government. One of those
+sudden fevers of reform had taken possession of the town and threatened
+to destroy the successful party.
+
+They began to look around them. They must purify themselves. They must
+give the people some tangible evidence of their own yearnings after
+purity. They looked around them for a sacrifice to lay upon the altar of
+municipal reform. Their eyes fell upon Mr. Bingo. No, he was not big
+enough. His blood was too scant to wash away the political stains. Then
+they looked into each other's eyes and turned their gaze away to let it
+fall upon Mr. Asbury. They really hated to do it. But there must be a
+scapegoat. The god from the Machine commanded them to slay him.
+
+Robinson Asbury was charged with many crimes--with all that he had
+committed and some that he had not. When Mr. Bingo saw what was afoot he
+threw himself heart and soul into the work of his old rival's enemies.
+He was of incalculable use to them.
+
+Judge Davis refused to have anything to do with the matter. But in spite
+of his disapproval it went on. Asbury was indicted and tried. The
+evidence was all against him, and no one gave more damaging testimony
+than his friend, Mr. Bingo. The judge's charge was favourable to the
+defendant, but the current of popular opinion could not be entirely
+stemmed. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty.
+
+"Before I am sentenced, judge, I have a statement to make to the court.
+It will take less than ten minutes."
+
+"Go on, Robinson," said the judge kindly.
+
+Asbury started, in a monotonous tone, a recital that brought the
+prosecuting attorney to his feet in a minute. The judge waved him down,
+and sat transfixed by a sort of fascinated horror as the convicted man
+went on. The before-mentioned attorney drew a knife and started for the
+prisoner's dock. With difficulty he was restrained. A dozen faces in the
+court-room were red and pale by turns.
+
+"He ought to be killed," whispered Mr. Bingo audibly.
+
+Robinson Asbury looked at him and smiled, and then he told a few things
+of him. He gave the ins and outs of some of the misdemeanours of which
+he stood accused. He showed who were the men behind the throne. And
+still, pale and transfixed, Judge Davis waited for his own sentence.
+
+Never were ten minutes so well taken up. It was a tale of rottenness and
+corruption in high places told simply and with the stamp of truth upon
+it.
+
+He did not mention the judge's name. But he had torn the mask from the
+face of every other man who had been concerned in his downfall. They had
+shorn him of his strength, but they had forgotten that he was yet able
+to bring the roof and pillars tumbling about their heads.
+
+The judge's voice shook as he pronounced sentence upon his old ally--a
+year in State's prison.
+
+Some people said it was too light, but the judge knew what it was to
+wait for the sentence of doom, and he was grateful and sympathetic.
+
+When the sheriff led Asbury away the judge hastened to have a short talk
+with him.
+
+"I'm sorry, Robinson," he said, "and I want to tell you that you were no
+more guilty than the rest of us. But why did you spare me?"
+
+"Because I knew you were my friend," answered the convict.
+
+"I tried to be, but you were the first man that I've ever known since
+I've been in politics who ever gave me any decent return for
+friendship."
+
+"I reckon you're about right, judge."
+
+In politics, party reform usually lies in making a scapegoat of someone
+who is only as criminal as the rest, but a little weaker. Asbury's
+friends and enemies had succeeded in making him bear the burden of all
+the party's crimes, but their reform was hardly a success, and their
+protestations of a change of heart were received with doubt. Already
+there were those who began to pity the victim and to say that he had
+been hardly dealt with.
+
+Mr. Bingo was not of these; but he found, strange to say, that his
+opposition to the idea went but a little way, and that even with Asbury
+out of his path he was a smaller man than he was before. Fate was strong
+against him. His poor, prosperous humanity could not enter the lists
+against a martyr. Robinson Asbury was now a martyr.
+
+
+II
+
+A year is not a long time. It was short enough to prevent people from
+forgetting Robinson, and yet long enough for their pity to grow strong
+as they remembered. Indeed, he was not gone a year. Good behaviour cut
+two months off the time of his sentence, and by the time people had come
+around to the notion that he was really the greatest and smartest man in
+Cadgers he was at home again.
+
+He came back with no flourish of trumpets, but quietly, humbly. He went
+back again into the heart of the black district. His business had
+deteriorated during his absence, but he put new blood and new life into
+it. He did not go to work in the shop himself, but, taking down the
+shingle that had swung idly before his office door during his
+imprisonment, he opened the little room as a news- and cigar-stand.
+
+Here anxious, pitying custom came to him and he prospered again. He was
+very quiet. Uptown hardly knew that he was again in Cadgers, and it knew
+nothing whatever of his doings.
+
+"I wonder why Asbury is so quiet," they said to one another. "It isn't
+like him to be quiet." And they felt vaguely uneasy about him.
+
+So many people had begun to say, "Well, he was a mighty good fellow
+after all."
+
+Mr. Bingo expressed the opinion that Asbury was quiet because he was
+crushed, but others expressed doubt as to this. There are calms and
+calms, some after and some before the storm. Which was this?
+
+They waited a while, and, as no storm came, concluded that this must be
+the after-quiet. Bingo, reassured, volunteered to go and seek
+confirmation of this conclusion.
+
+He went, and Asbury received him with an indifferent, not to say,
+impolite, demeanour.
+
+"Well, we're glad to see you back, Asbury," said Bingo patronisingly. He
+had variously demonstrated his inability to lead during his rival's
+absence and was proud of it. "What are you going to do?"
+
+"I'm going to work."
+
+"That's right. I reckon you'll stay out of politics."
+
+"What could I do even if I went in?"
+
+"Nothing now, of course; but I didn't know----"
+
+He did not see the gleam in Asbury's half shut eyes. He only marked his
+humility, and he went back swelling with the news.
+
+"Completely crushed--all the run taken out of him," was his report.
+
+The black district believed this, too, and a sullen, smouldering anger
+took possession of them. Here was a good man ruined. Some of the people
+whom he had helped in his former days--some of the rude, coarse people
+of the low quarter who were still sufficiently unenlightened to be
+grateful--talked among themselves and offered to get up a demonstration
+for him. But he denied them. No, he wanted nothing of the kind. It would
+only bring him into unfavourable notice. All he wanted was that they
+would always be his friends and would stick by him.
+
+They would to the death.
+
+There were again two factions in Cadgers. The school-master could not
+forget how once on a time he had been made a tool of by Mr. Bingo. So he
+revolted against his rule and set himself up as the leader of an
+opposing clique. The fight had been long and strong, but had ended with
+odds slightly in Bingo's favour.
+
+But Mr. Morton did not despair. As the first of January and Emancipation
+Day approached, he arrayed his hosts, and the fight for supremacy became
+fiercer than ever. The school-teacher is giving you a pretty hard
+brought the school-children in for chorus singing, secured an able
+orator, and the best essayist in town. With all this, he was formidable.
+
+Mr. Bingo knew that he had the fight of his life on his hands, and he
+entered with fear as well as zest. He, too, found an orator, but he was
+not sure that he was as good as Morton's. There was no doubt but that
+his essayist was not. He secured a band, but still he felt unsatisfied.
+He had hardly done enough, and for the school-master to beat him now
+meant his political destruction.
+
+It was in this state of mind that he was surprised to receive a visit
+from Mr. Asbury.
+
+"I reckon you're surprised to see me here," said Asbury, smiling.
+
+"I am pleased, I know." Bingo was astute.
+
+"Well, I just dropped in on business."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure, Asbury. What can I do for you?"
+
+"It's more what I can do for you that I came to talk about," was the
+reply.
+
+"I don't believe I understand you."
+
+"Well, it's plain enough. They say that the school-teacher is giving you
+a pretty hard fight."
+
+"Oh, not so hard."
+
+"No man can be too sure of winning, though. Mr. Morton once did me a
+mean turn when he started the faction against me."
+
+Bingo's heart gave a great leap, and then stopped for the fraction of a
+second.
+
+"You were in it, of course," pursued Asbury, "but I can look over your
+part in it in order to get even with the man who started it."
+
+It was true, then, thought Bingo gladly. He did not know. He wanted
+revenge for his wrongs and upon the wrong man. How well the schemer had
+covered his tracks! Asbury should have his revenge and Morton would be
+the sufferer.
+
+"Of course, Asbury, you know what I did I did innocently."
+
+"Oh, yes, in politics we are all lambs and the wolves are only to be
+found in the other party. We'll pass that, though. What I want to say is
+that I can help you to make your celebration an overwhelming success. I
+still have some influence down in my district."
+
+"Certainly, and very justly, too. Why, I should be delighted with your
+aid. I could give you a prominent place in the procession."
+
+"I don't want it; I don't want to appear in this at all. All I want is
+revenge. You can have all the credit, but let me down my enemy."
+
+Bingo was perfectly willing, and, with their heads close together, they
+had a long and close consultation. When Asbury was gone, Mr. Bingo lay
+back in his chair and laughed. "I'm a slick duck," he said.
+
+From that hour Mr. Bingo's cause began to take on the appearance of
+something very like a boom. More bands were hired. The interior of the
+State was called upon and a more eloquent orator secured. The crowd
+hastened to array itself on the growing side.
+
+With surprised eyes, the school-master beheld the wonder of it, but he
+kept to his own purpose with dogged insistence, even when he saw that he
+could not turn aside the overwhelming defeat that threatened him. But in
+spite of his obstinacy, his hours were dark and bitter. Asbury worked
+like a mole, all underground, but he was indefatigable. Two days before
+the celebration time everything was perfected for the biggest
+demonstration that Cadgers had ever known. All the next day and night he
+was busy among his allies.
+
+On the morning of the great day, Mr. Bingo, wonderfully caparisoned,
+rode down to the hall where the parade was to form. He was early. No one
+had yet come. In an hour a score of men all told had collected. Another
+hour passed, and no more had come. Then there smote upon his ear the
+sound of music. They were coming at last. Bringing his sword to his
+shoulder, he rode forward to the middle of the street. Ah, there they
+were. But--but--could he believe his eyes? They were going in another
+direction, and at their head rode--Morton! He gnashed his teeth in fury.
+He had been led into a trap and betrayed. The procession passing had
+been his--all his. He heard them cheering, and then, oh! climax of
+infidelity, he saw his own orator go past in a carriage, bowing and
+smiling to the crowd.
+
+There was no doubting who had done this thing. The hand of Asbury was
+apparent in it. He must have known the truth all along, thought Bingo.
+His allies left him one by one for the other hall, and he rode home in a
+humiliation deeper than he had ever known before.
+
+Asbury did not appear at the celebration. He was at his little
+news-stand all day.
+
+In a day or two the defeated aspirant had further cause to curse his
+false friend. He found that not only had the people defected from him,
+but that the thing had been so adroitly managed that he appeared to be
+in fault, and three-fourths of those who knew him were angry at some
+supposed grievance. His cup of bitterness was full when his partner, a
+quietly ambitious man, suggested that they dissolve their relations.
+
+His ruin was complete.
+
+The lawyer was not alone in seeing Asbury's hand in his downfall. The
+party managers saw it too, and they met together to discuss the
+dangerous factor which, while it appeared to slumber, was so terribly
+awake. They decided that he must be appeased, and they visited him.
+
+He was still busy at his news-stand. They talked to him adroitly, while
+he sorted papers and kept an impassive face. When they were all done, he
+looked up for a moment and replied, "You know, gentlemen, as an
+ex-convict I am not in politics."
+
+Some of them had the grace to flush.
+
+"But you can use your influence," they said.
+
+"I am not in politics," was his only reply.
+
+And the spring elections were coming on. Well, they worked hard, and he
+showed no sign. He treated with neither one party nor the other.
+"Perhaps," thought the managers, "he is out of politics," and they grew
+more confident.
+
+It was nearing eleven o'clock on the morning of election when a cloud no
+bigger than a man's hand appeared upon the horizon. It came from the
+direction of the black district. It grew, and the managers of the party
+in power looked at it, fascinated by an ominous dread. Finally it began
+to rain Negro voters, and as one man they voted against their former
+candidates. Their organisation was perfect. They simply came, voted, and
+left, but they overwhelmed everything. Not one of the party that had
+damned Robinson Asbury was left in power save old Judge Davis. His
+majority was overwhelming.
+
+The generalship that had engineered the thing was perfect. There were
+loud threats against the newsdealer. But no one bothered him except a
+reporter. The reporter called to see just how it was done. He found
+Asbury very busy sorting papers. To the newspaper man's questions he had
+only this reply, "I am not in politics, sir."
+
+But Cadgers had learned its lesson.
+
+
+
+
+_Two_
+
+ONE CHRISTMAS AT SHILOH
+
+
+Martha Maria Mixon was a "widder lady." So she described herself
+whenever anyone asked her as to her status in life. To her more intimate
+friends she confided that she was not a "weed widder," but one of the
+"grass" variety. The story of how her husband, Madison, had never been
+"No 'count, even befo' de wah," and of his rapid degeneration
+thereafter, was vividly told.
+
+"De fact of de mattah is," Mrs. Mixon was wont to say, "my man, Madison,
+was nevah no han' to wo'k. He was de settin'-downest man you evah seed.
+Hit wouldn't 'a' been so bad, but Madison was a lakly man, an' his
+tongue wah smoothah dan ile; so hit t'wan't no shakes fu' him to fool
+ol' Mas' 'bout his wo'k an' git erlong des erbout ez he pleased. Mas'
+Madison Mixon, hisse'f, was a mighty 'dulgent so't o' man, an' he liked
+a laugh bettah dan anyone in de worl'. Well, my man could mek him laugh,
+an' dat was enough fu' him. I used to lectuah dat man much 'bout his
+onshifless ways, but he des went erlong, twell bimeby hyeah come de wah
+an' evahthing was broke up. Den w'en hit come time dat Madison had to
+scramble fu' hisself, dey wa'nt no scramble in him. He des' wouldn't
+wo'k an' I had to do evahthing. He allus had what he called some gret
+scheme, but deh nevah seemed to come to nuffin, an' once when he got de
+folks to put some money in somep'n' dat broke up, dey come put' nigh
+tahin' an' featherin' him. Finally, I des got morchully tiahed o' dat
+man's ca'in' on, an' I say to him one day, 'Madison,' I say, 'I'm tiahed
+of all dis foo'ishness, an' I'm gwine up Norf whaih I kin live an' be
+somebody. Ef evah you mek a man out o' yo'se'f, an' want me, de Bible
+say 'Seek an' you shell receive.' Cause even den I was a mighty han' to
+c'ote de Scripters. Well, I lef' him, an' Norf I come, 'dough it jes'
+nigh broke my hea't, fu' I sho did love dat black man. De las' thing I
+hyeahed o' him, he had des learned to read an' write an' wah runnin' fu'
+de Legislater 'twell de Klu Klux got aftah him; den I think he 'signed
+de nomernation."
+
+This was Martha's story, and the reason that there was no Mr. Mixon with
+her when she came North, drifted from place to place and finally became
+one of New York's large black contingent from the South. To her the
+lessons of slavery had not been idle ones. Industrious, careful, and
+hard-working, she soon became prosperous, and when, hunting a spiritual
+home she settled upon Shiloh Chapel, she was welcomed there as a
+distinct addition to the large and active membership.
+
+Shiloh was not one of the fashionable churches of the city, but it was
+primarily a church home for any Southern negro, for in it were
+representatives of every one of the old slaveholding States. Its pastor
+was one of those who had not yet got beyond the belief that any temporal
+preparation for the preaching of the Gospel was unnecessary. It was
+still his firm trust, and often his boast, that if one opened his mouth
+the Lord would fill it, and it grew to be a settled idea that the Lord
+filled his acceptably, for his converts were many and his congregation
+increased.
+
+The Rev. Silas Todbury's education may have been deficient in other
+matters, but one thing he knew, and knew thoroughly--the disposition of
+his people. He knew just what weaknesses, longings, and desires their
+recent bondage had left with them, and with admirable shrewdness
+contrived to meet them. He knew that in preaching they wanted noise,
+emotion, and fire; that in the preacher they wanted free-heartedness and
+cordiality. He knew that when Christmas came they wanted a great rally,
+somewhat approaching, at least, the rousing times both spiritual and
+temporal that they had had back on the old plantation, when Christmas
+meant a week of pleasurable excitement. Knowing the last so well, it was
+with commendable foresight that he began early his preparations for a
+big time on a certain Christmas not long ago.
+
+"I tell you people," he said to his congregation, "we's goin' to have a
+reg'lar 'Benjamin's mess'!"
+
+The coloured folk, being not quite sure of the quotation, laughed
+heartily, exclaiming in admiration of their pastor, "Dat Todbu'y is
+sholy one mess hisse'f."
+
+"Now any of de sistahs dat's willin' to he'p mek dis comin' Chris'mus a
+real sho 'nough one, 'll 'blige me by meetin' me in de basement of de
+chu'ch aftah services. De brothahs kin go 'long home 'twell dey called
+fu'."
+
+There was another outburst of merriment at this sally, and it was a
+good-natured score or more of sisters who a little later met the pastor
+as agreed. Among them was Martha Maria Mixon, for she was very close to
+her pastor, and for many a day had joyed his clerical heart with special
+dinners.
+
+"Ah," said the preacher, rubbing his hands, "Sistah Marthy, I see you's
+on han' ez usual to he'p me out, an' you, too, Sis Jinny, an' Sis
+Dicey," he added, quick to note the signs of any incipient jealousy, and
+equally ready to check it. "We's all hyeah, de faithful few, an' we's
+all ready fu' wo'k."
+
+The sisters beamed and nodded.
+
+"Well, we goin' to have some'p'n evah night, beginnin' wid Chris'mus
+night, straight on endurin' of de week, an' I want to separate you all
+into companies fu' to take chawge of each night. Now, I's a-goin' to
+have a powahful preachah f'om de Souf wid us, an' I want you all to show
+him what we kin do. On Chris'mus day we goin' to have a sermont at de
+chu'ch an' a festabal in de evenin' wid a Chris'mus tree. Sis' Marthy, I
+want you to boa'd de minister."
+
+"La, Brothah Todbu'y, I don't scarcely feel lak I's 'portant 'nough fu'
+dat," said Mrs. Mixon modestly, "but I'll do de bes' I kin. I hatter be
+lak de widder's mice in de scuse o' meal."
+
+"We ain't got no doubt 'bout what you able to do, Sis Marthy," and the
+pastor passed to the appointment of his other committees. After evening
+services the brothers were similarly called in consultation and
+appointed to their respective duties.
+
+To the black people to whom these responsibilities were thus turned
+over, joy came, and with it the vision of other days--the vision of the
+dear old days, the hard old days back there in the South, when they had
+looked forward to their Christmas from year to year. Then it had been a
+time of sadness as well as of joy, for they knew that though the week
+was full of pleasure, after it was over must come separation and
+sadness. For this was the time when those who were to be hired out,
+loaned, or given away, were to change their homes. So even while they
+danced they sighed, and while they shouted they moaned. Now there was no
+such repressing fact to daunt them. Christmas would come. They would
+enjoy themselves, and after it was over would go back to the same homes
+to live through the round of months in the midst of familiar faces and
+among their own old loved ones. The thought gave sweetness to their
+labour, and the responsibilities devolving upon them imbued the sacred
+holiday with a meaning and charm that it had never had before for them.
+They bubbled over with importance and with the glory of it. A sister and
+a brother could not meet without a friendly banter.
+
+"Hi, Sis' Dicey," Brother Williams would call out across the fence to
+his neighbour, "I don' believe you doin' anything to'ds dat Chris'mus
+celebration. Evah time I sees you, you's in de washtub tryin' to mek
+braid an' meat fo' dat no 'count man o' yo'n."
+
+Sister Dicey's laugh rang out loud and musical before she replied,
+"Nevah you min', Brothah Williams. I don' see yo' back bowed so much by
+de yoke."
+
+"Oh, honey, I's labo'in' even ef you do'n know it, but you'll see it on
+de day."
+
+"I 'low you labo'in' de mos' to git dat wife o' yo'n a new dress," and
+her tormentor's guffaw seemed to admit some such benevolent intention.
+
+In the corners of every house where the younger and more worldly-minded
+people congregated there was much whispering and giggling, for they had
+their own plans for Christmas outside of the church affair.
+
+"You goin' to give me de pleasure of yo' comp'ny to de dance aftah de
+festabal?" some ardent and early swain would murmur to his lady love,
+and the whisper would fly back in well-feigned affright, "Heish, man,
+you want to have Brothah Todbu'y chu'chin' me?" But if the swain
+persisted, there was little chance of his being ultimately refused. So
+the world, the flesh, and the devil kept pace with the things of the
+spirit in the great preparation.
+
+Meanwhile Martha Maria Mixon went her own way, working hard, fixing and
+observing. She had determined to excel herself this time, and not only
+should her part at the church be above reproach, but the entertainment
+which she would give that strange preacher would be a thing long to be
+remembered. And so, almost startled at all that Shiloh was preparing for
+his reception, hoary Christmas approached.
+
+All New York was a dazzling bazar through which the people thronged
+ceaselessly, tumultuously. Everyone was a child again; holly wreaths
+with the red berries gleaming amid the green were everywhere, and the
+white streets were gay with laughter and bustle and life.
+
+On the night before the great day Martha sat before her fire and hummed
+softly to herself. There was a smile upon her face, for she had worked
+and worked well, and now all was ready and to her entire satisfaction.
+Something which shall be nameless simmered in a tin cup on the back of
+the stove before her, and every now and then she broke her reverie to
+sip of it. It smelled sweet and pungent and suspicious, but, then--this
+was Christmas Eve. She was half drowsing when a brisk knock startled her
+into wakefulness. Thinking it was one of the neighbours in for a call
+she bade the visitor enter, without moving. There was a stamping of
+feet, and the door opened and a black man covered with snow stood before
+her. He said nothing. Martha rubbed her eyes and stared at him, and then
+she looked at the cup accusingly, and from it back to the man. Then she
+rubbed her eyes again.
+
+"Wha--wha----" she stammered, rising slowly.
+
+"Don' you know me, Marthy, don' you know me; an' don' you want to see
+yo' husban'?"
+
+"Madison Mixon, is dat you in de flesh?"
+
+"It's me, Marthy; you tol' me ef evah I made a man o' myse'f, to seek
+you. It's been a long road, but I's tried faithful."
+
+All the memories of other days came rushing over Martha in an
+overwhelming flood. In one moment everything was forgotten save that
+here stood her long delinquent husband. She threw out her arms and took
+a step toward him, but he anticipated her further advance and rushing to
+her clasped her ample form in a close embrace.
+
+"You will tek me back!" he cried, "you will fu'give me!"
+
+"Yes, yes, of co'se, I will, Madison, ef you has made a man of yo'se'f."
+
+"I hopes to prove dat to you."
+
+It was a very pleasant evening that they spent together, and like old
+times to Martha. Never once did it occur to her that this sudden finding
+of a husband might be awkward on the morrow when the visitor came to
+dinner. Nor did she once suspect that Madison might be up to one of his
+old tricks. She accepted him for just what he said he was and intended
+to be.
+
+Her first doubt came the next morning when she began to hurry her
+preparations for church. Madison had been fumbling in his carpet bag and
+was already respectably dressed. His wife looked at him approvingly, but
+the glance turned to one of consternation when he stammered forth that
+he had to go out, as he had some business to attend to.
+
+"What, on de ve'y fust day you hyeah, ain't you goin' to chu'ch wid me?"
+
+"De bus'ness is mighty pressin', but I hopes to see you at chu'ch by de
+time de services begin. Waih does you set?" His hand was on the door.
+
+Martha sank into a chair and the tears came to her eyes, but she choked
+them back. She would not let him see how much she was hurt. She told him
+in a faltering voice where she sat, and he passed out. Then her tears
+came and flooded away the last hope. She had been so proud to think that
+she would walk to church with her husband that morning for the first
+time in so long a while, and now it was all over. For a little while she
+thought that she would not go, and then the memory of all the
+preparations she had made and of the new minister came to her, and she
+went on with her dressing.
+
+The church was crowded that morning when Martha arrived. She looked
+around in vain for some sight of Madison, but she could see nothing of
+him, and so she sank into her seat with a sigh. She could just see the
+new minister drooping in his seat behind the reading desk. He was
+evidently deep in meditation, for he did not get up during the hymn.
+
+Then Martha heard the Rev. Silas Todbury speaking. His words did not
+affect her until she found that the whole of his closing sentence was
+flashing through her brain like a flame. "We will now be exho'ted by de
+Reverent Madison Mixon."
+
+She couldn't believe her ears, but stared wildly at the pulpit where the
+new preacher stood. It was Madison. Her first impulse was to rise in her
+seat and stop him. It was another of his tricks, and he should not
+profane the church. But his look and voice silenced her and she sank
+back in amazement.
+
+He preached a powerful sermon, and at its close told something of his
+life and who he was, and Martha found herself all at once the centre of
+attention; and her face glowed and her heart burned within her as the
+people about her nodded and smiled at her through their tears, and
+hurled "Amen" upon "Amen."
+
+Madison hurried to her side after the services. "I des wanted to s'prise
+you a little, Marthy," he said.
+
+She was too happy to answer and, pressing his arm very tightly, she
+walked out among her congratulating friends, and between her husband and
+the Rev. Silas Todbury went proudly home to her Christmas dinner.
+
+
+
+
+_Three_
+
+THE MISSION OF MR. SCATTERS
+
+
+It took something just short of a revolution to wake up the sleepy
+little town of Miltonville. Through the slow, hot days it drowsed along
+like a lazy dog, only half rousing now and then to snap at some flying
+rumour, and relapsing at once into its pristine somnolence.
+
+It was not a dreamless sleep, however, that held the town in chains. It
+had its dreams--dreams of greatness, of wealth, of consequence and of
+growth. Granted that there was no effort to realise these visions, they
+were yet there, and, combined with the memory of a past that was not
+without credit, went far to give tone to its dormant spirit.
+
+It was a real spirit, too; the gallant Bourbon spirit of the old South;
+of Kentucky when she is most the daughter of Virginia, as was evidenced
+in the awed respect which all Miltonvillians, white and black alike,
+showed to Major Richardson in his house on the hill. He was part of the
+traditions of the place. It was shown in the conservatism of the old
+white families, and a certain stalwart if reflected self-respect in the
+older coloured inhabitants.
+
+In all the days since the school had been founded and Mr. Dunkin's
+marriage to the teacher had raised a brief ripple of excitement, these
+coloured people had slumbered. They were still slumbering that hot
+August day, unmindful of the sensation that lay at their very doors,
+heedless of the portents that said as plain as preaching, "Miltonville,
+the time is at hand, awake!"
+
+So it was that that afternoon there were only a few loungers, and these
+not very alert, about the station when the little train wheezed and
+puffed its way into it. It had been so long since anyone save those whom
+they knew had alighted at Miltonville that the loungers had lost faith,
+and with it curiosity, and now they scarcely changed their positions as
+the little engine stopped with a snort of disgust. But in an instant
+indifference had fled as the mist before the sun, and every eye on the
+platform was staring and white. It is the unexpected that always
+happens, and yet humanity never gets accustomed to it. The loafers,
+white and black, had assumed a sitting posture, and then they had stood
+up. For from the cars there had alighted the wonder of a stranger--a
+Negro stranger, gorgeous of person and attire. He was dressed in a suit
+of black cloth. A long coat was buttoned close around his tall and
+robust form. He was dead black, from his shiny top hat to his not less
+shiny boots, and about him there was the indefinable air of distinction.
+He stood looking about the platform for a moment, and then stepped
+briskly and decisively toward the group that was staring at him with
+wide eyes. There was no hesitation in that step. He walked as a man
+walks who is not in the habit of being stopped, who has not known what
+it is to be told, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further."
+
+"Can you tell me where I can find the residence of Mr. Isaac Jackson?"
+he asked sonorously as he reached the stupefied loungers. His voice was
+deep and clear.
+
+Someone woke from his astonishment and offered to lead him thither, and
+together the two started for their destination, the stranger keeping up
+a running fire of comment on the way. Had his companion been a close
+observer and known anything about the matter, he would have found the
+newcomer's English painfully, unforgivably correct. A language should be
+like an easy shoe on a flexible foot, but to one unused to it, it proves
+rather a splint on a broken limb. The stranger stalked about in
+conversational splints until they arrived at Isaac Jackson's door. Then
+giving his guide a dime, he dismissed him with a courtly bow, and
+knocked.
+
+It was a good thing that Martha Ann Jackson had the innate politeness of
+her race well to the fore when she opened the door upon the radiant
+creature, or she would have given voice to the words that were in her
+heart: "Good Lawd, what is dis?"
+
+"Is this the residence of Mr. Isaac Jackson?" in the stranger's suavest
+voice.
+
+"Yes, suh, he live hyeah."
+
+"May I see him? I desire to see him upon some business." He handed her
+his card, which she carefully turned upside down, glanced at without
+understanding, and put in her apron pocket as she replied:
+
+"He ain't in jes' now, but ef you'll step in an' wait, I'll sen' one o'
+de chillen aftah him."
+
+"I thank you, madam, I thank you. I will come in and rest from the
+fatigue of my journey. I have travelled a long way, and rest in such a
+pleasant and commodious abode as your own appears to be will prove very
+grateful to me."
+
+She had been half afraid to invite this resplendent figure into her
+humble house, but she felt distinctly flattered at his allusion to the
+home which she had helped Isaac to buy, and by the alacrity with which
+the stranger accepted her invitation.
+
+She ushered him into the front room, mentally thanking her stars that
+she had forced the reluctant Isaac to buy a bright new carpet a couple
+of months before.
+
+A child was despatched to find and bring home the father, while Martha
+Ann, hastily slipping out of her work-dress and into a starched calico,
+came in to keep her visitor company.
+
+His name proved to be Scatters, and he was a most entertaining and
+ingratiating man. It was evident that he had some important business
+with Isaac Jackson, but that it was mysterious was shown by the guarded
+way in which he occasionally hinted at it as he tapped the valise he
+carried and nodded knowingly.
+
+Time had never been when Martha Ann Jackson was so flustered. She was
+charmed and frightened and flattered. She could only leave Mr. Scatters
+long enough to give orders to her daughter, Lucy, to prepare such a
+supper as that household had never seen before; then she returned to sit
+again at his feet and listen to his words of wisdom.
+
+The supper progressed apace, and the savour of it was already in the
+stranger's nostrils. Upon this he grew eloquent and was about to divulge
+his secret to the hungry-eyed woman when the trampling of Isaac's boots
+upon the walk told him that he had only a little while longer to contain
+himself, and at the same time to wait for the fragrant supper.
+
+Now, it is seldom that a man is so well impressed with a smooth-tongued
+stranger as is his wife. Usually his hard-headedness puts him on the
+defensive against the blandishments of the man who has won his better
+half's favour, and, however honest the semi-fortunate individual may be,
+he despises him for his attainments. But it was not so in this case.
+Isaac had hardly entered the house and received his visitor's warm
+handclasp before he had become captive to his charm. Business,
+business--no, his guest had been travelling and he must be both tired
+and hungry. Isaac would hear of no business until they had eaten. Then,
+over a pipe, if the gentleman smoked, they might talk at their ease.
+
+Mr. Scatters demurred, but in fact nothing could have pleased him
+better, and the open smile with which he dropped into his place at the
+table was very genuine and heartfelt. Genuine, too, were his praises of
+Lucy's cooking; of her flaky buscuits and mealy potatoes. He was pleased
+all through and he did not hesitate to say so.
+
+It was a beaming group that finally rose heavily laden from the supper
+table.
+
+Over a social pipe a little later, Isaac Jackson heard the story that
+made his eyes bulge with interest and his heart throb with eagerness.
+
+Mr. Scatters began, tapping his host's breast and looking at him
+fixedly, "You had a brother some years ago named John." It was more like
+an accusation than a question.
+
+"Yes, suh, I had a brothah John."
+
+"Uh, huh, and that brother migrated to the West Indies."
+
+"Yes, suh, he went out to some o' dem outlandish places."
+
+"Hold on, sir, hold on, I am a West Indian myself."
+
+"I do' mean no erfence, 'ceptin' dat John allus was of a rovin'
+dispersition."
+
+"Very well, you know no more about your brother after his departure for
+the West Indies?"
+
+"No, suh."
+
+"Well, it is my mission to tell you the rest of the story. Your brother
+John landed at Cuba, and after working about some years and living
+frugally, he went into the coffee business, in which he became rich."
+
+"Rich?"
+
+"Rich, sir."
+
+"Why, bless my soul, who'd 'a evah thought that of John? Why, suh, I'm
+sho'ly proud to hyeah it. Why don't he come home an' visit a body?"
+
+"Ah, why?" said Mr. Scatters dramatically. "Now comes the most painful
+part of my mission. 'In the midst of life we are in death.'" Mr.
+Scatters sighed, Isaac sighed and wiped his eyes. "Two years ago your
+brother departed this life."
+
+"Was he saved?" Isaac asked in a choked voice. Scatters gave him one
+startled glance, and then answered hastily, "I am happy to say that he
+was."
+
+"Poor John! He gone an' me lef'."
+
+"Even in the midst of our sorrows, however, there is always a ray of
+light. Your brother remembered you in his will."
+
+"Remembered me?"
+
+"Remembered you, and as one of the executors of his estate,"--Mr.
+Scatters rose and went softly over to his valise, from which he took a
+large square package. He came back with it, holding it as if it were
+something sacred,--"as one of the executors of his estate, which is now
+settled, I was commissioned to bring you this." He tapped the package.
+"This package, sealed as you see with the seal of Cuba, contains five
+thousand dollars in notes and bonds."
+
+Isaac gasped and reached for the bundle, but it was withdrawn. "I am,
+however, not to deliver it to you yet. There are certain formalities
+which my country demands to be gone through with, after which I deliver
+my message and return to the fairest of lands, to the Gem of the
+Antilles. Let me congratulate you, Mr. Jackson, upon your good fortune."
+
+Isaac yielded up his hand mechanically. He was dazed by the vision of
+this sudden wealth.
+
+"Fi' thousan' dollahs," he repeated.
+
+"Yes, sir, five thousand dollars. It is a goodly sum, and in the
+meantime, until court convenes, I wish you to recommend some safe place
+in which to put this money, as I do not feel secure with it about my
+person, nor would it be secure if it were known to be in your house."
+
+"I reckon Albert Matthews' grocery would be the safes' place fu' it.
+He's got one o' dem i'on saftes."
+
+"The very place. Let us go there at once, and after that I will not
+encroach upon your hospitality longer, but attempt to find a hotel."
+
+"Hotel nothin'," said Isaac emphatically. "Ef my house ain't too common,
+you'll stay right thaih ontwell co't sets."
+
+"This is very kind of you, Mr. Jackson, but really I couldn't think of
+being such a charge upon you and your good wife."
+
+"'Tain't no charge on us; we'll be glad to have you. Folks hyeah in
+Miltonville has little enough comp'ny, de Lawd knows."
+
+Isaac spoke the truth, and it was as much the knowledge that he would be
+the envy of all the town as his gratitude to Scatters that prompted him
+to prevail upon his visitor to stay.
+
+Scatters was finally persuaded, and the men only paused long enough in
+the house to tell the curiosity-eaten Martha Ann the news, and then
+started for Albert Matthews' store. Scatters carried the precious
+package, and Isaac was armed with an old shotgun lest anyone should
+suspect their treasure and attack them. Five thousand dollars was not to
+be carelessly handled!
+
+As soon as the men were gone, Martha Ann started out upon her rounds,
+and her proud tongue did for the women portion of Miltonville what the
+visit to Matthews' store did for the men. Did Mrs. So-and-So remember
+brother John? Indeed she did. And when the story was told, it was a
+"Well, well, well! he used to be an ol' beau o' mine." Martha Ann found
+no less than twenty women of her acquaintance for whom her brother John
+seemed to have entertained tender feelings.
+
+The corner grocery store kept by Albert Matthews was the general
+gathering-place for the coloured male population of the town. It was a
+small, one-roomed building, almost filled with barrels, boxes, and
+casks.
+
+Pride as well as necessity had prompted Isaac to go to the grocery just
+at this time, when it would be quite the fullest of men. He had not
+calculated wrongly when he reckoned upon the sensation that would be
+made by his entrance with the distinguished-looking stranger. The
+excitement was all the most hungry could have wished for. The men stared
+at Jackson and his companion with wide-open eyes. They left off chewing
+tobacco and telling tales. A half-dozen of them forgot to avail
+themselves of the joy of spitting, and Albert Matthews, the proprietor,
+a weazened little brown-skinned man, forgot to lay his hand upon the
+scale in weighing out a pound of sugar.
+
+With a humility that was false on the very face of it, Isaac introduced
+his guest to the grocer and the three went off together mysteriously
+into a corner. The matter was duly explained and the object of the visit
+told. Matthews burned with envy of his neighbour's good fortune.
+
+"I do' reckon, Mistah Scatters, dat we bettah not let de othah folks in
+de sto' know anything 'bout dis hyeah bus'ness of ouahs. I got to be
+'sponsible fu dat money, an' I doesn't want to tek no chances."
+
+"You are perfectly right, sir, perfectly right. You are responsible, not
+only for the money itself, but for the integrity of this seal which
+means the dignity of government."
+
+Matthews looked sufficiently impressed, and together they all went their
+way among the barrels and boxes to the corner where the little safe
+stood. With many turnings and twistings the door was opened, the package
+inclosed and the safe shut again. Then they all rose solemnly and went
+behind the counter to sample something that Matthews had. This was
+necessary as a climax, for they had performed, not a mere deed, but a
+ceremonial.
+
+"Of course, you'll say nothing about this matter at all, Mr. Matthews,"
+said Scatters, thereby insuring publicity to his affair.
+
+There were a few introductions as the men passed out, but hardly had
+their backs turned when a perfect storm of comment and inquiry broke
+about the grocer's head. So it came to pass, that with many mysterious
+nods and headshakings, Matthews first hinted at and then told the
+story.
+
+For the first few minutes the men could scarcely believe what they had
+heard. It was so utterly unprecedented. Then it dawned upon them that it
+might be so, and discussion and argument ran rife for the next hour.
+
+The story flew like wildfire, there being three things in this world
+which interest all sorts and conditions of men alike: great wealth,
+great beauty, and great love. Whenever Mr. Scatters appeared he was
+greeted with deference and admiration. Any man who had come clear from
+Cuba on such an errand to their fellow-townsman deserved all honour and
+respect. His charming manners confirmed, too, all that preconceived
+notions had said of him. He became a social favourite. It began with Mr.
+and Mrs. Dunkin's calling upon him. Then followed Alonzo Taft, and when
+the former two gave a reception for the visitor, his position was
+assured. Miltonville had not yet arisen to the dignity of having a
+literary society. He now founded one and opened it himself with an
+address so beautiful, so eloquent and moving that Mr. Dunkin bobbed his
+head dizzy in acquiescence, and Aunt Hannah Payne thought she was in
+church and shouted for joy.
+
+The little town had awakened from its long post-bellum slumber and
+accepted with eagerness the upward impulse given it. It stood aside and
+looked on with something like adoration when Mr. Scatters and Mrs.
+Dunkin met and talked of ineffable things--things far above the ken of
+the average mortal.
+
+When Mr. Scatters found that his mission was known, he gave up further
+attempts at concealing it and talked freely about the matter. He
+expatiated at length upon the responsibility that devolved upon him and
+his desire to discharge it, and he spoke glowingly of the great
+government whose power was represented by the seal which held the
+package of bonds. Not for one day would he stay away from his beloved
+Cuba, if it were not that that seal had to be broken in the presence of
+the proper authorities. So, however reluctant he might be to stay, it
+was not for him to shirk his task: he must wait for the sitting of
+court.
+
+Meanwhile the Jacksons lived in an atmosphere of glory. The womenfolk
+purchased new dresses, and Isaac got a new wagon on the strength of
+their good fortune. It was nothing to what they dreamed of doing when
+they had the money positively in hand. Mr. Scatters still remained their
+guest, and they were proud of it.
+
+What pleased them most was that their distinguished visitor seemed not
+to look down upon, but rather to be pleased with, their homely fare.
+Isaac had further cause for pleasure when his guest came to him later
+with a great show of frank confidence to request the loan of fifty
+dollars.
+
+"I should not think of asking even this small favour of you but that I
+have only Cuban money with me and I knew you would feel distressed if
+you knew that I went to the trouble of sending this money away for
+exchange on account of so small a sum."
+
+This was undoubtedly a mark of special confidence. It suddenly made
+Isaac feel as if the grand creature had accepted and labelled him as a
+brother and an equal. He hastened to Matthews' safe, where he kept his
+own earnings; for the grocer was banker as well.
+
+With reverent hands they put aside the package of bonds and together
+counted out the required half a hundred dollars. In a little while Mr.
+Scatters' long, graceful fingers had closed over it.
+
+Mr. Jackson's cup of joy was now full. It had but one bitter drop to mar
+its sweetness. That was the friendship that had sprung up between the
+Cuban and Mr. Dunkin. They frequently exchanged visits, and sat long
+together engaged in conversation from which Isaac was excluded. This
+galled him. He felt that he had a sort of proprietary interest in his
+guest. And any infringement of this property right he looked upon with
+distinct disfavour. So that it was with no pleasant countenance that he
+greeted Mr. Dunkin when he called on a certain night.
+
+"Mr. Scatters is gone out," he said, as the old man entered and
+deposited his hat on the floor.
+
+"Dat's all right, Isaac," said Mr. Dunkin slowly, "I didn't come to see
+de gent'man. I come to see you."
+
+The cloud somewhat lifted from Isaac's brow. Mr. Dunkin was a man of
+importance and it made a deal of difference whom he was visiting.
+
+He seemed a little bit embarrassed, however, as to how to open
+conversation. He hummed and hawed and was visibly uneasy. He tried to
+descant upon the weather, but the subject failed him. Finally, with an
+effort, he hitched his chair nearer to his host's and said in a low
+voice, "Ike, I reckon you has de confidence of Mistah Scatters?"
+
+"I has," was the proud reply, "I has."
+
+"Hum! uh! huh! Well--well--has you evah loant him any money?"
+
+Isaac was aghast. Such impertinence!
+
+"Mistah Dunkin," he began, "I considah----"
+
+"Hol' on, Ike!" broke in Dunkin, laying a soothing hand on the other's
+knee, "don' git on yo' high hoss. Dis hyeah's a impo'tant mattah."
+
+"I ain't got nothin' to say."
+
+"He ain't never tol' you 'bout havin' nothin' but Cubian money on him?"
+
+Isaac started.
+
+"I see he have. He tol' me de same thing."
+
+The two men sat staring suspiciously into each other's faces.
+
+"He got a hun'ed an' fifty dollahs f'om me," said Dunkin.
+
+"I let him have fifty," added Jackson weakly.
+
+"He got a hun'ed an' fifty dollahs f'om thews. Dat's how I come to git
+'spicious. He tol' him de same sto'y."
+
+Again that pregnant look flashed between them, and they both rose and
+went out of the house.
+
+They hurried down to Matthews' grocery. The owner was waiting for them
+there. There was solemnity, but no hesitation, in the manner with which
+they now went to the safe. They took out the package hastily and with
+ruthless hands. This was no ceremonial now. The seal had no longer any
+fears for them. They tore it off. They tore the wrappers. Then paper.
+Neatly folded paper. More wrapping paper. Newspapers. Nothing more. Of
+bills or bonds--nothing. With the debris of the mysterious parcel
+scattered about their feet, they stood up and looked at each other.
+
+"I nevah did believe in furriners nohow," said Mr. Dunkin sadly.
+
+"But he knowed all about my brothah John."
+
+"An' he sho'ly did make mighty fine speeches. Maybe we's missed de
+money." This from the grocer.
+
+Together they went over the papers again, with the same result.
+
+"Do you know where he went to-night, Ike?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Den I reckon we's seed de las' o' him."
+
+"But he lef' his valise."
+
+"Yes, an' he lef' dis," said Dunkin sternly, pointing to the paper on
+the floor. "He sho'ly is mighty keerless of his valybles."
+
+"Let's go git de constable," said the practical Matthews.
+
+They did, though they felt that it would be unavailing.
+
+The constable came and waited at Jackson's house. They had been there
+about half an hour, talking the matter over, when what was their
+surprise to hear Mr. Scatters' step coming jauntily up the walk. A
+sudden panic of terror and shame seized them. It was as if they had
+wronged him. Suppose, after all, everything should come right and he
+should be able to explain? They sat and trembled until he entered. Then
+the constable told him his mission.
+
+Mr. Scatters was surprised. He was hurt. Indeed, he was distinctly
+grieved that his friends had had so little confidence in him. Had he
+been to them anything but a gentleman, a friend, and an honest man? Had
+he not come a long distance from his home to do one of them a favour?
+They hung their heads. Martha Ann, who was listening at the door, was
+sobbing audibly. What had he done thus to be humiliated? He saw the
+effect of his words and pursued it. Had he not left in the care of one
+of their own number security for his integrity in the shape of the
+bonds?
+
+The effect of his words was magical. Every head went up and three pairs
+of flashing eyes were bent upon him. He saw and knew that they knew. He
+had not thought that they would dare to violate the seal around which he
+had woven such a halo. He saw that all was over, and, throwing up his
+hands with a despairing gesture, he bowed graciously and left the room
+with the constable.
+
+All Miltonville had the story next day, and waited no less eagerly than
+before for the "settin' of co't."
+
+To the anger and chagrin of Miltonvillians, Fox Run had the honour and
+distinction of being the county seat, and thither they must go to the
+sessions; but never did they so forget their animosities as on the day
+set for the trial of Scatters. They overlooked the pride of the Fox
+Runners, their cupidity and their vaunting arrogance. They ignored the
+indignity of showing interest in anything that took place in that
+village, and went in force, eager, anxious, and curious. Ahorse, afoot,
+by oxcart, by mule-wagon, white, black, high, low, old, and young of
+both sexes invaded Fox Run and swelled the crowd of onlookers until,
+with pity for the very anxiety of the people, the humane judge decided
+to discard the now inadequate court-room and hold the sessions on the
+village green. Here an impromptu bar was set up, and over against it
+were ranged the benches, chairs, and camp-stools of the spectators.
+
+Every man of prominence in the county was present. Major Richardson,
+though now retired, occupied a distinguished position within the bar.
+Old Captain Howard shook hands familiarly with the judge and nodded to
+the assembly as though he himself had invited them all to be present.
+Former Judge Durbin sat with his successor on the bench.
+
+Court opened and the first case was called. It gained but passing
+attention. There was bigger game to be stalked. A hog-stealing case
+fared a little better on account of the intimateness of the crime
+involved. But nothing was received with such awed silence as the case of
+the State against Joseph Scatters. The charge was obtaining money under
+false pretences, and the plea "Not Guilty."
+
+The witnesses were called and their testimony taken. Mr. Scatters was
+called to testify in his own defence, but refused to do so. The
+prosecution stated its case and proceeded to sum up the depositions of
+the witnesses. As there was no attorney for the defence, the State's
+attorney delivered a short speech, in which the guilt of the defendant
+was plainly set forth. It was as clear as day. Things looked very dark
+for Mr. Scatters of Cuba.
+
+As the lawyer sat down, and ere the case could be given to the jury, he
+rose and asked permission of the Court to say a few words.
+
+This was granted him.
+
+He stood up among them, a magnificent, strong, black figure. His eyes
+swept the assembly, judge, jury, and spectators with a look half
+amusement, half defiance.
+
+"I have pleaded not guilty," he began in a low, distinct voice that
+could be heard in every part of the inclosure, "and I am not guilty of
+the spirit which is charged against me, however near the letter may
+touch me. I did use certain knowledge that I possessed, and the seal
+which I happened to have from an old government position, to
+defraud--that is the word, if you will--to defraud these men out of the
+price of their vanity and their cupidity. But it was not a
+long-premeditated thing. I was within a few miles of your town before
+the idea occurred to me. I was in straits. I stepped from the brink of
+great poverty into the midst of what you are pleased to deem a greater
+crime."
+
+The Court held its breath. No such audacity had ever been witnessed in
+the life of Fox Run.
+
+Scatters went on, warming to his subject as he progressed. He was
+eloquent and he was pleasing. A smile flickered over the face of Major
+Richardson and was reflected in the features of many others as the
+speaker burst forth:
+
+"Gentlemen, I maintain that instead of imprisoning you should thank me
+for what I have done. Have I not taught your community a lesson? Have I
+not put a check upon their credulity and made them wary of unheralded
+strangers?"
+
+He had. There was no disputing that. The judge himself was smiling, and
+the jurymen were nodding at each other.
+
+Scatters had not yet played his trump card. He saw that the time was
+ripe. Straightening his form and raising his great voice, he cried:
+"Gentlemen, I am guilty according to the letter of the law, but from
+that I appeal to the men who make and have made the law. From the hard
+detail of this new day, I appeal to the chivalry of the old South which
+has been told in story and sung in song. From men of vindictiveness I
+appeal to men of mercy. From plebeians to aristocrats. By the memory of
+the sacred names of the Richardsons"--the Major sat bolt upright and
+dropped his snuffbox--"the Durbins"--the ex-judge couldn't for his life
+get his pince-nez on--"the Howards"--the captain openly rubbed his
+hands--"to the memory that those names call up I appeal, and to the
+living and honourable bearers of them present. And to you, gentlemen of
+the jury, the lives of whose fathers went to purchase this dark and
+bloody ground, I appeal from the accusation of these men, who are not my
+victims, not my dupes, but their own."
+
+There was a hush when he was done. The judge read the charge to the
+jury, and it was favourable--very. And--well, Scatters had taught the
+darkies a lesson; he had spoken of their families and their traditions,
+he knew their names, and--oh, well, he was a good fellow after all--what
+was the use?
+
+The jury did not leave their seats, and the verdict was acquittal.
+
+Scatters thanked the Court and started away; but he met three
+ominous-looking pairs of eyes, and a crowd composed of angry Negroes was
+flocking toward the edge of the green.
+
+He came back.
+
+"I think I had better wait until the excitement subsides," he said to
+Major Richardson.
+
+"No need of that, suh, no need of that. Here, Jim," he called to his
+coachman, "take Mr. Scatters wherever he wants to go, and remember, I
+shall hold you responsible for his safety."
+
+"Yes, suh," said Jim.
+
+"A thousand thanks, Major," said the man with the mission.
+
+"Not at all, suh. By the way, that was a very fine effort of yours this
+afternoon. I was greatly moved by it. If you'll give me your address
+I'll send you a history of our family, suh, from the time they left
+Vuhginia and before."
+
+Mr. Scatters gave him the address, and smiled at the three enemies, who
+still waited on the edge of the green.
+
+"To the station," he said to the driver.
+
+
+
+
+_Four_
+
+A MATTER OF DOCTRINE
+
+
+There was great excitement in Miltonville over the advent of a most
+eloquent and convincing minister from the North. The beauty about the
+Rev. Thaddeus Warwick was that he was purely and simply a man of the
+doctrine. He had no emotions, his sermons were never matters of feeling;
+but he insisted so strongly upon the constant presentation of the tenets
+of his creed that his presence in a town was always marked by the
+enthusiasm and joy of religious disputation.
+
+The Rev. Jasper Hayward, coloured, was a man quite of another stripe.
+With him it was not so much what a man held as what he felt. The
+difference in their characteristics, however, did not prevent him from
+attending Dr. Warwick's series of sermons, where, from the vantage point
+of the gallery, he drank in, without assimilating, that divine's words
+of wisdom.
+
+Especially was he edified on the night that his white brother held
+forth upon the doctrine of predestination. It was not that he understood
+it at all, but that it sounded well and the words had a rich ring as he
+champed over them again and again.
+
+Mr. Hayward was a man for the time and knew that his congregation
+desired something new, and if he could supply it he was willing to take
+lessons even from a white co-worker who had neither "de spi'it ner de
+fiah." Because, as he was prone to admit to himself, "dey was sump'in'
+in de unnerstannin'."
+
+He had no idea what plagiarism is, and without a single thought of
+wrong, he intended to reproduce for his people the religious wisdom
+which he acquired at the white church. He was an innocent beggar going
+to the doors of the well-provided for cold spiritual victuals to warm
+over for his own family. And it would not be plagiarism either, for this
+very warming-over process would save it from that and make his own
+whatever he brought. He would season with the pepper of his homely wit,
+sprinkle it with the salt of his home-made philosophy, then, hot with
+the fire of his crude eloquence, serve to his people a dish his very
+own. But to the true purveyor of original dishes it is never pleasant to
+know that someone else holds the secret of the groundwork of his
+invention.
+
+It was then something of a shock to the Reverend Mr. Hayward to be
+accosted by Isaac Middleton, one of his members, just as he was leaving
+the gallery on the night of this most edifying of sermons.
+
+Isaac laid a hand upon his shoulder and smiled at him benevolently.
+
+"How do, Brothah Hayward," he said, "you been sittin' unner de drippin's
+of de gospel, too?"
+
+"Yes, I has been listenin' to de wo'ds of my fellow-laborah in de
+vineya'd of de Lawd," replied the preacher with some dignity, for he saw
+vanishing the vision of his own glory in a revivified sermon on
+predestination.
+
+Isaac linked his arm familiarly in his pastor's as they went out upon
+the street.
+
+"Well, what you t'ink erbout pre-o'dination an' fo'-destination any how?"
+
+"It sutny has been pussented to us in a powahful light dis eve'nin'."
+
+"Well, suh, hit opened up my eyes. I do' know when I's hyeahed a sehmon
+dat done my soul mo' good."
+
+"It was a upliftin' episode."
+
+"Seem lak 'co'din' to de way de brothah 'lucidated de matter to-night
+dat evaht'ing done sot out an' cut an' dried fu' us. Well dat's gwine to
+he'p me lots."
+
+"De gospel is allus a he'p."
+
+"But not allus in dis way. You see I ain't a eddicated man lak you,
+Brothah Hayward."
+
+"We can't all have de same 'vantages," the preacher condescended. "But
+what I feels, I feels, an' what I unnerstan's, I unnerstan's. The
+Scripture tell us to get unnerstannin'."
+
+"Well, dat's what I's been a-doin' to-night. I's been a-doubtin' an'
+a-doubtin', a-foolin' erroun' an' wonderin', but now I unnerstan'."
+
+"'Splain yo'se'f, Brothah Middleton," said the preacher.
+
+"Well, suh, I will to you. You knows Miss Sally Briggs? Huh, what say?"
+
+The Reverend Hayward had given a half discernible start and an
+exclamation had fallen from his lips.
+
+"What say?" repeated his companion.
+
+"I knows de sistah ve'y well, she bein' a membah of my flock."
+
+"Well, I been gwine in comp'ny wit dat ooman fu' de longes'. You ain't
+nevah tasted none o' huh cookin', has you?"
+
+"I has 'sperienced de sistah's puffo'mances in dat line."
+
+"She is the cookin'est ooman I evah seed in all my life, but
+howsomedever, I been gwine all dis time an' I ain' nevah said de wo'd. I
+nevah could git clean erway f'om huh widout somep'n' drawin' me back,
+an' I didn't know what hit was."
+
+The preacher was restless.
+
+"Hit was des dis away, Brothah Hayward, I was allus lingerin' on de
+brink, feahful to la'nch away, but now I's a-gwine to la'nch, case dat
+all dis time tain't been nuffin but fo'-destination dat been a-holdin' me
+on."
+
+"Ahem," said the minister; "we mus' not be in too big a hu'y to put ouah
+human weaknesses upon some divine cause."
+
+"I ain't a-doin' dat, dough I ain't a-sputin' dat de lady is a mos'
+oncommon fine lookin' pusson."
+
+"I has only seed huh wid de eye of de spi'it," was the virtuous answer,
+"an' to dat eye all t'ings dat are good are beautiful."
+
+"Yes, suh, an' lookin' wid de cookin' eye, hit seem lak' I des
+fo'destinated fu' to ma'y dat ooman."
+
+"You say you ain't axe huh yit?"
+
+"Not yit, but I's gwine to ez soon ez evah I gets de chanst now."
+
+"Uh, huh," said the preacher, and he began to hasten his steps homeward.
+
+"Seems lak you in a pow'ful hu'y to-night," said his companion, with
+some difficulty accommodating his own step to the preacher's masterly
+strides. He was a short man and his pastor was tall and gaunt.
+
+"I has somp'n' on my min,' Brothah Middleton, dat I wants to thrash out
+to-night in de sollertude of my own chambah," was the solemn reply.
+
+"Well, I ain' gwine keep erlong wid you an' pestah you wid my chattah,
+Brothah Hayward," and at the next corner Isaac Middleton turned off and
+went his way, with a cheery "so long, may de Lawd set wid you in yo'
+meddertations."
+
+"So long," said his pastor hastily. Then he did what would be strange in
+any man, but seemed stranger in so virtuous a minister. He checked his
+hasty pace, and, after furtively watching Middleton out of sight, turned
+and retraced his steps in a direction exactly opposite to the one in
+which he had been going, and toward the cottage of the very Sister
+Griggs concerning whose charms the minister's parishioner had held
+forth.
+
+It was late, but the pastor knew that the woman whom he sought was
+industrious and often worked late, and with ever increasing eagerness he
+hurried on. He was fully rewarded for his perseverance when the light
+from the window of his intended hostess gleamed upon him, and when she
+stood in the full glow of it as the door opened in answer to his knock.
+
+"La, Brothah Hayward, ef it ain't you; howdy; come in."
+
+"Howdy, howdy, Sistah Griggs, how you come on?"
+
+"Oh, I's des tol'able," industriously dusting a chair. "How's yo'se'f?"
+
+"I's right smaht, thankee ma'am."
+
+"W'y, Brothah Hayward, ain't you los' down in dis paht of de town?"
+
+"No, indeed, Sistah Griggs, de shep'erd ain't nevah los' no whaih dey's
+any of de flock." Then looking around the room at the piles of ironed
+clothes, he added: "You sutny is a indust'ious ooman."
+
+"I was des 'bout finishin' up some i'onin' I had fu' de white folks,"
+smiled Sister Griggs, taking down her ironing-board and resting it in
+the corner. "Allus when I gits thoo my wo'k at nights I's putty well
+tiahed out an' has to eat a snack; set by, Brothah Hayward, while I
+fixes us a bite."
+
+"La, sistah, hit don't skacely seem right fu' me to be a-comin' in hyeah
+lettin' you fix fu' me at dis time o' night, an' you mighty nigh
+tuckahed out, too."
+
+"Tsch, Brothah Hayward, taint no ha'dah lookin' out fu' two dan it is
+lookin' out fu' one."
+
+Hayward flashed a quick upward glance at his hostess' face and then
+repeated slowly, "Yes'm, dat sutny is de trufe. I ain't nevah t'ought o'
+that befo'. Hit ain't no ha'dah lookin' out fu' two dan hit is fu'
+one," and though he was usually an incessant talker, he lapsed into a
+brown study.
+
+Be it known that the Rev. Mr. Hayward was a man of a very level head,
+and that his bachelorhood was a matter of economy. He had long
+considered matrimony in the light of a most desirable estate, but one
+which he feared to embrace until the rewards for his labours began
+looking up a little better. But now the matter was being presented to
+him in an entirely different light. "Hit ain't no ha'dah lookin' out fu'
+two dan fu' one." Might that not be the truth after all. One had to have
+food. It would take very little more to do for two. One had to have a
+home to live in. The same house would shelter two. One had to wear
+clothes. Well, now, there came the rub. But he thought of donation
+parties, and smiled. Instead of being an extravagance, might not this
+union of two beings be an economy? Somebody to cook the food, somebody
+to keep the house, and somebody to mend the clothes.
+
+His reverie was broken in upon by Sally Griggs' voice. "Hit do seem lak
+you mighty deep in t'ought dis evenin', Brothah Hayward. I done spoke to
+you twicet."
+
+"Scuse me, Sistah Griggs, my min' has been mighty deeply 'sorbed in a
+little mattah o' doctrine. What you say to me?"
+
+"I say set up to the table an' have a bite to eat; tain't much, but
+'sich ez I have'--you know what de 'postle said."
+
+The preacher's eyes glistened as they took in the well-filled board.
+There was fervour in the blessing which he asked that made amends for
+its brevity. Then he fell to.
+
+Isaac Middleton was right. This woman was a genius among cooks. Isaac
+Middleton was also wrong. He, a layman, had no right to raise his eyes
+to her. She was the prize of the elect, not the quarry of any chance
+pursuer. As he ate and talked, his admiration for Sally grew as did his
+indignation at Middleton's presumption.
+
+Meanwhile the fair one plied him with delicacies, and paid deferential
+attention whenever he opened his mouth to give vent to an opinion. An
+admirable wife she would make, indeed.
+
+At last supper was over and his chair pushed back from the table. With a
+long sigh of content, he stretched his long legs, tilted back and said:
+"Well, you done settled de case ez fur ez I is concerned."
+
+"What dat, Brothah Hayward?" she asked.
+
+"Well, I do' know's I's quite prepahed to tell you yit."
+
+"Hyeah now, don' you remembah ol' Mis' Eve? Taint nevah right to git a
+lady's cur'osity riz."
+
+"Oh, nemmine, nemmine, I ain't gwine keep yo' cur'osity up long. You
+see, Sistah Griggs, you done 'lucidated one p'int to me dis night dat
+meks it plumb needful fu' me to speak."
+
+She was looking at him with wide open eyes of expectation.
+
+"You made de 'emark to-night, dat it ain't no ha'dah lookin' out aftah
+two dan one."
+
+"Oh, Brothah Hayward!"
+
+"Sistah Sally, I reckernizes dat, an' I want to know ef you won't let me
+look out aftah we two? Will you ma'y me?"
+
+She picked nervously at her apron, and her eyes sought the floor
+modestly as she answered, "Why, Brothah Hayward, I ain't fittin' fu' no
+sich eddicated man ez you. S'posin' you'd git to be pu'sidin' elder, er
+bishop, er somp'n' er othah, whaih'd I be?"
+
+He waved his hand magnanimously. "Sistah Griggs, Sally, whatevah high
+place I may be fo'destined to I shall tek my wife up wid me."
+
+This was enough, and with her hearty yes, the Rev. Mr. Hayward had
+Sister Sally close in his clerical arms. They were not through their
+mutual felicitations, which were indeed so enthusiastic as to drown the
+sound of a knocking at the door and the ominous scraping of feet, when
+the door opened to admit Isaac Middleton, just as the preacher was
+imprinting a very decided kiss upon his fiancee's cheek.
+
+"Wha'--wha'" exclaimed Middleton.
+
+The preacher turned. "Dat you, Isaac?" he said complacently. "You must
+'scuse ouah 'pearance, we des got ingaged."
+
+The fair Sally blushed unseen.
+
+"What!" cried Isaac. "Ingaged, aftah what I tol' you to-night." His face
+was a thundercloud.
+
+"Yes, suh."
+
+"An' is dat de way you stan' up fu' fo'destination?"
+
+This time it was the preacher's turn to darken angrily as he replied,
+"Look a-hyeah, Ike Middleton, all I got to say to you is dat whenevah a
+lady cook to please me lak dis lady do, an' whenevah I love one lak I
+love huh, an' she seems to love me back, I's a-gwine to pop de question
+to huh, fo'destination er no fo'destination, so dah!"
+
+The moment was pregnant with tragic possibilities. The lady still stood
+with bowed head, but her hand had stolen into her minister's. Isaac
+paused, and the situation overwhelmed him. Crushed with anger and defeat
+he turned toward the door.
+
+On the threshold he paused again to say, "Well, all I got to say to you,
+Hayward, don' you nevah talk to me no mor' nuffin' 'bout doctrine!"
+
+
+
+
+_Five_
+
+OLD ABE'S CONVERSION
+
+
+The Negro population of the little Southern town of Danvers was in a
+state of excitement such as it seldom reached except at revivals,
+baptisms, or on Emancipation Day. The cause of the commotion was the
+anticipated return of the Rev. Abram Dixon's only son, Robert, who,
+having taken up his father's life-work and graduated at one of the
+schools, had been called to a city church.
+
+When Robert's ambition to take a college course first became the subject
+of the village gossip, some said that it was an attempt to force
+Providence. If Robert were called to preach, they said, he would be
+endowed with the power from on high, and no intervention of the schools
+was necessary. Abram Dixon himself had at first rather leaned to this
+side of the case. He had expressed his firm belief in the theory that if
+you opened your mouth, the Lord would fill it. As for him, he had no
+thought of what he should say to his people when he rose to speak. He
+trusted to the inspiration of the moment, and dashed blindly into
+speech, coherent or otherwise.
+
+Himself a plantation exhorter of the ancient type, he had known no
+school except the fields where he had ploughed and sowed, the woods and
+the overhanging sky. He had sat under no teacher except the birds and
+the trees and the winds of heaven. If he did not fail utterly, if his
+labour was not without fruit, it was because he lived close to nature,
+and so, near to nature's God. With him religion was a matter of emotion,
+and he relied for his results more upon a command of feeling than upon
+an appeal to reason. So it was not strange that he should look upon his
+son's determination to learn to be a preacher as unjustified by the real
+demands of the ministry.
+
+But as the boy had a will of his own and his father a boundless pride in
+him, the day came when, despite wagging heads, Robert Dixon went away to
+be enrolled among the students of a growing college. Since then six
+years had passed. Robert had spent his school vacations in teaching; and
+now, for the first time, he was coming home, a full-fledged minister of
+the gospel.
+
+It was rather a shock to the old man's sensibilities that his son's
+congregation should give him a vacation, and that the young minister
+should accept; but he consented to regard it as of the new order of
+things, and was glad that he was to have his boy with him again,
+although he murmured to himself, as he read his son's letter through his
+bone-bowed spectacles: "Vacation, vacation, an' I wonder ef he reckons
+de devil's goin' to take one at de same time?"
+
+It was a joyous meeting between father and son. The old man held his boy
+off and looked at him with proud eyes.
+
+"Why, Robbie," he said, "you--you's a man!"
+
+"That's what I'm trying to be, father." The young man's voice was deep,
+and comported well with his fine chest and broad shoulders.
+
+"You's a bigger man den yo' father ever was!" said his mother
+admiringly.
+
+"Oh, well, father never had the advantage of playing football."
+
+The father turned on him aghast. "Playin' football!" he exclaimed. "You
+don't mean to tell me dat dey 'lowed men learnin' to be preachers to
+play sich games?"
+
+"Oh, yes, they believe in a sound mind in a sound body, and one seems to
+be as necessary as the other in fighting evil."
+
+Abram Dixon shook his head solemnly. The world was turning upside down
+for him.
+
+"Football!" he muttered, as they sat down to supper.
+
+Robert was sorry that he had spoken of the game, because he saw that it
+grieved his father. He had come intending to avoid rather than to combat
+his parent's prejudices. There was no condescension in his thought of
+them and their ways. They were different; that was all. He had learned
+new ways. They had retained the old. Even to himself he did not say,
+"But my way is the better one."
+
+His father was very full of eager curiosity as to his son's conduct of
+his church, and the son was equally glad to talk of his work, for his
+whole soul was in it.
+
+"We do a good deal in the way of charity work among the churchless and
+almost homeless city children; and, father, it would do your heart good
+if you could only see the little ones gathered together learning the
+first principles of decent living."
+
+"Mebbe so," replied the father doubtfully, "but what you doin' in de way
+of teachin' dem to die decent?"
+
+The son hesitated for a moment, and then he answered gently, "We think
+that one is the companion of the other, and that the best way to prepare
+them for the future is to keep them clean and good in the present."
+
+"Do you give 'em good strong doctern, er do you give 'em milk and
+water?"
+
+"I try to tell them the truth as I see it and believe it. I try to hold
+up before them the right and the good and the clean and beautiful."
+
+"Humph!" exclaimed the old man, and a look of suspicion flashed across
+his dusky face. "I want you to preach fer me Sunday."
+
+It was as if he had said, "I have no faith in your style of preaching
+the gospel. I am going to put you to the test."
+
+Robert faltered. He knew his preaching would not please his father or
+his people, and he shrank from the ordeal. It seemed like setting them
+all at defiance and attempting to enforce his ideas over their own. Then
+a perception of his cowardice struck him, and he threw off the feeling
+that was possessing him. He looked up to find his father watching him
+keenly, and he remembered that he had not yet answered.
+
+"I had not thought of preaching here," he said, "but I will relieve you
+if you wish it."
+
+"De folks will want to hyeah you an' see what you kin do," pursued his
+father tactlessly. "You know dey was a lot of 'em dat said I oughn't ha'
+let you go away to school. I hope you'll silence 'em."
+
+Robert thought of the opposition his father's friends had shown to his
+ambitions, and his face grew hot at the memory. He felt his entire
+inability to please them now.
+
+"I don't know, father, that I can silence those who opposed my going
+away or even please those who didn't, but I shall try to please One."
+
+It was now Thursday evening, and he had until Saturday night to prepare
+his sermon. He knew Danvers, and remembered what a chill fell on its
+congregations, white or black, when a preacher appeared before them with
+a manuscript or notes. So, out of concession to their prejudices, he
+decided not to write his sermon, but to go through it carefully and get
+it well in hand. His work was often interfered with by the frequent
+summons to see old friends who stayed long, not talking much, but
+looking at him with some awe and a good deal of contempt. His trial was
+a little sorer than he had expected, but he bore it all with the
+good-natured philosophy which his school life and work in a city had
+taught him.
+
+The Sunday dawned, a beautiful, Southern summer morning; the lazy hum of
+the bees and the scent of wild honeysuckle were in the air; the Sabbath
+was full of the quiet and peace of God; and yet the congregation which
+filled the little chapel at Danvers came with restless and turbulent
+hearts, and their faces said plainly: "Rob Dixon, we have not come here
+to listen to God's word. We have come here to put you on trial. Do you
+hear? On trial."
+
+And the thought, "On trial," was ringing in the young minister's mind as
+he rose to speak to them. His sermon was a very quiet, practical one; a
+sermon that sought to bring religion before them as a matter of
+every-day life. It was altogether different from the torrent of speech
+that usually flowed from that pulpit. The people grew restless under
+this spiritual reserve. They wanted something to sanction, something to
+shout for, and here was this man talking to them as simply and quietly
+as if he were not in church.
+
+As Uncle Isham Jones said, "De man never fetched an amen"; and the
+people resented his ineffectiveness. Even Robert's father sat with his
+head bowed in his hands, broken and ashamed of his son; and when,
+without a flourish, the preacher sat down, after talking twenty-two
+minutes by the clock, a shiver of surprise ran over the whole church.
+His father had never pounded the desk for less than an hour.
+
+Disappointment, even disgust, was written on every face. The singing was
+spiritless, and as the people filed out of church and gathered in knots
+about the door, the old-time head-shaking was resumed, and the comments
+were many and unfavourable.
+
+"Dat's what his schoolin' done fo' him," said one.
+
+"It wasn't nothin' mo'n a lecter," was another's criticism.
+
+"Put him 'side o' his father," said one of the Rev. Abram Dixon's loyal
+members, "and bless my soul, de ol' man would preach all roun' him, and
+he ain't been to no college, neither!"
+
+Robert and his father walked home in silence together. When they were in
+the house, the old man turned to his son and said:
+
+"Is dat de way dey teach you to preach at college?"
+
+"I followed my instructions as nearly as possible, father."
+
+"Well, Lawd he'p dey preachin', den! Why, befo' I'd ha' been in dat
+pulpit five minutes, I'd ha' had dem people moanin' an' hollerin' all
+over de church."
+
+"And would they have lived any more cleanly the next day?"
+
+The old man looked at his son sadly, and shook his head as at one of the
+unenlightened.
+
+Robert did not preach in his father's church again before his visit came
+to a close; but before going he said, "I want you to promise me you'll
+come up and visit me, father. I want you to see the work I am trying to
+do. I don't say that my way is best or that my work is a higher work,
+but I do want you to see that I am in earnest."
+
+"I ain't doubtin' you mean well, Robbie," said his father, "but I guess
+I'd be a good deal out o' place up thaih."
+
+"No, you wouldn't, father. You come up and see me. Promise me."
+
+And the old man promised.
+
+It was not, however, until nearly a year later that the Rev. Abram Dixon
+went up to visit his son's church. Robert met him at the station, and
+took him to the little parsonage which the young clergyman's people had
+provided for him. It was a very simple place, and an aged woman served
+the young man as cook and caretaker; but Abram Dixon was astonished at
+what seemed to him both vainglory and extravagance.
+
+"Ain't you livin' kin' o' high fo' yo' raisin', Robbie?" he asked.
+
+The young man laughed. "If you'd see how some of the people live here,
+father, you'd hardly say so."
+
+Abram looked at the chintz-covered sofa and shook his head at its
+luxury, but Robert, on coming back after a brief absence, found his
+father sound asleep upon the comfortable lounge.
+
+On the next day they went out together to see something of the city. By
+the habit of years, Abram Dixon was an early riser, and his son was
+like him; so they were abroad somewhat before business was astir in the
+town. They walked through the commercial portion and down along the
+wharves and levees. On every side the same sight assailed their eyes:
+black boys of all ages and sizes, the waifs and strays of the city, lay
+stretched here and there on the wharves or curled on doorsills, stealing
+what sleep they could before the relentless day should drive them forth
+to beg a pittance for subsistence.
+
+"Such as these we try to get into our flock and do something for," said
+Robert.
+
+His father looked on sympathetically, and yet hardly with full
+understanding. There was poverty in his own little village, yes, even
+squalour, but he had never seen anything just like this. At home almost
+everyone found some open door, and rare was the wanderer who slept
+out-of-doors except from choice.
+
+At nine o'clock they went to the police court, and the old minister saw
+many of his race appear as prisoners, receiving brief attention and long
+sentences. Finally a boy was arraigned for theft. He was a little,
+wobegone fellow hardly ten years of age. He was charged with stealing
+cakes from a bakery. The judge was about to deal with him as quickly as
+with the others, and Abram's heart bled for the child, when he saw a
+negro call the judge's attention. He turned to find that Robert had left
+his side. There was a whispered consultation, and then the old preacher
+heard with joy, "As this is his first offence and a trustworthy person
+comes forward to take charge of him, sentence upon the prisoner will be
+suspended."
+
+Robert came back to his father holding the boy by the hand, and together
+they made their way from the crowded room.
+
+"I'm so glad! I'm so glad!" said the old man brokenly.
+
+"We often have to do this. We try to save them from the first contact
+with the prison and all that it means. There is no reformatory for black
+boys here, and they may not go to the institutions for the white; so for
+the slightest offence they are sent to jail, where they are placed with
+the most hardened criminals. When released they are branded forever, and
+their course is usually downward."
+
+He spoke in a low voice, that what he said might not reach the ears of
+the little ragamuffin who trudged by his side.
+
+Abram looked down on the child with a sympathetic heart.
+
+"What made you steal dem cakes?" he asked kindly.
+
+"I was hongry," was the simple reply.
+
+The old man said no more until he had reached the parsonage, and then
+when he saw how the little fellow ate and how tenderly his son
+ministered to him, he murmured to himself, "Feed my lambs"; and then
+turning to his son, he said, "Robbie, dey's some'p'n in 'dis, dey's
+some'p'n in it, I tell you."
+
+That night there was a boy's class in the lower room of Robert Dixon's
+little church. Boys of all sorts and conditions were there, and Abram
+listened as his son told them the old, sweet stories in the simplest
+possible manner and talked to them in his cheery, practical way. The old
+preacher looked into the eyes of the street gamins about him, and he
+began to wonder. Some of them were fierce, unruly-looking youngsters,
+inclined to meanness and rowdyism, but one and all, they seemed under
+the spell of their leader's voice. At last Robert said, "Boys, this is
+my father. He's a preacher, too. I want you to come up and shake hands
+with him." Then they crowded round the old man readily and heartily, and
+when they were outside the church, he heard them pause for a moment, and
+then three rousing cheers rang out with the vociferated explanation,
+"Fo' de minister's pap!"
+
+Abram held his son's hand long that night, and looked with tear-dimmed
+eyes at the boy.
+
+"I didn't understan'," he said. "I didn't understan'."
+
+"You'll preach for me Sunday, father?"
+
+"I wouldn't daih, honey. I wouldn't daih."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will, pap."
+
+He had not used the word for a long time, and at sound of it his father
+yielded.
+
+It was a strange service that Sunday morning. The son introduced the
+father, and the father, looking at his son, who seemed so short a time
+ago unlearned in the ways of the world, gave as his text, "A little
+child shall lead them."
+
+He spoke of his own conceit and vainglory, the pride of his age and
+experience, and then he told of the lesson he had learned. "Why,
+people," he said, "I feels like a new convert!"
+
+It was a gentler gospel than he had ever preached before, and in the
+congregation there were many eyes as wet as his own.
+
+"Robbie," he said, when the service was over, "I believe I had to come
+up here to be converted." And Robbie smiled.
+
+
+
+
+_Six_
+
+THE RACE QUESTION
+
+
+Scene--Race track. _Enter old coloured man, seating himself._
+
+"Oomph, oomph. De work of de devil sho' do p'ospah. How 'do, suh? Des
+tol'able, thankee, suh. How you come on? Oh, I was des a-sayin' how de
+wo'k of de ol' boy do p'ospah. Doesn't I frequent the racetrack? No,
+suh; no, suh. I's Baptis' myse'f, an' I 'low hit's all devil's doin's.
+Wouldn't 'a' be'n hyeah to-day, but I got a boy named Jim dat's long
+gone in sin an' he gwine ride one dem hosses. Oomph, dat boy! I sut'ny
+has talked to him and labohed wid him night an' day, but it was allers
+in vain, an' I's feahed dat de day of his reckonin' is at han'.
+
+"Ain't I nevah been intrusted in racin'? Humph, you don't s'pose I been
+dead all my life, does you? What you laffin' at? Oh, scuse me, scuse me,
+you unnerstan' what I means. You don' give a ol' man time to splain
+hisse'f. What I means is dat dey has been days when I walked in de
+counsels of de on-gawdly and set in de seats of sinnahs; and long erbout
+dem times I did tek most ovahly strong to racin'.
+
+"How long dat been? Oh, dat's way long back, 'fo' I got religion, mo'n
+thuty years ago, dough I got to own I has fell from grace several times
+sense.
+
+"Yes, suh, I ust to ride. Ki-yi! I nevah furgit de day dat my ol' Mas'
+Jack put me on 'June Boy,' his black geldin', an' say to me, 'Si,' says
+he, 'if you don' ride de tail offen Cunnel Scott's mare, "No Quit," I's
+gwine to larrup you twell you cain't set in de saddle no mo'.' Hyah,
+hyah. My ol' Mas' was a mighty han' fu' a joke. I knowed he wan't gwine
+to do nuffin' to me.
+
+"Did I win? Why, whut you spec' I's doin' hyeah ef I hadn' winned? W'y,
+ef I'd 'a' let dat Scott maih beat my 'June Boy' I'd 'a' drowned myse'f
+in Bull Skin Crick.
+
+"Yes, suh, I winned; w'y, at de finish I come down dat track lak hit was
+de Jedgment Day an' I was de las' one up! Ef I didn't race dat maih's
+tail clean off, I 'low I made hit do a lot o' switchin'. An' aftah dat
+my wife Mandy she ma'ed me. Hyah, hyah, I ain't bin much on hol'in' de
+reins sence.
+
+"Sh! dey comin' in to wa'm up. Dat Jim, dat Jim, dat my boy; you nasty
+putrid little rascal. Des a hundred an' eight, suh, des a hundred an'
+eight. Yas, suh, dat's my Jim; I don't know whaih he gits his dev'ment
+at.
+
+"What's de mattah wid dat boy? Whyn't he hunch hisse'f up on dat saddle
+right? Jim, Jim, whyn't you limber up, boy; hunch yo'se'f up on dat hoss
+lak you belonged to him and knowed you was dah. What I done showed you?
+De black raskil, goin' out dah tryin' to disgrace his own daddy. Hyeah
+he come back. Dat's bettah, you scoun'ril.
+
+"Dat's a right smaht-lookin' hoss he's a-ridin', but I ain't a-trustin'
+dat bay wid de white feet--dat is, not altogethah. She's a favourwright
+too; but dey's sumpin' else in dis worl' sides playin' favourwrights.
+Jim bettah had win dis race. His hoss ain't a five to one shot, but I
+spec's to go way fum hyeah wid money ernuff to mek a donation on de
+pa'sonage.
+
+"Does I bet? Well, I don' des call hit bettin'; but I resks a little
+w'en I t'inks I kin he'p de cause. 'Tain't gamblin', o' co'se; I
+wouldn't gamble fu nothin', dough my ol' Mastah did ust to say dat a
+honest gamblah was ez good ez a hones' preachah an' mos' nigh ez skace.
+
+"Look out dah, man, dey's off, dat nasty bay maih wid de white feet
+leadin' right fu'm 'de pos'. I knowed it! I knowed it! I had my eye on
+huh all de time. Oh, Jim, Jim, why didn't you git in bettah, way back
+dah fouf? Dah go de gong! I knowed dat wasn't no staht. Troop back dah,
+you raskils, hyah, hyah.
+
+"I wush dat boy wouldn't do so much jummying erroun' wid dat hoss. Fust
+t'ing he know he ain't gwine to know whaih he's at.
+
+"Dah, dah dey go ag'in. Hit's a sho' t'ing dis time. Bettah, Jim,
+bettah. Dey didn't leave you dis time. Hug dat bay mare, hug her close,
+boy. Don't press dat hoss yit. He holdin' back a lot o' t'ings.
+
+"He's gainin'! doggone my cats, he's gainin'! an' dat hoss o' his'n
+gwine des ez stiddy ez a rockin'-chair. Jim allus was a good boy.
+
+"Confound these spec's, I cain't see 'em skacely; huh, you say dey's
+neck an' neck; now I see 'em! now I see 'em! and Jimmy's a-ridin'
+like----Huh, huh, I laik to said sumpin'.
+
+"De bay maih's done huh bes', she's done huh bes'! Dey's turned into the
+stretch an' still see-sawin'. Let him out, Jimmy, let him out! Dat boy
+done th'owed de reins away. Come on, Jimmy, come on! He's leadin' by a
+nose. Come on, I tell you, you black rapscallion, come on! Give 'em
+hell, Jimmy! give 'em hell! Under de wire an' a len'th ahead. Doggone my
+cats! wake me up w'en dat othah hoss comes in.
+
+"No, suh, I ain't gwine stay no longah, I don't app'ove o' racin', I's
+gwine 'roun' an' see dis hyeah bookmakah an' den I's gwine dreckly home,
+suh, dreckly home. I's Baptis' myse'f, an' I don't app'ove o' no sich
+doin's!"
+
+
+
+
+_Seven_
+
+A DEFENDER OF THE FAITH
+
+
+There was a very animated discussion going on, on the lower floor of the
+house Number Ten "D" Street. House Number Ten was the middle one of a
+row of more frames, which formed what was put down on the real estate
+agent's list as a coloured neighbourhood. The inhabitants of the little
+cottages were people so poor that they were constantly staggering on the
+verge of the abyss, which they had been taught to dread and scorn, and
+why, clearly. Life with them was no dream, but a hard, terrible reality,
+which meant increasing struggle, and little wonder then that the
+children of such parents should see the day before Christmas come
+without hope of any holiday cheer.
+
+Christmas; what did it mean to them? The pitiful little dark
+rag-muffins, save that the happy, well-dressed people who passed the
+shanties seemed further away from their life, save that mother toiled
+later in the evening at her work, if there was work, and that father
+drank more gin and prayed louder in consequence; save that, perhaps--and
+there was always a donation--that there might be a little increase in
+the amount of cold victuals that big sister brought home, and there
+might be turkey-dressing in it.
+
+But there was a warm discussion in Number Ten, and that is the principal
+thing. The next in importance is that Miss Arabella Coe, reporter, who
+had been down that way looking mainly for a Christmas story, heard the
+sound of voices raised in debate, and paused to listen. It was not a
+very polite thing for Miss Coe to do, but then Miss Coe was a reporter
+and reporters are not scrupulous about being polite when there is
+anything to hear. Besides, the pitch to which the lusty young voices
+within were raised argued that the owners did not care if the outside
+world shared in the conversation. So Arabella listened, and after a
+while she passed through the gate and peeped into the room between the
+broken slats of a shutter.
+
+It was a mean little place, quite what might be expected from its
+exterior. A cook stove sat in the middle of the floor with a smoky fire
+in it, and about it were clustered four or five black children ranging
+from a toddler of two to a boy of ten. They all showed differing degrees
+of dirt and raggedness, but all were far and beyond the point of
+respectability.
+
+One of the group, the older boy, sat upon the bed and was holding forth
+to his brothers and sisters not without many murmurs of doubt and
+disbelief.
+
+"No," he was saying, "I tell you dey hain't no such thing as a Santy
+Claus. Dat's somep'n dat yo' folks jes' git up to make you be good long
+'bout Christmas time. I know."
+
+"But, Tom, you know what mammy said," said a dreamy-eyed little chap,
+who sat on a broken stool with his chin on his hands.
+
+"Aw, mammy," said the orator, "she's jes' a-stuffin' you. She don'
+believe in no Santy Claus hersel', less'n why'nt he bring huh de dress
+she prayed fu' last Christmas." He was very wise, this old man of ten
+years, and he had sold papers on the avenue where many things are
+learned, both good and bad.
+
+"But what you got to say about pappy?" pursued the believer. "He say
+dey's a Santy Claus, and dat he comes down de chimbly; and----"
+
+"Whut's de mattah wid you; look at dat stove pipe; how you s'pose
+anybody go'n' to git in hyeah th'oo de chimbly?"
+
+They all looked up at the narrow, rusty stove pipe and the sigh of
+hopelessness brought the tears to Arabella's eyes. The children seemed
+utterly nonplussed, and Tom was swelling at his triumph. "How's any
+Santy Claus go'n' to come down th'oo that, I want to know," he repeated.
+
+But the faith of childhood is stronger than reason. Tom's little sister
+piped up, "I don't know how, but he comes th'roo' that away anyhow. He
+brung Mamie Davith a doll and it had thoot on it out o' the chimbly."
+
+It was now Tom's turn to be stumped, but he wouldn't let it be known. He
+only said, "Aw," contemptuously and coughed for more crushing arguments.
+
+"I knows dey's a Santy Claus," said dreamy-eyed Sam.
+
+"Ef dey is why'n't he never come here?" retorted Tom.
+
+"I jes' been thinkin' maybe ouah house is so little he miss it in de
+night; dey says he's a ol' man an' I 'low his sight ain' good."
+
+Tom was stricken into silence for a moment by this entirely new view of
+the matter, and then finding no answer to it, he said "Aw" again and
+looked superior, but warningly so.
+
+"Maybe Thanty's white an' don' go to see col'red people," said the
+little girl.
+
+"But I do know coloured people's houses he's been at," contended Sam.
+"Aw, dem col'red folks dat's got the money, dem's de only ones dat Santy
+Claus fin's, you bet."
+
+Arabella at the window shuddered at the tone of the sceptic; it reminded
+her so much of the world she knew, and it was hard to believe that her
+friends who prided themselves on their unbelief could have anything in
+common with a little coloured newsboy down on "D" Street.
+
+"Tell you what," said Sam again, "let's try an' see if dey is a Santy.
+We'll put a light in the winder, so if he's ol' he can see us anyhow,
+an' we'll pray right hard fu' him to come."
+
+"Aw," said Tom.
+
+"Ith been good all thish month," chirped the little girl.
+
+The other children joined with enthusiasm in Sam's plan, though Tom sat
+upon the bed and looked scornfully on.
+
+Arabella escaped from the window just as Sam brought the smoky lamp and
+set it on the sill, but she still stood outside the palings of the fence
+and looked in. She saw four little forms get down on their knees and she
+crept up near again to hear.
+
+Following Sam's lead they began, "Oh, Santy," but Tom's voice broke in,
+"Don't you know the Lord don't 'low you to pray to nobody but Him?"
+
+Sam paused, puzzled for a minute, then he led on: "Please 'scuse, good
+Lord, we started wrong, but won't you please, sir, send Santy Clause
+around. Amen." And they got up from their knees satisfied.
+
+"Aw," said Tom as Arabella was turning wet-eyed away.
+
+It was a good thing the reporter left as soon as she did, for in a few
+minutes a big woman pushed in at the gate and entered the house.
+
+"Mammy, mammy," shrieked the children.
+
+"Lawsy, me," said Martha, laughing, "who evah did see sich children?
+Bless dey hearts, an' dey done sot dey lamp in de winder, too, so's dey
+po' ol' mammy kin see to git in."
+
+As she spoke she was taking the lamp away to set it on the table where
+she had placed her basket, but the cry of the children stopped her. "Oh,
+no, mammy, don't take it, don't take it, dat's to light Santy Claus in."
+
+She paused a minute bewildered and then the light broke over her face.
+She smiled and then a rush of tears quenched the smile. She gathered the
+children into her arms and said, "I's feared, honey, ol' man Santy ain'
+gwine fu' you to-night."
+
+"Wah'd I tell you?" sneered Tom.
+
+"You hush yo' mouf," said his mother, and she left the lamp where it
+was.
+
+As Arabella Coe wended her way home that night her brain was busy with
+many thoughts. "I've got my story at last," she told herself, "and I'll
+go on up and write it." But she did not go up to write it. She came to
+the parting of the ways. One led home, the other to the newspaper office
+where she worked. She laughed nervously, and took the former way. Once
+in her room she went through her small store of savings. There was very
+little there, then she looked down ruefully at her worn boots. She did
+need a new pair. Then, holding her money in her hand, she sat down to
+think.
+
+"It's really a shame," she said to herself, "those children will have no
+Christmas at all, and they'll never believe in Santa Claus again. They
+will lose their faith forever and from this it will go to other things."
+She sat there dreaming for a long while and the vision of a very
+different childhood came before her eyes.
+
+"Dear old place," she murmured softly, "I believed in Santa Claus until
+I was thirteen, and that oldest boy is scarcely ten." Suddenly she
+sprung to her feet. "Hooray," she cried, "I'll be defender of the
+faith," and she went out into the lighted streets again.
+
+The shopkeepers looked queerly at Arabella that night as she bought as
+if she were the mother of a large and growing family, and she appeared
+too young for that. Finally, there was a dress for mother.
+
+She carried them down on "D" Street and placed them stealthily at the
+door of Number Ten. She put a note among the things, which read: "I am
+getting old and didn't see your house last year, also I am getting fat
+and couldn't get down that little stove pipe of yours this year. You
+must excuse me. Santa Claus." Then looking wilfully at her shoes, but
+nevertheless with a glow on her face, she went up to the office to write
+her story.
+
+There were joyous times at Number Ten the next day. Mother was really
+surprised, and the children saw it.
+
+"Wha'd I tell you," said dreamy Sam.
+
+Tom said nothing then, but when he went down to the avenue to sell the
+morning papers, all resplendent in a new muffler, he strode up to a boy
+and remarked belligerently, "Say, if you says de ain't no Santy Claus
+again, I'll punch yo' head."
+
+
+
+
+_Eight_
+
+CAHOOTS
+
+
+In the centre of the quaint old Virginia grave-yard stood two monuments
+side by side--two plain granite shafts exactly alike. On one was
+inscribed the name Robert Vaughan Fairfax and the year 1864. On the
+other was the simple and perplexing inscription, "Cahoots." Nothing
+more.
+
+The place had been the orchard of one of the ante-bellum mansions before
+the dead that were brought back from the terrible field of Malvern Hill
+and laid there had given it a start as a cemetery. Many familiar names
+were chiselled on the granite head-stones, and anyone conversant with
+Virginia genealogy would have known them to belong to some of the best
+families of the Old Dominion. But "Cahoots,"--who or what was he?
+
+My interest, not to say curiosity, was aroused. There must be a whole
+story in those two shafts with their simple inscriptions, a life-drama
+or perhaps a tragedy. And who was more likely to know it than the
+postmaster of the quaint little old town. Just after the war, as if
+tired with its exertions to repel the invader, the old place had fallen
+asleep and was still drowsing.
+
+I left the cemetery--if such it could be called--and wended my way up
+the main street to the ancient building which did duty as post-office.
+The man in charge, a grizzled old fellow with an empty sleeve, sat
+behind a small screen. He looked up as I entered and put out his hand
+toward the mailboxes, waiting for me to mention my name. But instead I
+said: "I am not expecting any mail. I only wanted to ask a few
+questions."
+
+"Well, sir, what can I do for you?" he asked with some interest.
+
+"I've just been up there walking through the cemetery," I returned, "and
+I am anxious to know the story, if there be one, of two monuments which
+I saw there."
+
+"You mean Fairfax and Cahoots."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You're a stranger about here, of course."
+
+"Yes," I said again, "and so there is a story?"
+
+"There is a story and I'll tell it to you. Come in and sit down." He
+opened a wire door into his little cage, and I seated myself on a stool
+and gave my attention to him.
+
+"It's just such a story," he began, "as you can hear in any of the
+Southern States--wherever there were good masters and faithful slaves.
+This particular tale is a part of our county history, and there ain't
+one of the old residents but could tell it to you word for word and fact
+for fact. In the days before our misunderstanding with the North, the
+Fairfaxes were the leading people in this section. By leading, I mean
+not only the wealthiest, not only the biggest land-owners, but that
+their name counted for more in social circles and political councils
+than any other hereabout. It is natural to expect that such a family
+should wish to preserve its own name down a direct line. So it was a
+source of great grief to old Fairfax that his first three children were
+girls, pretty, healthy, plump enough little things, but girls for all
+that, and consequently a disappointment to their father's pride of
+family. When the fourth child came and it proved to be a boy, the
+Fairfax plantation couldn't hold the Fairfax joy and it flowed out and
+mellowed the whole county.
+
+"They do say that Fairfax Fairfax was in one of his further tobacco
+fields when the good news was brought to him, and that after giving
+orders that all the darkies should knock off work and take a holiday, in
+his haste and excitement he jumped down from his horse and ran all the
+way to the house. I give the story only for what it is worth. But if it
+is true, it is the first case of a man of that name and family
+forgetting himself in an emergency.
+
+"Well, of course, the advent of a young male Fairfax would under any
+circumstances have proven a great event, although it was afterwards
+duplicated, but there would have been no story to tell, there would have
+been no 'Cahoots,' if by some fortuitous circumstance one of the slave
+women had not happened to bring into the world that day and almost at
+the same time that her mistress was introducing young Vaughan Fairfax to
+the light, a little black pickaninny of her own. Well, if you're a
+Southern man, and I take it that you are, you know that nothing ever
+happens in the quarters that the big house doesn't know. So the news was
+soon at the white father's ears and nothing would do him but that the
+black baby must be brought to the house and be introduced to the white
+one. The little black fellow came in all rolled in his bundle of shawls
+and was laid for a few minutes beside his little lord and master. Side
+by side they lay blinking at the light equally strange to both, and then
+the master took the black child's hand and put it in that of the
+white's. With the convulsive gesture common to babyhood the little hands
+clutched in a feeble grasp.
+
+"'Dah now,' old Doshy said--she was the nurse that had brought the
+pickaninny up--'dey done tol' each othah howdy.'
+
+"'Told each other howdy nothing,' said old Fairfax solemnly, 'they have
+made a silent compact of eternal friendship, and I propose to ratify it
+right here.'
+
+"He was a religious man, and so there with all the darkies clustered
+around in superstitious awe, and with the white face of his wife looking
+at him from among the pillows, he knelt and offered a prayer, and asked
+a blessing upon the two children just come into the world. And through
+it all those diminutive specimens of humanity lay there blinking with
+their hands still clasped.
+
+"Well, they named the white child Robert Vaughan, and they began calling
+the little darky Ben, until an incident in later life gave him the name
+that clung to him till the last, and which the Fairfaxes have had
+chiseled on his tomb-stone.
+
+"The incident occurred when the two boys were about five years old. They
+were as thick as thieves, and two greater scamps and greater cronies
+never tramped together over a Virginia plantation. In the matter of
+deviltry they were remarkably precocious, and it was really wonderful
+what an amount of mischief those two could do. As was natural, the white
+boy planned the deeds, and the black one was his willing coadjutor in
+carrying them out.
+
+"Meanwhile, the proud father was smilingly indulgent to their pranks,
+but even with him the climax was reached when one of his fine young
+hounds was nearly driven into fits by the clatter of a tin can tied to
+its tail. Then the two culprits were summoned to appear before the
+paternal court of inquiry.
+
+"They came hand in hand, and with no great show of fear or
+embarrassment. They had gotten off so many times before that they were
+perfectly confident of their power in this case to cajole the judge. But
+to their surprise he was all sternness and severity.
+
+"'Now look here,' he said, after expatiating on the cruel treatment
+which the dog had received. 'I want to know which one of you tied the
+can to Spot's tail?'
+
+"Robert Vaughan looked at Ben, and Ben looked back at him. Silence
+there, and nothing more.
+
+"'Do you hear my question?' old Fairfax asked with rising voice.
+
+"Robert Vaughan looked straight ahead of him, and Ben dug his big toe
+into the sand at the foot of the veranda, but neither answered.
+
+"'Robert Vaughan Fairfax,' said his father, 'who played that trick on
+Spot? Answer me, do you hear?'
+
+"The Fairfax heir seemed suddenly to have grown deaf and dumb, and the
+father turned to the black boy. His voice took on the tone of command
+which he had hardly used to his son. 'Who played that trick on Spot?
+Answer me, Ben.'
+
+"The little darky dug harder and harder into the sand, and flashed a
+furtive glance from under his brows at his fellow-conspirator. Then he
+drawled out, 'I done it.'
+
+"'You didn't,' came back the instant retort from his young master, 'I
+did it myself.'
+
+"'I done it,' repeated Ben, and 'You didn't,' reiterated his young
+master.
+
+"The father sat and looked on at the dispute, and his mouth twitched
+suspiciously, but he spoke up sternly. 'Well, if I can't get the truth
+out of you this way, I'll try some other plan. Mandy,' he hailed a
+servant, 'put these boys on a diet of bread and water until they are
+ready to answer my questions truthfully.'
+
+"The culprits were led away to their punishment. Of course it would have
+just been meat to Mandy to have stolen something to the youngsters, but
+her master kept such a close eye upon her that she couldn't, and when
+brought back at the end of three hours, their fare had left the
+prisoners rather hungry. But they had evidently disputed the matter
+between themselves, and from the cloud on their faces when they
+reappeared before their stern judge, it was still unsettled.
+
+"To the repetition of the question, Vaughan answered again, 'I did it,'
+and then his father tried Ben again.
+
+"After several efforts, and an imploring glance at his boy master, the
+little black stammered out:
+
+"'Well, I reckon--I reckon, Mas,' me an' Mas' Vaughan, we done it in
+cahoots.'
+
+"Old Fairfax Fairfax had a keen sense of humour, and as he looked down
+on the strangely old young darky and took in his answer, the
+circumstance became too much for his gravity, and his relaxing laugh
+sent the culprits rolling and tumbling in the sand in an ectasy of
+relief from the strained situation.
+
+"'Cahoots--I reckon it was "Cahoots,"' the judge said. 'You ought to be
+named that, you little black rascal!' Well, the story got around, and so
+it was, and from that day forth the black boy was 'Cahoots.' Cahoots,
+whether on the plantation, at home, in the halls of the Northern
+College, where he accompanied his young master, or in the tragic moments
+of the great war-drama played out on the field of Malvern.
+
+"As they were in childhood, so, inseparable through youth and young
+manhood, Robert Fairfax and Cahoots grew up. They were together in
+everything, and when the call came that summoned the young Virginian
+from his college to fight for the banner of his State, Cahoots was the
+one who changed from the ease of a gentleman's valet to the hardship of
+a soldier's body-servant.
+
+"The last words Fairfax Fairfax said as his son cantered away in his
+gray suit were addressed to Cahoots: 'Take good care of your Mas'
+Vaughan, Cahoots, and don't come back without him.'
+
+"'I won't, Mastah,' Cahoots flung back and galloped after his lifelong
+companion.
+
+"Well, the war brought hard times both for master and man, and there
+were no flowery beds of ease even for the officers who wore the gray.
+Robert Fairfax took the fortunes of the conflict like a man and a
+Virginia gentleman, and with him Cahoots.
+
+"It was at Malvern Hill that the young Confederate led his troops into
+battle, and all day long the booming of the cannon and the crash of
+musketry rising above the cries of the wounded and dying came to the
+ears of the slave waiting in his tent for his master's return. Then in
+the afternoon a scattered fragment came straggling back into the camp.
+Cahoots went out to meet them. The firing still went on.
+
+"'Whah's Mas' Bob?' his voice pierced through the cannon's thunder.
+
+"'He fell at the front, early in the battle.'
+
+"'Whah's his body den, ef he fell?'
+
+"'We didn't have time to look for dead bodies in that murderous fire. It
+was all we could do to get our living bodies away.'
+
+"'But I promised not to go back without him.' It was a wail of anguish
+from the slave.
+
+"'Well, you'll have to.'
+
+"'I won't. Whah did he fall?'
+
+"Someone sketched briefly the approximate locality of Robert Fairfax's
+resting place, and on the final word Cahoots tore away.
+
+"The merciless shot of the Federals was still raking the field. But amid
+it all an old prairie schooner, gotten from God knows where, started out
+from the dismantled camp across the field. 'Some fool going to his
+death,' said one of the gray soldiers.
+
+"A ragged, tattered remnant of the wagon came back. The horses were
+bleeding and staggering in their steps. The very harness was cut by the
+balls that had grazed it. But with a light in his eyes and the look of a
+hero, Cahoots leaped from the tattered vehicle and began dragging out
+the body of his master.
+
+"He had found him far to the front in an abandoned position and brought
+him back over the field of the dead.
+
+"'How did you do it?' They asked him.
+
+"'I jes' had to do it,' he said. 'I promised not to go home widout him,
+and I didn't keer ef I did git killed. I wanted to die ef I couldn't
+find Mas' Bob's body.'
+
+"He carried the body home, and mourned at the burial, and a year later
+came back to the regiment with the son who had come after Robert, and
+was now just of fighting age. He went all through this campaign, and
+when the war was over, the two struck away into the mountains. They came
+back after a while, neither one having taken the oath of allegiance, and
+if there were any rebels Cahoots was as great a one to the day of his
+death as his master. That tomb-stone, you see it looks old, was placed
+there at the old master's request when his dead son came home from
+Malvern Hill, for he said when Cahoots went to the other side they must
+not be separated; that accounts for its look of age, but it was not
+until last year that we laid Cahoots--Cahoots still though an old
+man--beside his master. And many a man that had owned his people, and
+many another that had fought to continue that ownership, dropped a tear
+on his grave."
+
+
+
+
+_Nine_
+
+THE PROMOTER
+
+
+Even as early as September, in the year of 1870, the newly emancipated
+had awakened to the perception of the commercial advantages of freedom,
+and had begun to lay snares to catch the fleet and elusive dollar. Those
+controversialists who say that the Negro's only idea of freedom was to
+live without work are either wrong, malicious, or they did not know
+Little Africa when the boom was on; when every little African, fresh
+from the fields and cabins, dreamed only of untold wealth and of
+mansions in which he would have been thoroughly uncomfortable. These
+were the devil's sunny days, and early and late his mowers were in the
+field. These were the days of benefit societies that only benefited the
+shrewdest man; of mutual insurance associations, of wild building
+companies, and of gilt-edged land schemes wherein the unwary became
+bogged. This also was the day of Mr. Jason Buford, who, having been free
+before the war, knew a thing or two, and now had set himself up as a
+promoter. Truly he had profited by the example of the white men for whom
+he had so long acted as messenger and factotum.
+
+As he frequently remarked when for purposes of business he wished to air
+his Biblical knowledge, "I jest takes the Scripter fur my motter an'
+foller that ol' passage where it says, 'Make hay while the sun shines,
+fur the night cometh when no man kin work.'"
+
+It is related that one of Mr. Buford's customers was an old plantation
+exhorter. At the first suggestion of a Biblical quotation the old
+gentleman closed his eyes and got ready with his best amen. But as the
+import of the words dawned on him he opened his eyes in surprise, and
+the amen died a-borning. "But do hit say dat?" he asked earnestly.
+
+"It certainly does read that way," said the promoter glibly.
+
+"Uh, huh," replied the old man, settling himself back in his chair. "I
+been preachin' dat t'ing wrong fu' mo' dan fo'ty yeahs. Dat's whut comes
+o' not bein' able to read de wo'd fu' yo'se'f."
+
+Buford had no sense of the pathetic or he could never have done what he
+did--sell to the old gentleman, on the strength of the knowledge he had
+imparted to him, a house and lot upon terms so easy that he might drowse
+along for a little time and then wake to find himself both homeless and
+penniless. This was the promoter's method, and for so long a time had it
+proved successful that he had now grown mildly affluent and had set up a
+buggy in which to drive about and see his numerous purchasers and
+tenants.
+
+Buford was a suave little yellow fellow, with a manner that suggested
+the training of some old Southern butler father, or at least, an
+experience as a likely house-boy. He was polite, plausible, and more
+than all, resourceful. All of this he had been for years, but in all
+these years he had never so risen to the height of his own uniqueness as
+when he conceived and carried into execution the idea of the "Buford
+Colonizing Company."
+
+Humanity has always been looking for an Eldorado, and, however mixed the
+metaphor may be, has been searching for a Moses to lead it thereto.
+Behold, then, Jason Buford in the role of Moses. And equipped he was to
+carry off his part with the very best advantage, for though he might not
+bring water from the rock, he could come as near as any other man to
+getting blood from a turnip.
+
+The beauty of the man's scheme was that no offering was too small to be
+accepted. Indeed, all was fish that came to his net.
+
+Think of paying fifty cents down and knowing that some time in the dim
+future you would be the owner of property in the very heart of a great
+city where people would rush to buy. It was glowing enough to attract a
+people more worldly wise than were these late slaves. They simply fell
+into the scheme with all their souls; and off their half dollars,
+dollars, and larger sums, Mr. Buford waxed opulent. The land meanwhile
+did not materialise.
+
+It was just at this time that Sister Jane Callender came upon the scene
+and made glad the heart of the new-fledged Moses. He had heard of Sister
+Jane before, and he had greeted her coming with a sparkling of eyes and
+a rubbing of hands that betokened a joy with a good financial basis.
+
+The truth about the newcomer was that she had just about received her
+pension, or that due to her deceased husband, and she would therefore be
+rich, rich to the point where avarice would lie in wait for her.
+
+Sis' Jane settled in Mr. Buford's bailiwick, joined the church he
+attended, and seemed only waiting with her dollars for the very call
+which he was destined to make. She was hardly settled in a little
+three-room cottage before he hastened to her side, kindly intent, or its
+counterfeit, beaming from his features. He found a weak-looking old lady
+propped in a great chair, while another stout and healthy-looking woman
+ministered to her wants or stewed about the house in order to be doing
+something.
+
+"Ah, which--which is Sis' Jane Callender," he asked, rubbing his hands
+for all the world like a clothing dealer over a good customer.
+
+"Dat's Sis' Jane in de cheer," said the animated one, pointing to her
+charge. "She feelin' mighty po'ly dis evenin'. What might be yo' name?"
+She was promptly told.
+
+"Sis' Jane, hyeah one de good brothahs come to see you to offah his
+suvices if you need anything."
+
+"Thanky, brothah, charity," said the weak voice, "sit yo'se'f down. You
+set down, Aunt Dicey. Tain't no use a runnin' roun' waitin' on me. I
+ain't long fu' dis worl' nohow, mistah."
+
+"Buford is my name an' I came in to see if I could be of any assistance
+to you, a-fixin' up yo' mattahs er seein' to anything for you."
+
+"Hit's mighty kind o' you to come, dough I don' 'low I'll need much
+fixin' fu' now."
+
+"Oh, we hope you'll soon be better, Sistah Callender."
+
+"Nevah no mo', suh, 'til I reach the Kingdom."
+
+"Sis' Jane Callender, she have been mighty sick," broke in Aunt Dicey
+Fairfax, "but I reckon she gwine pull thoo', the Lawd willin'."
+
+"Amen," said Mr. Buford.
+
+"Huh, uh, children, I done hyeahd de washin' of de waters of Jerdon."
+
+"No, no, Sistah Callendah, we hope to see you well and happy in de
+injoyment of de pension dat I understan' de gov'ment is goin' to give
+you."
+
+"La, chile, I reckon de white folks gwine to git dat money. I ain't
+nevah gwine to live to 'ceive it. Des' aftah I been wo'kin' so long fu'
+it, too."
+
+The small eyes of Mr. Buford glittered with anxiety and avarice. What,
+was this rich plum about to slip from his grasp, just as he was about to
+pluck it? It should not be. He leaned over the old lady with intense
+eagerness in his gaze.
+
+"You must live to receive it," he said, "we need that money for the
+race. It must not go back to the white folks. Ain't you got nobody to
+leave it to?"
+
+"Not a chick ner a chile, 'ceptin' Sis' Dicey Fairfax here."
+
+Mr. Buford breathed again. "Then leave it to her, by all means," he
+said.
+
+"I don' want to have nothin' to do with de money of de daid," said Sis'
+Dicey Fairfax.
+
+"Now, don't talk dat away, Sis' Dicey," said the sick woman. "Brother
+Buford is right, case you sut'ny has been good to me sence I been layin'
+hyeah on de bed of affliction, an' dey ain't nobody more fitterner to
+have dat money den you is. Ef de Lawd des lets me live long enough, I's
+gwine to mek my will in yo' favoh."
+
+"De Lawd's will be done," replied the other with resignation, and Mr.
+Buford echoed with an "Amen!"
+
+He stayed very long that evening, planning and talking with the two old
+women, who received his words as the Gospel. Two weeks later the
+_Ethiopian Banner_, which was the organ of Little Africa, announced that
+Sis' Jane Callender had received a back pension which amounted to more
+than five hundred dollars. Thereafter Mr. Buford was seen frequently in
+the little cottage, until one day, after a lapse of three or four weeks,
+a policeman entered Sis' Jane Callender's cottage and led her away
+amidst great excitement to prison. She was charged with pension fraud,
+and against her protestations, was locked up to await the action of the
+Grand Jury.
+
+The promoter was very active in his client's behalf, but in spite of all
+his efforts she was indicted and came up for trial.
+
+It was a great day for the denizens of Little Africa, and they crowded
+the court room to look upon this stranger who had come among them to
+grow so rich, and then suddenly to fall so low.
+
+The prosecuting attorney was a young Southerner, and when he saw the
+prisoner at the bar he started violently, but checked himself. When the
+prisoner saw him, however, she made no effort at self control.
+
+"Lawd o' mussy," she cried, spreading out her black arms, "if it ain't
+Miss Lou's little Bobby."
+
+The judge checked the hilarity of the audience; the prosecutor
+maintained his dignity by main force, and the bailiff succeeded in
+keeping the old lady in her place, although she admonished him: "Pshaw,
+chile, you needn't fool wid me, I nussed dat boy's mammy when she borned
+him."
+
+It was too much for the young attorney, and he would have been less a
+man if it had not been. He came over and shook her hand warmly, and this
+time no one laughed.
+
+It was really not worth while prolonging the case, and the prosecution
+was nervous. The way that old black woman took the court and its
+officers into her bosom was enough to disconcert any ordinary tribunal.
+She patronised the judge openly before the hearing began and insisted
+upon holding a gentle motherly conversation with the foreman of the
+jury.
+
+She was called to the stand as the very first witness.
+
+"What is your name?" asked the attorney.
+
+"Now, Bobby, what is you axin' me dat fu'? You know what my name is, and
+you one of de Fairfax fambly, too. I 'low ef yo' mammy was hyeah, she'd
+mek you 'membah; she'd put you in yo' place."
+
+The judge rapped for order.
+
+"That is just a manner of proceeding," he said; "you must answer the
+question, so the rest of the court may know."
+
+"Oh, yes, suh, 'scuse me, my name hit's Dicey Fairfax."
+
+The attorney for the defence threw up his hands and turned purple. He
+had a dozen witnesses there to prove that they had known the woman as
+Jane Callender.
+
+"But did you not give your name as Jane Callender?"
+
+"I object," thundered the defence.
+
+"Do, hush, man," Sis' Dicey exclaimed, and then turning to the
+prosecutor, "La, honey, you know Jane Callender ain't my real name, you
+knows dat yo'se'f. It's des my bus'ness name. W'y, Sis' Jane Callender
+done daid an' gone to glory too long 'go fu' to talk erbout."
+
+"Then you admit to the court that your name is not Jane Callender?"
+
+"Wha's de use o' my 'mittin', don' you know it yo'se'f, suh? Has I got
+to come hyeah at dis late day an' p'ove my name an' redentify befo' my
+ol' Miss's own chile? Mas' Bob, I nevah did t'ink you'd ac' dat away.
+Freedom sutny has done tuk erway yo' mannahs."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes, that's all right, but we want to establish the fact that
+your name is Dicey Fairfax."
+
+"Cose it is."
+
+"Your Honor, I object--I----"
+
+"Your Honor," said Fairfax coldly, "will you grant me the liberty of
+conducting the examination in a way somewhat out of the ordinary lines?
+I believe that my brother for the defence will have nothing to complain
+of. I believe that I understand the situation and shall be able to get
+the truth more easily by employing methods that are not altogether
+technical."
+
+The court seemed to understand a thing or two himself, and overruled the
+defence's objection.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Fairfax----"
+
+Aunt Dicey snorted. "Hoomph? What? Mis' Fairfax? What ou say, Bobby
+Fairfax? What you call me dat fu'? My name Aunt Dicey to you an' I want
+you to un'erstan' dat right hyeah. Ef you keep on foolin' wid me, I
+'spec' my patience gwine waih claih out."
+
+"Excuse me. Well, Aunt Dicey, why did you take the name of Jane
+Callender if your name is really Dicey Fairfax?"
+
+"W'y, I done tol' you, Bobby, dat Sis' Jane Callender was des' my
+bus'ness name."
+
+"Well, how were you to use this business name?"
+
+"Well, it was des dis away. Sis' Jane Callender, she gwine git huh
+pension, but la, chile, she tuk down sick unto deaf, an' Brothah
+Buford, he say dat she ought to mek a will in favoh of somebody, so's de
+money would stay 'mongst ouah folks, an' so, bimeby, she 'greed she mek
+a will."
+
+"And who is Brother Buford, Aunt Dicey?"
+
+"Brothah Buford? Oh, he's de gemman whut come an' offered to 'ten' to
+Sis' Jane Callender's bus'ness fu' huh. He's a moughty clevah man."
+
+"And he told her she ought to make a will?"
+
+"Yas, suh. So she 'greed she gwine mek a will, an' she say to me, 'Sis
+Dicey, you sut'ny has been good to me sence I been layin' hyeah on dis
+bed of 'fliction, an' I gwine will all my proputy to you.' Well, I don't
+want to tek de money, an' she des mos' nigh fo'ce it on me, so I say
+yes, an' Brothah Buford he des sot an' talk to us, an' he say dat he
+come to-morror to bring a lawyer to draw up de will. But bless Gawd,
+honey, Sis' Callender died dat night, an' de will wasn't made, so when
+Brothah Buford come bright an' early next mornin', I was layin' Sis'
+Callender out. Brothah Buford was mighty much moved, he was. I nevah did
+see a strange pusson tek anything so hard in all my life, an' den he
+talk to me, an' he say, 'Now, Sis' Dicey, is you notified any de
+neighbours yit?' an' I said no I hain't notified no one of de
+neighbours, case I ain't 'quainted wid none o' dem yit, an' he say, 'How
+erbout de doctah? Is he 'quainted wid de diseased?' an' I tol' him no,
+he des come in, da's all. 'Well,' he say, 'cose you un'erstan' now dat
+you is Sis' Jane Callender, caise you inhe'it huh name, an' when de
+doctah come to mek out de 'stiffycate, you mus' tell him dat Sis' Dicey
+Fairfax is de name of de diseased, an' it'll be all right, an' aftah dis
+you got to go by de name o' Jane Callender, caise it's a bus'ness name
+you done inhe'it.' Well, dat's whut I done, an' dat's huccome I been
+Jane Callender in de bus'ness 'sactions, an' Dicey Fairfax at home. Now,
+you un'erstan', don't you? It wuz my inhe'ited name."
+
+"But don't you know that what you have done is a penitentiary offence?"
+
+"Who you stan'in' up talkin' to dat erway, you nasty impident little
+scoun'el? Don't you talk to me dat erway. I reckon ef yo' mammy was
+hyeah she sut'ny would tend to yo' case. You alluse was sassier an'
+pearter den yo' brother Nelse, an' he had to go an' git killed in de
+wah, an' you--you--w'y, jedge, I'se spanked dat boy mo' times den I kin
+tell you fu' hus impidence. I don't see how you evah gits erlong wid
+him."
+
+The court repressed a ripple that ran around. But there was no smile on
+the smooth-shaven, clear-cut face of the young Southerner. Turning to
+the attorney for the defence, he said: "Will you take the witness?" But
+that gentleman, waving one helpless hand, shook his head.
+
+"That will do, then," said young Fairfax. "Your Honor," he went on,
+addressing the court, "I have no desire to prosecute this case further.
+You all see the trend of it just as I see, and it would be folly to
+continue the examination of any of the rest of these witnesses. We have
+got that story from Aunt Dicey herself as straight as an arrow from a
+bow. While technically she is guilty; while according to the facts she
+is a criminal according to the motive and the intent of her actions, she
+is as innocent as the whitest soul among us." He could not repress the
+youthful Southerner's love for this little bit of rhetoric.
+
+"And I believe that nothing is to be gained by going further into the
+matter, save for the purpose of finding out the whereabouts of this
+Brother Buford, and attending to his case as the facts warrant. But
+before we do this, I want to see the stamp of crime wiped away from the
+name of my Aunt Dicey there, and I beg leave of the court to enter a
+nolle prosse. There is only one other thing I must ask of Aunt Dicey,
+and that is that she return the money that was illegally gotten, and
+give us information concerning the whereabouts of Buford."
+
+Aunt Dicey looked up in excitement, "W'y, chile, ef dat money was got
+illegal, I don' want it, but I do know whut I gwine to do, cause I done
+'vested it all wid Brothah Buford in his colorednization comp'ny." The
+court drew its breath. It had been expecting some such _denouement_.
+
+"And where is the office of this company situated?"
+
+"Well, I des can't tell dat," said the old lady. "W'y, la, man, Brothah
+Buford was in co't to-day. Whaih is he? Brothah Buford, whaih you?" But
+no answer came from the surrounding spectators. Brother Buford had faded
+away. The old lady, however, after due conventions, was permitted to go
+home.
+
+It was with joy in her heart that Aunt Dicey Fairfax went back to her
+little cottage after her dismissal, but her face clouded when soon after
+Robert Fairfax came in.
+
+"Hyeah you come as usual," she said with well-feigned anger. "Tryin' to
+sof' soap me aftah you been carryin' on. You ain't changed one mite fu'
+all yo' bein' a man. What you talk to me dat away in co't fu'?"
+
+Fairfax's face was very grave. "It was necessary, Aunt Dicey," he said.
+"You know I'm a lawyer now, and there are certain things that lawyers
+have to do whether they like it or not. You don't understand. That man
+Buford is a scoundrel, and he came very near leading you into a very
+dangerous and criminal act. I am glad I was near to save you."
+
+"Oh, honey, chile, I didn't know dat. Set down an' tell me all erbout
+it."
+
+This the attorney did, and the old lady's indignation blazed forth.
+"Well, I hope to de Lawd you'll fin' dat rascal an' larrup him ontwell
+he cain't stan' straight."
+
+"No, we're going to do better than that and a great deal better. If we
+find him we are going to send him where he won't inveigle any more
+innocent people into rascality, and you're going to help us."
+
+"W'y, sut'ny, chile, I'll do all I kin to he'p you git dat rascal, but I
+don't know whaih he lives, case he's allus come hyeah to see me."
+
+"He'll come back some day. In the meantime we will be laying for him."
+
+Aunt Dicey was putting some very flaky biscuits into the oven, and
+perhaps the memory of other days made the young lawyer prolong his visit
+and his explanation. When, however, he left, it was with well-laid plans
+to catch Jason Buford napping.
+
+It did not take long. Stealthily that same evening a tapping came at
+Aunt Dicey's door. She opened it, and a small, crouching figure crept
+in. It was Mr. Buford. He turned down the collar of his coat which he
+had had closely up about his face and said:
+
+"Well, well, Sis' Callender, you sut'ny have spoiled us all."
+
+"La, Brothah Buford, come in hyeah an' set down. Whaih you been?"
+
+"I been hidin' fu' feah of that testimony you give in the court room.
+What did you do that fu'?"
+
+"La, me, I didn't know, you didn't 'splain to me in de fust."
+
+"Well, you see, you spoiled it, an' I've got to git out of town as soon
+as I kin. Sis' Callender, dese hyeah white people is mighty slippery,
+and they might catch me. But I want to beg you to go on away from hyeah
+so's you won't be hyeah to testify if dey does. Hyeah's a hundred
+dollars of yo' money right down, and you leave hyeah to-morrer mornin'
+an' go erway as far as you kin git."
+
+"La, man, I's puffectly willin' to he'p you, you know dat."
+
+"Cose, cose," he answered hurriedly, "we col'red people has got to stan'
+together."
+
+"But what about de res' of dat money dat I been 'vestin' wid you?"
+
+"I'm goin' to pay intrus' on that," answered the promoter glibly.
+
+"All right, all right." Aunt Dicey had made several trips to the little
+back room just off her sitting room as she talked with the promoter.
+Three times in the window had she waved a lighted lamp. Three times
+without success. But at the last "all right," she went into the room
+again. This time the waving lamp was answered by the sudden flash of a
+lantern outside.
+
+"All right," she said, as she returned to the room, "set down an' lemme
+fix you some suppah."
+
+"I ain't hardly got the time. I got to git away from hyeah." But the
+smell of the new baked biscuits was in his nostrils and he could not
+resist the temptation to sit down. He was eating hastily, but with
+appreciation, when the door opened and two minions of the law entered.
+
+Buford sprang up and turned to flee, but at the back door, her large
+form a towering and impassive barrier, stood Aunt Dicey.
+
+"Oh, don't hu'y, Brothah Buford," she said calmly, "set down an' he'p
+yo'se'f. Dese hyeah's my friends."
+
+It was the next day that Robert Fairfax saw him in his cell. The man's
+face was ashen with coward's terror. He was like a caught rat though,
+bitingly on the defensive.
+
+"You see we've got you, Buford," said Fairfax coldly to him. "It is as
+well to confess."
+
+"I ain't got nothin' to say," said Buford cautiously.
+
+"You will have something to say later on unless you say it now. I don't
+want to intimidate you, but Aunt Dicey's word will be taken in any court
+in the United States against yours, and I see a few years hard labour
+for you between good stout walls."
+
+The little promoter showed his teeth in an impotent snarl. "What do you
+want me to do?" he asked, weakening.
+
+"First, I want you to give back every cent of the money that you got out
+of Dicey Fairfax. Second, I want you to give up to every one of those
+Negroes that you have cheated every cent of the property you have
+accumulated by fraudulent means. Third, I want you to leave this place,
+and never come back so long as God leaves breath in your dirty body. If
+you do this, I will save you--you are not worth the saving--from the pen
+or worse. If you don't, I will make this place so hot for you that hell
+will seem like an icebox beside it."
+
+The little yellow man was cowering in his cell before the attorney's
+indignation. His lips were drawn back over his teeth in something that
+was neither a snarl nor a smile. His eyes were bulging and
+fear-stricken, and his hands clasped and unclasped themselves nervously.
+
+"I--I----" he faltered, "do you want to send me out without a cent?"
+
+"Without a cent, without a cent," said Fairfax tensely.
+
+"I won't do it," the rat in him again showed fight. "I won't do it. I'll
+stay hyeah an' fight you. You can't prove anything on me."
+
+"All right, all right," and the attorney turned toward the door.
+
+"Wait, wait," called the man, "I will do it, my God! I will do it. Jest
+let me out o' hyeah, don't keep me caged up. I'll go away from hyeah."
+
+Fairfax turned back to him coldly, "You will keep your word?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I will return at once and take the confession."
+
+And so the thing was done. Jason Buford, stripped of his ill-gotten
+gains, left the neighbourhood of Little Africa forever. And Aunt Dicey,
+no longer a wealthy woman and a capitalist, is baking golden brown
+biscuits for a certain young attorney and his wife, who has the bad
+habit of rousing her anger by references to her business name and her
+investments with a promoter.
+
+
+
+
+_Ten_
+
+THE WISDOM OF SILENCE
+
+
+Jeremiah Anderson was free. He had been free for ten years, and he was
+proud of it. He had been proud of it from the beginning, and that was
+the reason that he was one of the first to cast off the bonds of his old
+relations, and move from the plantation and take up land for himself. He
+was anxious to cut himself off from all that bound him to his former
+life. So strong was this feeling in him that he would not consent to
+stay on and work for his one-time owner even for a full wage.
+
+To the proposition of the planter and the gibes of some of his more
+dependent fellows he answered, "No, suh, I's free, an' I sholy is able
+to tek keer o' myse'f. I done been fattenin' frogs fu' othah people's
+snakes too long now."
+
+"But, Jerry," said Samuel Brabant, "I don't mean you any harm. The
+thing's done. You don't belong to me any more, but naturally, I take an
+interest in you, and want to do what I can to give you a start. It's
+more than the Northern government has done for you, although such wise
+men ought to know that you have had no training in caring for
+yourselves."
+
+There was a slight sneer in the Southerner's voice. Jerry perceived it
+and thought it directed against him. Instantly his pride rose and his
+neck stiffened.
+
+"Nemmine me," he answered, "nemmine me. I's free, an' w'en a man's free,
+he's free."
+
+"All right, go your own way. You may have to come back to me some time.
+If you have to come, come. I don't blame you now. It must be a great
+thing to you, this dream--this nightmare." Jerry looked at him. "Oh, it
+isn't a nightmare now, but some day, maybe, it will be, then come to
+me."
+
+The master turned away from the newly made freeman, and Jerry went forth
+into the world which was henceforth to be his. He took with him his few
+belongings; these largely represented by his wife and four lusty-eating
+children. Besides, he owned a little money, which he had got working for
+others when his master's task was done. Thus, bur'dened and equipped, he
+set out to tempt Fortune.
+
+He might do one of two things--farm land upon shares for one of his
+short-handed neighbours, or buy a farm, mortgage it, and pay for it as
+he could. As was natural for Jerry, and not uncommendable, he chose at
+once the latter course, bargained for his twenty acres--for land was
+cheap then, bought his mule, built his cabin, and set up his household
+goods.
+
+Now, slavery may give a man the habit of work, but it cannot imbue him
+with the natural thrift that long years of self-dependence brings. There
+were times when Jerry's freedom tugged too strongly at his easy
+inclination, drawing him away to idle when he should have toiled. What
+was the use of freedom, asked an inward voice, if one might not rest
+when one would? If he might not stop midway the furrow to listen and
+laugh at a droll story or tell one? If he might not go a-fishing when
+all the forces of nature invited and the jay-bird called from the tree
+and gave forth saucy banter like the fiery, blue shrew that she was?
+
+There were times when his compunction held Jerry to his task, but more
+often he turned an end furrow and laid his misgivings snugly under it
+and was away to the woods or the creek. There was joy and a loaf for the
+present. What more could he ask?
+
+The first year Fortune laughed at him, and her laugh is very different
+from her smile. She sent the swift rains to wash up the new planted
+seed, and the hungry birds to devour them. She sent the fierce sun to
+scorch the young crops, and the clinging weeds to hug the fresh
+greenness of his hope to death. She sent--cruellest jest of all--another
+baby to be fed, and so weakened Cindy Ann that for many days she could
+not work beside her husband in the fields.
+
+Poverty began to teach the unlessoned delver in the soil the thrift
+which he needed; but he ended his first twelve months with barely enough
+to eat, and nothing paid on his land or his mule. Broken and
+discouraged, the words of his old master came to him. But he was proud
+with an obstinate pride and he shut his lips together so that he might
+not groan. He would not go to his master. Anything rather than that.
+
+In that place sat certain beasts of prey, dealers, and lenders of money,
+who had their lairs somewhere within the boundaries of that wide and
+mysterious domain called The Law. They had their risks to run, but so
+must all beasts that eat flesh or drink blood. To them went Jerry, and
+they were kind to him. They gave him of their store. They gave him food
+and seed, but they were to own all that they gave him from what he
+raised, and they were to take their toll first from the new crops.
+
+Now, the black had been warned against these same beasts, for others had
+fallen a prey to them even in so short a time as their emancipation
+measured, and they saw themselves the re-manacled slaves of a hopeless
+and ever-growing debt, but Jerry would not be warned. He chewed the
+warnings like husks between his teeth, and got no substance from them.
+
+Then, Fortune, who deals in surprises, played him another trick. She
+smiled upon him. His second year was better than his first, and the
+brokers swore over his paid up note. Cindy Ann was strong again and the
+oldest boy was big enough to help with the work.
+
+Samuel Brabant was displeased, not because he felt any malice toward his
+former servant, but for the reason that any man with the natural amount
+of human vanity must feel himself agrieved just as his cherished
+prophecy is about to come true. Isaiah himself could not have been above
+it. How much less, then, the uninspired Mr. Brabant, who had his "I told
+you so," all ready. He had been ready to help Jerry after giving him
+admonitions, but here it was not needed. An unused "I told you so,"
+however kindly, is an acid that turns the milk of human kindness sour.
+
+Jerry went on gaining in prosperity. The third year treated him better
+than the second, and the fourth better than the third. During the fifth
+he enlarged his farm and his house and took pride in the fact that his
+oldest boy, Matthew, was away at school. By the tenth year of his
+freedom he was arrogantly out of debt. Then his pride was too much for
+him. During all these years of his struggle the words of his master had
+been as gall in his mouth. Now he spat them out with a boast. He talked
+much in the market-place, and where many people gathered, he was much
+there, giving himself as a bright and shining example.
+
+"Huh," he would chuckle to any listeners he could find, "Ol' Mas'
+Brabant, he say, 'Stay hyeah, stay hyeah, you do' know how to tek keer
+o' yo'se'f yit.' But I des' look at my two han's an' I say to myse'f,
+whut I been doin' wid dese all dese yeahs--tekin' keer o' myse'f an'
+him, too. I wo'k in de fiel', he set in de big house an' smoke. I wo'k
+in de fiel', his son go away to college an' come back a graduate. Das
+hit. Well, w'en freedom come, I des' bent an' boun' I ain' gwine do it
+no mo' an' I didn't. Now look at me. I sets down w'en I wants to. I
+does my own wo'kin' an' my own smokin'. I don't owe a cent, an' dis yeah
+my boy gwine graduate f'om de school. Dat's me, an' I ain' called on ol'
+Mas' yit."
+
+Now, an example is always an odious thing, because, first of all, it is
+always insolent even when it is bad, and there were those who listened
+to Jerry who had not been so successful as he, some even who had stayed
+on the plantation and as yet did not even own the mule they ploughed
+with. The hearts of those were filled with rage and their mouths with
+envy. Some of the sting of the latter got into their retelling of
+Jerry's talk and made it worse than it was.
+
+Old Samuel Brabant laughed and said, "Well, Jerry's not dead yet, and
+although I don't wish him any harm, my prophecy might come true yet."
+
+There were others who, hearing, did not laugh, or if they did, it was
+with a mere strained thinning of the lips that had no element of mirth
+in it. Temper and tolerance were short ten years after sixty-three.
+
+The foolish farmer's boastings bore fruit, and one night when he and his
+family had gone to church he returned to find his house and barn in
+ashes, his mules burned and his crop ruined. It had been very quietly
+done and quickly. The glare against the sky had attracted few from the
+nearby town, and them too late to be of service.
+
+Jerry camped that night across the road from what remained of his former
+dwelling. Cindy Ann and the children, worn out and worried, went to
+sleep in spite of themselves, but he sat there all night long, his chin
+between his knees, gazing at what had been his pride.
+
+Well, the beasts lay in wait for him again, and when he came to them
+they showed their fangs in greeting. And the velvet was over their
+claws. He had escaped them before. He had impugned their skill in the
+hunt, and they were ravenous for him. Now he was fatter, too. He went
+away from them with hard terms, and a sickness at his heart. But he had
+not said "Yes" to the terms. He was going home to consider the almost
+hopeless conditions under which they would let him build again.
+
+They were staying with a neighbour in town pending his negotiations and
+thither he went to ponder on his circumstances. Then it was that Cindy
+Ann came into the equation. She demanded to know what was to be done and
+how it was to be gone about.
+
+"But Cindy Ann, honey, you do' know nuffin' 'bout bus'ness."
+
+"T'ain't whut I knows, but whut I got a right to know," was her
+response.
+
+"I do' see huccome you got any right to be a-pryin' into dese hyeah
+things."
+
+"I's got de same right I had to w'ok an' struggle erlong an' he'p you
+get whut we's done los'."
+
+Jerry winced and ended by telling her all.
+
+"Dat ain't nuffin' but owdacious robbery," said Cindy Ann. "Dem people
+sees dat you got a little some'p'n, an' dey ain't gwine stop ontwell
+dey's bu'nt an' stoled evah blessed cent f'om you. Je'miah, don't you
+have nuffin' mo' to do wid 'em."
+
+"I got to, Cindy Ann."
+
+"Whut fu' you got to?"
+
+"How I gwine buil' a cabin an' a ba'n an' buy a mule less'n I deal wid
+'em?"
+
+"Dah's Mas' Sam Brabant. He'd he'p you out."
+
+Jerry rose up, his eyes flashing fire. "Cindy Ann," he said, "you a
+fool, you ain't got no mo' pride den a guinea hen, an' you got a heap
+less sense. W'y, befo' I go to ol' Mas' Sam Brabant fu' a cent, I'd
+sta've out in de road."
+
+"Huh!" said Cindy Ann, shutting her mouth on her impatience.
+
+One gets tired of thinking and saying how much more sense a woman has
+than a man when she comes in where his sense stops and his pride
+begins.
+
+With the recklessness of despair Jerry slept late that next morning, but
+he might have awakened early without spoiling his wife's plans. She was
+up betimes, had gone on her mission and returned before her spouse
+awoke.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when Brabant came to see him. Jerry grew sullen
+at once as his master approached, but his pride stiffened. This white
+man should see that misfortune could not weaken him.
+
+"Well, Jerry," said his former master, "you would not come to me, eh, so
+I must come to you. You let a little remark of mine keep you from your
+best friend, and put you in the way of losing the labour of years."
+
+Jerry made no answer.
+
+"You've proved yourself able to work well, but Jerry," pausing, "you
+haven't yet shown that you're able to take care of yourself, you don't
+know how to keep your mouth shut."
+
+The ex-slave tried to prove this a lie by negative pantomime.
+
+"I'm going to lend you the money to start again."
+
+"I won't----"
+
+"Yes, you will, if you don't, I'll lend it to Cindy Ann, and let her
+build in her own name. She's got more sense than you, and she knows how
+to keep still when things go well."
+
+"Mas' Sam," cried Jerry, rising quickly, "don' len' dat money to Cindy
+Ann. W'y ef a ooman's got anything she nevah lets you hyeah de las' of
+it."
+
+"Will you take it, then?"
+
+"Yes, suh; yes, suh, an' thank 'e, Mas' Sam." There were sobs some place
+back in his throat. "An' nex' time ef I evah gets a sta't agin, I'll
+keep my mouf shet. Fac' is, I'll come to you, Mas' Sam, an' borry fu' de
+sake o' hidin'."
+
+
+
+
+_Eleven_
+
+THE TRIUMPH OF OL' MIS' PEASE
+
+
+Between the two women, the feud began in this way: When Ann Pease
+divorced her handsome but profligate spouse, William, Nancy Rogers had,
+with reprehensible haste, taken him for better or for worse. Of course,
+it proved for worse, but Ann Pease had never forgiven her.
+
+"'Pears lak to me," she said, "dat she was des a-waitin' fu' to step
+inter my shoes, no mattah how I got outen 'em, whethah I died or
+divo'ced."
+
+It was in the hey-day of Nancy Rogers' youth, and she was still
+hot-tempered, so she retorted that "Ann Pease sut'ny did unmind huh' o'
+de dawg in de mangah." The friends of the two women took sides, and a
+war began which waged hotly between them--a war which for the first few
+weeks threatened the unity of Mt. Pisgah Church.
+
+But the church in all times has been something of a selfish institution
+and has known how to take care of itself. Now, Mt. Pisgah, of necessity,
+must recognise divorce, and of equal necessity, re-marriage. So when the
+Rev. Isaiah Johnson had been appealed to, he had spread his fat hands,
+closed his eyes and said solemnly, "Whom God hath j'ined, let no man put
+asundah;" peace, or at best, apparent peace, settled upon the troubled
+waters.
+
+The solidity of Mt. Pisgah was assured, the two factions again spoke to
+each other, both gave collections on the same Sunday; but between the
+two principals there was no abatement of their relentless animosity.
+
+Ann Pease as it happened was a "puffessor," while the new Mrs. Pease was
+out of the fold; a gay, frivolous person who had never sought or found
+grace. She laughed when a black wag said of the two that "they might
+bofe be 'peas,' but dey wasn't out o' de same pod." But on its being
+repeated to Sister Pease, she resented it with Christian indignation,
+sniffed and remarked that "Ef Wi'yum choosed to pick out one o' de
+onregenerate an' hang huh ez a millstone erroun' his neck, it wasn't
+none o' huh bus'ness what happened to him w'en dey pulled up de tares
+f'om de wheat."
+
+There were some ultra-malicious ones who said that Sister Pease, seeing
+her former husband in the possession of another, had begun to regret her
+step, for the unregenerate William was good-looking after all, and the
+"times" that he and his equally sinful wife had together were the wonder
+and disgust, the envy and horror of the whole community, who watched
+them with varying moods of eagerness.
+
+Sister Ann Pease went her way apparently undisturbed. Religion has an
+arrogance of its own, and when at the end of the year the good widow
+remained unmarried she could toss her head, go her way, and look down
+from a far height upon the "po' sinnahs"; indeed, she had rather the
+better of her frailer sister in the sympathies of the people.
+
+As one sister feelingly remarked, "Dat ooman des baihin' dat man in huh
+prayahs, an' I 'low she'll mou'n him into glory yit."
+
+One year of married life disillusions, and defiant gaiety cannot live
+upon itself when admiration fails. There is no reward in being daring
+when courage becomes commonplace. The year darkened to winter, and
+bloomed to spring again. The willows feathered along the river banks,
+and the horse-chestnuts budded and burst into beautiful life. Then came
+summer, rejoicing, with arms full of flowers, and autumn with lap full
+of apples and grain, then winter again, and all through the days Nancy
+danced and was gay, but there was a wistfulness in her eyes, and the tug
+of the baby no longer drew her heart. She had come to be "Wi'yum's
+Nancy," while the other, _that_ other was still "Sister Pease," who sat
+above her in the high places of the people's hearts.
+
+And then, oh, blessedness of the winter, the revival came; and both she
+and William, strangely stricken together with the realisation of their
+sins, fell at the mercy seat.
+
+"There is more joy over one sinner that repenteth,"--but when Will and
+Nancy both "came through" on the same night--well, Mt. Pisgah's walls
+know the story.
+
+There was triumph in Nancy's face as she proclaimed her conversion, and
+the first person she made for was Sister Pease. She shook her hands and
+embraced her, crying ever aloud between the vociferations of the
+congregation, "Oh, sistah, he'p me praise Him, he'p me praise Him," and
+the elder woman in the cause caught the infection of the moment and
+joined in the general shout.
+
+Afterwards she was not pleased with herself. But then if she hadn't
+shouted, wouldn't it have been worse?
+
+The Rev. Isaiah was nothing if not dramatic in his tendencies, and on
+the day when he was to receive William and Nancy Pease into full
+membership with the church, it struck him that nothing could make upon
+his congregation a profounder impression for good than to have the two
+new Peases joined by the elder one, or as the wag would have put it, all
+in one pod. And it was so ordered, and the thing was done.
+
+It is true that the preacher had to labour some with Sister Ann Pease,
+but when he showed her how it was her Christian duty, and if she failed
+of it her rival must advance before her in public opinion, she
+acquiesced. It was an easier matter with "Sister Wi'yum Pease." She
+agreed readily, for she was filled with condescending humility, which on
+every occasion she took the opportunity of displaying toward her rival.
+
+The Rev. Isaiah Johnson only made one mistake in his diplomatic
+manoeuvring. That was when he whispered to Sister Ann Pease, "Didn't I
+tell you? Des see how easy Sister Wi'yum give in." He was near to losing
+his cause and the wind was completely taken out of his sails when the
+widow replied with a snort, "Give in, my Lawd! Dat ooman's got a right
+to give in; ain't she got 'uligion an' de man, too?"
+
+However, the storm blew over, and by the time service was begun they
+were all seated together on a front bench, Sister Nancy, William, and
+Sister Ann.
+
+Now was the psychological moment, and after a soul-stirring hymn the
+preacher rose and announced his text--"Behold how good and how pleasant
+it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."
+
+Someone in the back part of the church suggested trinity as a substitute
+and started a titter, but the preacher had already got his dramatic
+momentum, and was sweeping along in a tumultuous tide of oratory. Right
+at his three victims did he aim his fiery eloquence, and ever and again
+he came back to his theme, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for
+brethren to dwell together in unity," even though Ann Pease had turned
+her back on William, whose head was low bowed, and Nancy was
+ostentatiously weeping into a yellow silk handkerchief.
+
+The sermon spurred on to a tempestuous close, and then came the climax
+when the doors of the church were opened. William and Nancy immediately
+went up to end their probation, and after a few whispered remarks the
+minister shook hands with each of them, then raising his voice he said:
+"Now, brothahs and sistahs, befo' you all gives dese lambs de right
+han' o' fellowship to welcome dem to de fol', I want Sister Ann Pease to
+come up an' be de first to bid 'em God speed on the gospel way." Ann
+Pease visibly swelled, but she marched up, and without looking at
+either, shook hands with each of her enemies.
+
+"Hallelujah, praise de Lord," shouted the preacher, clapping his hands,
+"Behold how good and how pleasant it is; and now let the congregation in
+gineral come aroun' and welcome Brothah and Sistah Pease."
+
+His rich bass voice broke into "Bless Be the Tie that Binds," and as the
+volume of the hymn, swelled by the full chorus of the congregation,
+rolled away to the rafters of the little church, the people rose and
+marched solemnly round, shaking hands with the new members and with each
+other.
+
+Brother and Sister Pease were the last to leave church that day, but
+they found Ann waiting for them at the door. She walked straight up to
+them and spoke: "Nancy Rogers," she said, "I know you; I kin see claih
+thoo you, and you ain't a foolin' me one bit. All I got to say is dat I
+has done my Christian duty, an' I ain't gwine do no mo', so don' you
+speak to me fo'm dis day out."
+
+For the brief space of a second there was something like a gleam in
+Nancy's eyes, but she replied in all meekness, "I's a full-blown
+Christian now, an' I feel it my bounden duty to speak to you, Sis'
+Pease, an' I's gwine t' speak."
+
+Ignoring this defiance the other woman turned to her former husband. She
+looked at him with unveiled contempt, then she said slowly, "An' ez fu'
+Wi'yum, Gawd he'p you."
+
+Here all intercourse between these warring spirits might have ended but
+for Nancy Pease's persistent civility. She would speak to her rival on
+every occasion, and even call upon her if she could gain admittance to
+the house. And now the last drop of bitterness fell into the widow's
+cup, for the community, to distinguish between them, began calling her
+"Ol' Sis' Pease." This was the climax of her sorrows, and she who had
+been so devout came no more to the church; she who had been so cheerful
+and companionable grew morose and sour and shut her doors against her
+friends. She was as one dead to her old world. The one bit of vivid life
+about her was her lasting hatred of the woman who bore her name. In vain
+the preacher sought to break down the barrier of her animosity. She had
+built it of adamant, and his was a losing fight. So for several years
+the feud went on, and those who had known Ann in her cheerier days
+forgot that knowledge and spoke of her with open aversion as "dat awful
+ol' Mis' Pease." The while Nancy, in spite of "Wi'yum's" industrial
+vagaries, had flourished and waxed opulent. She continued to flaunt her
+Christian humility in the eyes of her own circle, and to withhold her
+pity from the poor, lonely old woman whom hate had made bitter and to
+whom the world, after all, had not been over-kind. But prosperity is
+usually cruel, and one needs the prick of the thorn one's self to know
+how it stings his brother.
+
+She was startled one day, however, out of her usual placidity. Sister
+Martin, one of her neighbours, dropped in and settling herself with a
+sigh announced the important news, "Well, bless Gawd, ol' Sis' Pease is
+gone at last."
+
+Nancy dropped the plate she had been polishing, and unheeded, it smashed
+into bits on the floor.
+
+"Wha'--what!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Yes'm," Sister Martin assured her, "de ol' lady done passed away."
+
+"I didn't know she was sick; w'en she die?"
+
+"She done shet huh eyes on dis worl' o' sorror des a few minutes ago.
+She ain't bin sick mo'n two days."
+
+Nancy had come to herself now, and casting her eyes up in an excess of
+Christian zeal, she said: "Well, she wouldn't let me do nuffin' fu' huh
+in life, but I sut'ny shell try to do my duty by huh in death," and
+drying her hands and throwing a shawl over her head, she hastened over
+to her dead enemy's house.
+
+The news had spread quickly and the neighbourhood had just begun to
+gather in the little room which held the rigid form. Nancy entered and
+made her way through the group about the bed, waving the others aside
+imperiously.
+
+"It is my Christian duty," she said solemnly, "to lay Sis' Pease out,
+an' I's gwine do it." She bent over the bed. Now there are a dozen
+truthful women who will vouch for the truth of what happened. When Nancy
+leaned over the bed, as if in obedience to the power of an electric
+shock, the corpse's eyes flew open, Ann Pease rose up in bed and
+pointing a trembling finger at her frightened namesake exclaimed: "Go
+'way f'om me, Nancy Rogers, don't you daih to tech me. You ain't got de
+come-uppance of me yit. Don't you daih to lay me out."
+
+Most of this remark, it seems, fell on empty air, for the room was
+cleared in a twinkling. Women holding high numerous skirts over their
+heavy shoes fled in a panic, and close in their wake panted Nancy Pease.
+
+There have been conflicting stories about the matter, but there are
+those who maintain that after having delivered her ultimatum, old Mis'
+Pease immediately resumed the natural condition of a dead person. In
+fact there was no one there to see, and the old lady did not really die
+until night, and when they found her, there was a smile of triumph on
+her face.
+
+Nancy did not help to lay her out.
+
+
+
+
+_Twelve_
+
+THE LYNCHING OF JUBE BENSON
+
+
+Gordon Fairfax's library held but three men, but the air was dense with
+clouds of smoke. The talk had drifted from one topic to another much as
+the smoke wreaths had puffed, floated, and thinned away. Then Handon
+Gay, who was an ambitious young reporter, spoke of a lynching story in a
+recent magazine, and the matter of punishment without trial put new life
+into the conversation.
+
+"I should like to see a real lynching," said Gay rather callously.
+
+"Well, I should hardly express it that way," said Fairfax, "but if a
+real, live lynching were to come my way, I should not avoid it."
+
+"I should," spoke the other from the depths of his chair, where he had
+been puffing in moody silence. Judged by his hair, which was freely
+sprinkled with gray, the speaker might have been a man of forty-five or
+fifty, but his face, though lined and serious, was youthful, the face of
+a man hardly past thirty.
+
+"What, you, Dr. Melville? Why, I thought that you physicians wouldn't
+weaken at anything."
+
+"I have seen one such affair," said the doctor gravely, "in fact, I took
+a prominent part in it."
+
+"Tell us about it," said the reporter, feeling for his pencil and
+notebook, which he was, nevertheless, careful to hide from the speaker.
+
+The men drew their chairs eagerly up to the doctor's, but for a minute
+he did not seem to see them, but sat gazing abstractedly into the fire,
+then he took a long draw upon his cigar and began:
+
+"I can see it all very vividly now. It was in the summer time and about
+seven years ago. I was practising at the time down in the little town of
+Bradford. It was a small and primitive place, just the location for an
+impecunious medical man, recently out of college.
+
+"In lieu of a regular office, I attended to business in the first of two
+rooms which I rented from Hiram Daly, one of the more prosperous of the
+townsmen. Here I boarded and here also came my patients--white and
+black--whites from every section, and blacks from 'nigger town,' as the
+west portion of the place was called.
+
+"The people about me were most of them coarse and rough, but they were
+simple and generous, and as time passed on I had about abandoned my
+intention of seeking distinction in wider fields and determined to
+settle into the place of a modest country doctor. This was rather a
+strange conclusion for a young man to arrive at, and I will not deny
+that the presence in the house of my host's beautiful young daughter,
+Annie, had something to do with my decision. She was a beautiful young
+girl of seventeen or eighteen, and very far superior to her
+surroundings. She had a native grace and a pleasing way about her that
+made everybody that came under her spell her abject slave. White and
+black who knew her loved her, and none, I thought, more deeply and
+respectfully than Jube Benson, the black man of all work about the
+place.
+
+"He was a fellow whom everybody trusted; an apparently steady-going,
+grinning sort, as we used to call him. Well, he was completely under
+Miss Annie's thumb, and would fetch and carry for her like a faithful
+dog. As soon as he saw that I began to care for Annie, and anybody could
+see that, he transferred some of his allegiance to me and became my
+faithful servitor also. Never did a man have a more devoted adherent in
+his wooing than did I, and many a one of Annie's tasks which he
+volunteered to do gave her an extra hour with me. You can imagine that I
+liked the boy and you need not wonder any more that as both wooing and
+my practice waxed apace, I was content to give up my great ambitions and
+stay just where I was.
+
+"It wasn't a very pleasant thing, then, to have an epidemic of typhoid
+break out in the town that kept me going so that I hardly had time for
+the courting that a fellow wants to carry on with his sweetheart while
+he is still young enough to call her his girl. I fumed, but duty was
+duty, and I kept to my work night and day. It was now that Jube proved
+how invaluable he was as a coadjutor. He not only took messages to
+Annie, but brought sometimes little ones from her to me, and he would
+tell me little secret things that he had overheard her say that made me
+throb with joy and swear at him for repeating his mistress'
+conversation. But best of all, Jube was a perfect Cerberus, and no one
+on earth could have been more effective in keeping away or deluding the
+other young fellows who visited the Dalys. He would tell me of it
+afterwards, chuckling softly to himself. 'An,' Doctah, I say to Mistah
+Hemp Stevens, "'Scuse us, Mistah Stevens, but Miss Annie, she des gone
+out," an' den he go outer de gate lookin' moughty lonesome. When Sam
+Elkins come, I say, "Sh, Mistah Elkins, Miss Annie, she done tuk down,"
+an' he say, "What, Jube, you don' reckon hit de----" Den he stop an'
+look skeert, an' I say, "I feared hit is, Mistah Elkins," an' sheks my
+haid ez solemn. He goes outer de gate lookin' lak his bes' frien' done
+daid, an' all de time Miss Annie behine de cu'tain ovah de po'ch des' a
+laffin' fit to kill.'
+
+"Jube was a most admirable liar, but what could I do? He knew that I
+was a young fool of a hypocrite, and when I would rebuke him for these
+deceptions, he would give way and roll on the floor in an excess of
+delighted laughter until from very contagion I had to join him--and,
+well, there was no need of my preaching when there had been no beginning
+to his repentance and when there must ensue a continuance of his
+wrong-doing.
+
+"This thing went on for over three months, and then, pouf! I was down
+like a shot. My patients were nearly all up, but the reaction from
+overwork made me an easy victim of the lurking germs. Then Jube loomed
+up as a nurse. He put everyone else aside, and with the doctor, a friend
+of mine from a neighbouring town, took entire charge of me. Even Annie
+herself was put aside, and I was cared for as tenderly as a baby. Tom,
+that was my physician and friend, told me all about it afterward with
+tears in his eyes. Only he was a big, blunt man and his expressions did
+not convey all that he meant. He told me how my nigger had nursed me as
+if I were a sick kitten and he my mother. Of how fiercely he guarded his
+right to be the sole one to 'do' for me, as he called it, and how, when
+the crisis came, he hovered, weeping, but hopeful, at my bedside, until
+it was safely passed, when they drove him, weak and exhausted, from the
+room. As for me, I knew little about it at the time, and cared less. I
+was too busy in my fight with death. To my chimerical vision there was
+only a black but gentle demon that came and went, alternating with a
+white fairy, who would insist on coming in on her head, growing larger
+and larger and then dissolving. But the pathos and devotion in the story
+lost nothing in my blunt friend's telling.
+
+"It was during the period of a long convalescence, however, that I came
+to know my humble ally as he really was, devoted to the point of
+abjectness. There were times when for very shame at his goodness to me,
+I would beg him to go away, to do something else. He would go, but
+before I had time to realise that I was not being ministered to, he
+would be back at my side, grinning and pottering just the same. He
+manufactured duties for the joy of performing them. He pretended to see
+desires in me that I never had, because he liked to pander to them, and
+when I became entirely exasperated, and ripped out a good round oath, he
+chuckled with the remark, 'Dah, now, you sholy is gittin' well. Nevah
+did hyeah a man anywhaih nigh Jo'dan's sho' cuss lak dat.'
+
+"Why, I grew to love him, love him, oh, yes, I loved him as well--oh,
+what am I saying? All human love and gratitude are damned poor things;
+excuse me, gentlemen, this isn't a pleasant story. The truth is usually
+a nasty thing to stand.
+
+"It was not six months after that that my friendship to Jube, which he
+had been at such great pains to win, was put to too severe a test.
+
+"It was in the summer time again, and as business was slack, I had
+ridden over to see my friend, Dr. Tom. I had spent a good part of the
+day there, and it was past four o'clock when I rode leisurely into
+Bradford. I was in a particularly joyous mood and no premonition of the
+impending catastrophe oppressed me. No sense of sorrow, present or to
+come, forced itself upon me, even when I saw men hurrying through the
+almost deserted streets. When I got within sight of my home and saw a
+crowd surrounding it, I was only interested sufficiently to spur my
+horse into a jog trot, which brought me up to the throng, when something
+in the sullen, settled horror in the men's faces gave me a sudden, sick
+thrill. They whispered a word to me, and without a thought, save for
+Annie, the girl who had been so surely growing into my heart, I leaped
+from the saddle and tore my way through the people to the house.
+
+"It was Annie, poor girl, bruised and bleeding, her face and dress torn
+from struggling. They were gathered round her with white faces, and, oh,
+with what terrible patience they were trying to gain from her fluttering
+lips the name of her murderer. They made way for me and I knelt at her
+side. She was beyond my skill, and my will merged with theirs. One
+thought was in our minds.
+
+"'Who?' I asked.
+
+"Her eyes half opened, 'That black----' She fell back into my arms dead.
+
+"We turned and looked at each other. The mother had broken down and was
+weeping, but the face of the father was like iron.
+
+"'It is enough,' he said; 'Jube has disappeared.' He went to the door
+and said to the expectant crowd, 'She is dead.'
+
+"I heard the angry roar without swelling up like the noise of a flood,
+and then I heard the sudden movement of many feet as the men separated
+into searching parties, and laying the dead girl back upon her couch, I
+took my rifle and went out to join them.
+
+"As if by intuition the knowledge had passed among the men that Jube
+Benson had disappeared, and he, by common consent, was to be the object
+of our search. Fully a dozen of the citizens had seen him hastening
+toward the woods and noted his skulking air, but as he had grinned in
+his old good-natured way they had, at the time, thought nothing of it.
+Now, however, the diabolical reason of his slyness was apparent. He had
+been shrewd enough to disarm suspicion, and by now was far away. Even
+Mrs. Daly, who was visiting with a neighbour, had seen him stepping out
+by a back way, and had said with a laugh, 'I reckon that black rascal's
+a-running off somewhere.' Oh, if she had only known.
+
+"'To the woods! To the woods!' that was the cry, and away we went, each
+with the determination not to shoot, but to bring the culprit alive into
+town, and then to deal with him as his crime deserved.
+
+"I cannot describe the feelings I experienced as I went out that night
+to beat the woods for this human tiger. My heart smouldered within me
+like a coal, and I went forward under the impulse of a will that was
+half my own, half some more malignant power's. My throat throbbed drily,
+but water nor whiskey would not have quenched my thirst. The thought has
+come to me since that now I could interpret the panther's desire for
+blood and sympathise with it, but then I thought nothing. I simply went
+forward, and watched, watched with burning eyes for a familiar form that
+I had looked for as often before with such different emotions.
+
+"Luck or ill-luck, which you will, was with our party, and just as dawn
+was graying the sky, we came upon our quarry crouched in the corner of a
+fence. It was only half light, and we might have passed, but my eyes had
+caught sight of him, and I raised the cry. We levelled our guns and he
+rose and came toward us.
+
+"'I t'ought you wa'n't gwine see me,' he said sullenly, 'I didn't mean
+no harm.'
+
+"'Harm!'
+
+"Some of the men took the word up with oaths, others were ominously
+silent.
+
+"We gathered around him like hungry beasts, and I began to see terror
+dawning in his eyes. He turned to me, 'I's moughty glad you's hyeah,
+doc,' he said, 'you ain't gwine let 'em whup me.'
+
+"'Whip you, you hound,' I said, 'I'm going to see you hanged,' and in
+the excess of my passion I struck him full on the mouth. He made a
+motion as if to resent the blow against even such great odds, but
+controlled himself.
+
+"'W'y, doctah,' he exclaimed in the saddest voice I have ever heard,
+'w'y, doctah! I ain't stole nuffin' o' yo'n, an' I was comin' back. I
+only run off to see my gal, Lucy, ovah to de Centah.'
+
+"'You lie!' I said, and my hands were busy helping the others bind him
+upon a horse. Why did I do it? I don't know. A false education, I
+reckon, one false from the beginning. I saw his black face glooming
+there in the half light, and I could only think of him as a monster.
+It's tradition. At first I was told that the black man would catch me,
+and when I got over that, they taught me that the devil was black, and
+when I had recovered from the sickness of that belief, here were Jube
+and his fellows with faces of menacing blackness. There was only one
+conclusion: This black man stood for all the powers of evil, the result
+of whose machinations had been gathering in my mind from childhood up.
+But this has nothing to do with what happened.
+
+"After firing a few shots to announce our capture, we rode back into
+town with Jube. The ingathering parties from all directions met us as we
+made our way up to the house. All was very quiet and orderly. There was
+no doubt that it was as the papers would have said, a gathering of the
+best citizens. It was a gathering of stern, determined men, bent on a
+terrible vengeance.
+
+"We took Jube into the house, into the room where the corpse lay. At
+sight of it, he gave a scream like an animal's and his face went the
+colour of storm-blown water. This was enough to condemn him. We divined,
+rather than heard, his cry of 'Miss Ann, Miss Ann, oh, my God, doc, you
+don't t'ink I done it?'
+
+"Hungry hands were ready. We hurried him out into the yard. A rope was
+ready. A tree was at hand. Well, that part was the least of it, save
+that Hiram Daly stepped aside to let me be the first to pull upon the
+rope. It was lax at first. Then it tightened, and I felt the quivering
+soft weight resist my muscles. Other hands joined, and Jube swung off
+his feet.
+
+"No one was masked. We knew each other. Not even the Culprit's face was
+covered, and the last I remember of him as he went into the air was a
+look of sad reproach that will remain with me until I meet him face to
+face again.
+
+"We were tying the end of the rope to a tree, where the dead man might
+hang as a warning to his fellows, when a terrible cry chilled us to the
+marrow.
+
+"'Cut 'im down, cut 'im down, he ain't guilty. We got de one. Cut him
+down, fu' Gawd's sake. Here's de man, we foun' him hidin' in de barn!'
+
+"Jube's brother, Ben, and another Negro, came rushing toward us, half
+dragging, half carrying a miserable-looking wretch between them. Someone
+cut the rope and Jube dropped lifeless to the ground.
+
+"'Oh, my Gawd, he's daid, he's daid!' wailed the brother, but with
+blazing eyes he brought his captive into the centre of the group, and we
+saw in the full light the scratched face of Tom Skinner--the worst white
+ruffian in the town--but the face we saw was not as we were accustomed
+to see it, merely smeared with dirt. It was blackened to imitate a
+Negro's.
+
+"God forgive me; I could not wait to try to resuscitate Jube. I knew he
+was already past help, so I rushed into the house and to the dead girl's
+side. In the excitement they had not yet washed or laid her out.
+Carefully, carefully, I searched underneath her broken finger nails.
+There was skin there. I took it out, the little curled pieces, and went
+with it to my office.
+
+"There, determinedly, I examined it under a powerful glass, and read my
+own doom. It was the skin of a white man, and in it were embedded
+strands of short, brown hair or beard.
+
+"How I went out to tell the waiting crowd I do not know, for something
+kept crying in my ears, 'Blood guilty! Blood guilty!'
+
+"The men went away stricken into silence and awe. The new prisoner
+attempted neither denial nor plea. When they were gone I would have
+helped Ben carry his brother in, but he waved me away fiercely, 'You
+he'ped murder my brothah, you dat was _his_ frien', go 'way, go 'way!
+I'll tek him home myse'f' I could only respect his wish, and he and his
+comrade took up the dead man and between them bore him up the street on
+which the sun was now shining full.
+
+"I saw the few men who had not skulked indoors uncover as they passed,
+and I--I--stood there between the two murdered ones, while all the while
+something in my ears kept crying, 'Blood guilty! Blood guilty!'"
+
+The doctor's head dropped into his hands and he sat for some time in
+silence, which was broken by neither of the men, then he rose, saying,
+"Gentlemen, that was my last lynching."
+
+
+
+
+_Thirteen_
+
+SCHWALLIGER'S PHILANTHROPY
+
+
+There is no adequate reason why Schwalliger's name should appear upon
+the pages of history. He was decidedly not in good society. He was not
+even respectable as respectability goes. But certain men liked him and
+certain women loved him. He is dead. That is all that will be said of
+the most of us after a while. He was but a weak member of the community,
+but those who loved him did not condemn him, and they shut their eyes to
+his shortcomings because they were a part of him. Without his follies he
+would not have been himself.
+
+Schwalliger was only a race-horse "tout." Ah, don't hold up your hands,
+good friends, for circumstances of birth make most of us what we are,
+whether poets or pickpockets, and if this thick-set, bow-legged black
+man became a "tout" it was because he had to. Old horsemen will tell you
+that Schwalliger--no one knew where he got the name--was rolling and
+tumbling about the track at Bennings when he was still so short in
+stature that he got the name of the "tadpole." Naturally, he came to
+know much of horses, grew up with them, in fact, and having no wealthy
+father or mother to indulge him in his taste or help him use his
+knowledge, he did the next best thing and used his special education for
+himself in the humble capacity of voluntary adviser to aspiring
+gamesters. He prospered and blossomed out into good clothes of a highly
+ornate pattern. Naturally, like a man in any other business, he had his
+ups and downs, and there were times when the good clothes disappeared
+and he was temporarily forced to return to the occupation of rubbing
+down horses; but these periods of depression were of short duration, and
+at the next turn of fortune's wheel he would again be on top.
+
+"No, thuh," he was wont to say, with his inimitable lisp--"no, thuh, you
+can't keep a good man down. 'Tain't no use a-talkin', you jeth can't. It
+don't do me no harm to go back to rubbin' now an' then. It jeth nachully
+keepth me on good termth with de hothes."
+
+And, indeed, it did seem that his prophecies were surer and his
+knowledge more direct after one of these periods of enforced humility.
+
+There were various things whispered about Schwalliger; that he was no
+more honest than he should be, that he was not as sound as he might be;
+but though it might be claimed, and was, that he would prophesy, on
+occasion, the success of three different horses to three different men,
+no one ever accused him of being less than fair with the women who came
+out from the city to enjoy the races and increase their excitement by
+staking small sums. To these Schwalliger was the soul of courtesy and
+honour, and if they lost upon his advice, he was not happy until he had
+made it up to them again.
+
+One, however, who sets himself to work to give a race-horse tout a
+character may expect to have his labour for his pains. The profession of
+his subject is against him. He may as well put aside his energy and say,
+"Well, perhaps he was a bad lot, but----." The present story is not
+destined to put you more in love with the hero of it, but----
+
+The heat and enthusiasm at Saratoga and the other race-courses was done,
+and autumn and the glory of Bennings had come. The ingratiating
+Schwalliger came back with the horses to his old stamping ground and to
+happiness. The other tracks had not treated him kindly, and but for the
+kindness of his equine friends, whom he slept with and tended, he might
+have come back to Washington on the wooden steps. But he was back, and
+that was happiness for him. Broke?
+
+"Well," said Schwalliger, in answer to a trainer's question, "I ain't
+exactly broke, Misthah Johnthon, but I wath pretty badly bent. I goth
+awa jutht ath thoon ath I commenth to feel mythelf crackin', but I'm
+hyeah to git even."
+
+He was only a rubber again, but he began to get even early in the week,
+and by Saturday he was again as like to a rainbow as any of his class.
+He did not, however, throw away his rubber's clothes. He was used to the
+caprices of fortune, and he did not know how soon again he should need
+them. That he was not dressed in them, and yet saved them, made him
+capable of performing his one philanthropy.
+
+Had he not been gorgeously dressed he would not have inspired the
+confidence of the old Negro who came up to him on Tuesday morning,
+disconsolate and weeping.
+
+"Mistah," he said deferentially through his tears, "is you a spo't?"
+
+Mr. Schwalliger's chest protruded, and his very red lips opened in a
+smile as he answered: "Well, I do' know'th I'm tho much of a thpo't, but
+I think I knowth a thing or two."
+
+"You look lak a spo'tin' gent'man, an' ef you is I thought mebbe you'd
+he'p me out."
+
+"Wha'th the mattah? Up againtht it? You look a little ol' to be doin'
+the gay an' frithky." But Schwalliger's eyes were kind.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you des' how it is, suh. I come f'om down in Ma'lan',
+'case I wanted to see de hosses run. My ol' mastah was moughty fon' of
+sich spo't, an' I kin' o' likes it myse'f, dough I don't nevah bet, suh.
+I's a chu'ch membah. But yistiddy aftahnoon dee was two gent'men what I
+seen playin' wid a leetle ball an' some cups ovah it, an' I went up to
+look on, an' lo an' behol', suh, it was one o' dese money-mekin' t'ings.
+W'y, I seen de man des' stan' dere an' mek money by the fis'ful. Well, I
+'low I got sorter wo'ked up. De men dee axed me to bet, but I 'low how I
+was a chu'ch membah an' didn't tek pa't in no sich carryin's on, an' den
+dee said 'twan't nuffin mo' den des' a chu'ch raffle, an' it was mo' fun
+den anyt'ing else. I des' say dat I could fin' de little ball, an' dee
+said I couldn't, an' if I fin' it dee gin me twenty dollahs, an' if I
+didn' I des' gin 'em ten dollahs. I shuk my haid. I wa'n't gwine be
+tempted, an' I try to pull myse'f erway. Ef I'd 'a' gone den 'twould 'a'
+been all right, but I stayed an' I stayed, an' I looked, an' I looked,
+an' it did seem lak it was so easy. At las', mistah, I tried it, an' I
+didn' fin' dat ball, an' dee got my ten dollahs, an' dat was all I had."
+
+"Uh, huh," said Schwalliger grimly, "thell game, an' dey did you." The
+old man shuffled uneasily, but continued:
+
+"Yes, suh, dee done me, an' de worst of it is, I's 'fraid to go home,
+even ef I could get dere, 'case dee boun' to axe me how I los' dat
+money, an' dee ain't no way fu' me to hide it, an' ef dee fin' out I
+been gamblin' I'll git chu'ched fu' it, an' I been a puffessor so
+long----" The old man's voice broke, and Schwalliger smiled the crooked
+smile of a man whose heart is touched.
+
+"Whereth thith push wo'kin'?" he said briefly.
+
+"Right ovah thaih," said the old Negro, indicating a part of the grounds
+not far distant.
+
+"All right, you go on ovah thaih an' wait fu' me; an' if you thee me,
+remembah, you don't thee me. I don't know you, you don't know me, but
+I'll try to thee you out all right."
+
+The old man went on his way, a new light in his eyes at the hope
+Schwalliger had inspired. Schwalliger himself made his way back to the
+stables; his dirty, horsy, rubber's outfit was there. He smiled
+intelligently as he looked at it. He was smiling in a different manner
+when, all dressed in it, he came up nearer to the grand stand. It was a
+very inane smile. He looked the very image of simplicity and ignorance,
+like a man who was anxious and ready to be duped. He strolled carelessly
+up to where the little game with the little ball was going on, and stood
+there looking foolishly on. The three young men--ostensibly there was
+only one--were doing a rushing business. They were playing very
+successfully on that trait of human nature which feels itself glorified
+and exalted when it has got something for nothing. The rustics, black
+and white, and some who had not the excuse of rusticity, were falling
+readily into the trap and losing their hard-earned money. Every now and
+then a man--one of their confederates, of course, would make a striking
+winning, and this served as a bait for the rest of the spectators.
+Schwalliger looked on with growing interest, always smiling an ignorant,
+simple smile. Finally, as if he could stand it no longer, he ran his
+hand in his pocket and pulled out a roll of money--money in its most
+beautiful and tempting form, the long, green notes. Then, as if a sudden
+spirit of prudence had taken possession of him, he put it back into his
+pocket, shook his head, and began working his way out of the crowd. But
+the operator of the shell game had caught sight of the bills, and it was
+like the scent of blood to the tiger. His eye was on the simple Negro at
+once, and he called cheerfully:
+
+"Come up, uncle, and try your luck. See how I manipulate this ball. Easy
+enough to find if you're only lucky." He was so flippantly shrewd that
+his newness to the business was insolently apparent to Schwalliger, who
+knew a thing or two himself. Schwalliger smiled again and shook his
+head.
+
+"Oh, no, thuh," he said, "I don't play dat."
+
+"Why, come and try your luck anyhow; no harm in it."
+
+Schwalliger took out his money and looked at it again and shook his
+head. He began again his backward movement from the crowd.
+
+"No," he said, "I wouldn' play erroun' hyeah befo' all thethe people,
+becauthe you wouldn't pay me even ef I won."
+
+"Why, of course we would," said the flippant operator; "everybody looks
+alike to us here."
+
+Schwalliger kept moving away, ever and anon sending wistful, inane
+glances back at his tempter.
+
+The bait worked admirably. The man closed up his little folding table,
+and, winking to his confederates, followed the retreating Negro. They
+stayed about with the crowd, while he followed on and on until
+Schwalliger had led him into a short alley between the stables. There he
+paused and allowed his pursuer to catch up with him.
+
+"Thay, mithtah," he said, "what you keep on follerin' me fu'? I do' want
+to play wid you; I ain't got but fo'ty dollahs, an' ef I lothe I'll have
+to walk home."
+
+"Why, my dear fellow, there ain't no way for you to lose. Come, now, let
+me show you." And he set the table down and began to manipulate the ball
+dexterously. "Needn't put no money down. Just see if you can locate the
+ball a few times for fun."
+
+Schwalliger consented, and, greatly to his delight, located the little
+ball four times out of five. He was grinning now and the eye of the
+tempter was gleaming. Schwalliger took out his money.
+
+"How much you got?" he said.
+
+"Just eighty-five dollars, and I will lay it all against your forty."
+
+"What you got it in?" asked Schwalliger.
+
+"Four fives, four tens, and five five-dollar gold-pieces." And the man
+displayed it ostentatiously. The tout's eyes flashed as he saw his
+opponent put his money back into his waistcoat pocket.
+
+"Well, I bet you," he said, and planked his money down.
+
+The operator took the shells and swept the pea first under one then
+under the other, and laid the three side by side. Schwalliger laid his
+hand upon one. He lifted it up and there was nothing there.
+
+"Ha, ha, you've had bad luck," said the operator--"you lose, you lose.
+Well, I'm sorry for you, old fellow, but we all take chances in this
+little game, you know." He was folding up his table when all of a
+sudden a cry arose to heaven from Schwalliger's lips, and he grappled
+with the very shrewd young man, while shriek on shriek of "Murder!
+Robber! Police!" came from his lips. The police at Bennings were not
+slow to answer a call like this, and they came running up, and
+Schwalliger, who, among other things, was something of an actor, told
+his story trembling, incoherently, while the operator looked on aghast.
+Schwalliger demanded protection. He had been robbed. He had bet his
+eighty-five dollars against the operator's forty, and when he had
+accidentally picked out the right shell the operator had grabbed his
+money and attempted to escape. He wanted his money. He had eighty-five
+dollars, he said. "He had fo' fiveth, fo' tenth, and five five-dollar
+gold-pieceth, an' he wanted them."
+
+The policeman was thorough. He made his search at once. It was even as
+Schwalliger had said. The money was on the gambler even as the Negro had
+said. Well, there was nothing but justice to be done. The officers
+returned the eighty-five dollars to Schwalliger, and out of an unusual
+access of clemency bade the operator begone or they would run him in.
+
+When he had gone, Schwalliger turned and winked slowly at the minions of
+the law, and went quietly into a corner with them, and there was the
+sound of the shuffling of silken paper. Later on he found the old man
+and returned him his ten, and went back to don his Jacob's coat.
+
+Who shall say that Schwalliger was not a true philanthropist?
+
+
+
+
+_Fourteen_
+
+THE INTERFERENCE OF PATSY ANN
+
+
+Patsy Ann Meriweather would have told you that her father, or more
+properly her "pappy," was a "widover," and she would have added in her
+sad little voice, with her mournful eyes upon you, that her mother had
+"bin daid fu' nigh onto fou' yeahs." Then you could have wept for Patsy,
+for her years were only thirteen now, and since the passing away of her
+mother she had been the little mother for her four younger brothers and
+sisters, as well as her father's house-keeper.
+
+But Patsy Ann never complained; she was quite willing to be all that she
+had been until such time as Isaac and Dora, Cassie and little John
+should be old enough to care for themselves, and also to lighten some of
+her domestic burdens. She had never reckoned upon any other manner of
+release. In fact her youthful mind was not able to contemplate the
+possibility of any other manner of change. But the good women of
+Patsy's neighbourhood were not the ones to let her remain in this
+deplorable state of ignorance. She was to be enlightened as to other
+changes that might take place in her condition, and of the unspeakable
+horrors that would transpire with them.
+
+It was upon the occasion that little John had taken it into his infant
+head to have the German measles just at the time that Isaac was slowly
+recovering from the chicken-pox. Patsy Ann's powers had been taxed to
+the utmost, and Mrs. Caroline Gibson had been called in from next door
+to superintend the brewing of the saffron tea, and for the general care
+of the fretful sufferer.
+
+To Patsy Ann, then, in ominous tone, spoke this oracle. "Patsy Ann, how
+yo' pappy doin' sence Matildy died?" "Matildy" was the deceased wife.
+
+"Oh, he gittin' 'long all right. He was mighty broke up at de fus', but
+he 'low now dat de house go on de same's ef mammy was a-livin'."
+
+"Oom huh," disdainfully; "Oom huh. Yo' mammy bin daid fou' yeahs, ain't
+she?"
+
+"Yes'm; mighty nigh."
+
+"Oom huh; fou' yeahs is a mighty long time fu' a colo'd man to wait; but
+we'n he do wait dat long, hit's all de wuss we'n hit do come."
+
+"Pap bin wo'kin right stiddy at de brick-ya'd," said Patsy, in loyal
+defence against some vaguely implied accusation, "an' he done put some
+money in de bank."
+
+"Bad sign, bad sign," and Mrs. Gibson gave her head a fearsome shake.
+
+But just then the shrill voice of little John calling for attention drew
+her away and left Patsy Ann to herself and her meditations.
+
+What could this mean?
+
+When that lady had finished ministering to the sick child and returned,
+Patsy Ann asked her, "Mis' Gibson, what you mean by sayin' 'bad sign,
+bad sign?'"
+
+Again the oracle shook her head sagely. Then she answered, "Chil', you
+do' know de dev'ment dey is in dis worl'."
+
+"But," retorted the child, "my pappy ain' up to no dev'ment, 'case he
+got 'uligion an' bin baptised."
+
+"Oom-m," groaned Sistah Gibson, "dat don' mek a bit o' diffunce. Who is
+any mo' ma'yin' men den de preachahs demse'ves? W'y Brothah 'Lias Scott
+done tempted matermony six times a'ready, an' 's lookin' roun' fu' de
+sebent, an' he's a good man, too."
+
+"Ma'yin'," said Patsy breathlessly.
+
+"Yes, honey, ma'yin', an' I's afeared yo' pappy's got notions in his
+haid, an' w'en a widower git gals in his haid dey ain' no use
+a-pesterin' wid 'em, 'case dey boun' to have dey way."
+
+"Ma'yin'," said Patsy to herself reflectively. "Ma'yin'." She knew what
+it meant, but she had never dreamed of the possibility of such a thing
+in connection with her father. "Ma'yin'," and yet the idea of it did not
+seem so very unalluring.
+
+She spoke her thoughts aloud.
+
+"But ef pap 'u'd ma'y, Mis' Gibson, den I'd git a chanct to go to
+school. He allus sayin' he mighty sorry 'bout me not goin'."
+
+"Dah now, dah now," cried the woman, casting a pitying glance at the
+child, "dat's de las' t'ing. He des a feelin' roun' now. You po',
+ign'ant, mothahless chil'. You ain' nevah had no step-mothah, an' you
+don' know what hit means."
+
+"But she'd tek keer o' the chillen," persisted Patsy.
+
+"Sich tekin' keer of 'em ez hit 'u'd be. She'd keer fu' 'em to dey
+graves. Nobody cain't tell me nuffin 'bout step-mothahs, case I knows
+'em. Dey ain' no ooman goin' to tek keer o' nobody else's chile lak
+she'd tek keer o' huh own," and Patsy felt a choking come into her
+throat and a tight sensation about her heart while she listened as Mrs.
+Gibson regaled her with all the choice horrors that are laid at the door
+of step-mothers.
+
+From that hour on, one settled conviction took shape and possessed Patsy
+Ann's mind; never, if she could help it, would she run the risk of
+having a step-mother. Come what may, let her be compelled to do what she
+might, let the hope of school fade from her sight forever and a day--but
+no step-mother should ever cast her baneful shadow over Patsy Ann's
+home.
+
+Experience of life had made her wise for her years, and so for the time
+she said nothing to her father; but she began to watch him with wary
+eyes, his goings out and his comings in, and to attach new importance to
+trifles that had passed unnoticed before by her childish mind.
+
+For instance, if he greased or blacked his boots before going out of an
+evening her suspicions were immediately aroused and she saw dim visions
+of her father returning, on his arm the terrible ogress whom she had
+come to know by the name of step-mother.
+
+Mrs. Gibson's poison had worked well and rapidly. She had thoroughly
+inoculated the child's mind with the step-mother virus, but she had not
+at the same time made the parent widow-proof, a hard thing to do at
+best. So it came to pass that with a mysterious horror growing within
+her, Patsy Ann saw her father black his boots more and more often and
+fare forth o' nights and Sunday afternoons.
+
+Finally her little heart could contain its sorrow no longer, and one
+night when he was later than usual she could not sleep. So she slipped
+out of bed, turned up the light, and waited for him, determined to have
+it out, then and there.
+
+He came at last and was all surprise to meet the solemn, round eyes of
+his little daughter staring at him from across the table.
+
+"W'y, lady gal," he exclaimed, "what you doin' up at 'his time?"
+
+"I sat up fu' you. I got somep'n' to ax you, pappy." Her voice quivered
+and he snuggled her up in his arms.
+
+"What's troublin' my little lady gal now? Is de chillen bin bad?"
+
+She laid her head close against his big breast, and the tears would come
+as she answered, "No, suh; de chillen bin ez good az good could be, but
+oh, pappy, pappy, is you got gal in yo' haid an' a-goin' to bring me a
+step-mothah?"
+
+He held her away from him almost harshly and gazed at her as he queried,
+"W'y, you po' baby, you! Who's bin puttin' dis hyeah foolishness in yo'
+haid?" Then his laugh rang out as he patted her head and drew her close
+to him again. "Ef yo' pappy do bring a step-mothah into dis house, Gawd
+knows he'll bring de right kin'."
+
+"Dey ain't no right kin'," answered Patsy.
+
+"You don' know, baby; you don' know. Go to baid an' don' worry."
+
+He sat up a long time watching the candle sputter, then he pulled off
+his boots and tiptoed to Patsy's bedside. He leaned over her. "Po'
+little baby," he said; "what do she know about a step-mothah?" And Patsy
+saw him and heard him, for she was awake then, and far into the night.
+
+In the eyes of the child her father stood convicted. He had "gal in his
+haid," and was going to bring her a step-mother; but it would never be;
+her resolution was taken.
+
+She arose early the next morning and after getting her father off to
+work as usual, she took the children into hand. First she scrubbed them
+assiduously, burnishing their brown faces until they shone again. Then
+she tussled with their refractory locks, and after that she dressed them
+out in all the bravery of their best clothes.
+
+Meanwhile her tears were falling like rain, though her lips were shut
+tight. The children off her mind, she turned her attention to her own
+toilet, which she made with scrupulous care. Then taking a small
+tin-type of her mother from the bureau drawer, she put it in her bosom,
+and leading her little brood she went out of the house, locking the door
+behind her and placing the key, as was her wont, under the door-step.
+
+Outside she stood for a moment or two, undecided, and then with one
+long, backward glance at her home she turned and went up the street. At
+the first corner she paused again, spat in her hand and struck the
+watery globule with her finger. In the direction the most of the spittle
+flew, she turned. Patsy Ann was fleeing from home and a step-mother,
+and Fate had decided her direction for her, even as Mrs. Gibson's
+counsels had directed her course.
+
+The child had no idea where she was going. She knew no one to whom she
+might turn in her distress. Not even with Mrs. Gibson would she be safe
+from the horror which impended. She had but one impulse in her mind and
+that was to get beyond the reach of the terrible woman, or was it a
+monster? who was surely coming after her. On and on she walked through
+the town with her little band trudging bravely along beside her. People
+turned to look at the funny group and smiled good-naturedly as they
+passed, and one man, a little more amused than the rest, shouted after
+them, "Where you goin', sis, with that orphan's home?"
+
+But Patsy Ann's dignity was impregnable. She walked on with her head in
+the air, the desire for safety tugging at her heart.
+
+The hours passed and the gentle coolness of morning turned into the
+fierce heat of noon, and still with frequent rests they trudged on,
+Patsy ever and anon using her divining hand, unconscious that she was
+doubling and redoubling on her tracks. When the whistles blew for twelve
+she got her little brood into the shade of a poplar tree and set them
+down to the lunch which, thoughtful little mother that she was, she had
+brought with her. After that they all stretched themselves out on the
+grass that bordered the sidewalk, for all the children were tired out,
+and baby John was both sleepy and cross. Even Patsy Ann drowsed and
+finally dropped into the deep slumber of childhood. They looked too
+peaceful and serene for passers-by to bother them, and so they slept and
+slept.
+
+It was past three o'clock when the little guardian awakened with a
+start, and shook her charges into activity. John wept a little at first,
+but after a while took up his journey bravely with the rest.
+
+She had just turned into a side street, discouraged and bewildered, when
+the round face of a coloured woman standing in the doorway of a
+whitewashed cottage caught her eye and attention. Once more she paused
+and consulted her watery oracle, then turned to encounter the gaze of
+the round-faced woman. The oracle had spoken and she turned into the
+yard.
+
+"Whaih you goin', honey? You sut'ny look lak you plumb tukahed out. Come
+in an' tell me all 'bout yo'se'f, you po' little t'ing. Dese yo' little
+brothas an' sistahs?"
+
+"Yes'm," said Patsy Ann.
+
+"W'y, chil', whaih you goin'?"
+
+"I don' know," was the truthful answer.
+
+"You don' know? Whaih you live?"
+
+"Oh, I live down on Douglas Street," said Patsy Ann, "an' I's runnin'
+away f'om home an' my step-mothah."
+
+The woman looked keenly at her.
+
+"What yo' name?" she said.
+
+"My name's Patsy Ann Meriweather."
+
+"An' is yo' got a step-mothah?"
+
+"No," said Patsy Ann, "I ain' got none now, but I's sut'ny 'spectin'
+one."
+
+"What you know 'bout step-mothahs, honey?"
+
+"Mis' Gibson tol' me. Dey sho'ly is awful, missus, awful."
+
+"Mis' Gibson ain' tol' you right, honey. You come in hyeah and set down.
+You ain' nothin' mo' dan a baby yo'se'f, an' you ain' got no right to be
+trapsein' roun' dis away."
+
+Have you ever eaten muffins? Have you eaten bacon with onions? Have you
+drunk tea? Have you seen your little brother John taken up on a full
+bosom and rocked to sleep in the most motherly way, with the sweetness
+and tenderness that only a mother can give? Well, that was Patsy Ann's
+case to-night.
+
+And then she laid them along like ten-pins crosswise of her bed and sat
+for a long time thinking.
+
+To Maria Adams about six o'clock that night came a troubled and
+disheartened man. It was no less a person than Patsy Ann's father.
+
+"Maria! Maria! What shall I do? Somebody don' stole all my chillen."
+
+Maria, strange to say, was a woman of few words.
+
+"Don' you bothah 'bout de chillen," she said, and she took him by the
+hand and led him to where the five lay sleeping calmly across the bed.
+
+"Dey was runnin' f'om home an' dey step-mothah," said she.
+
+"Dey run hyeah f'om a step-mothah an' foun' a mothah." It was a tribute
+and a proposal all in one.
+
+When Patsy Ann awakened, the matter was explained to her, and with
+penitent tears she confessed her sins.
+
+"But," she said to Maria Adams, "ef you's de kin' of fo'ks dat dey mek
+step-mothahs out o' I ain' gwine to bothah my haid no mo'."
+
+
+
+
+_Fifteen_
+
+THE HOME-COMING OF 'RASTUS SMITH
+
+
+There was a great commotion in that part of town which was known as
+"Little Africa," and the cause of it was not far to seek. Contrary to
+the usual thing, this cause was not an excursion down the river, nor a
+revival, baptising, nor an Emancipation Day celebration. None of these
+was it that had aroused the denizens of "Little Africa," and kept them
+talking across the street from window to window, from door to door,
+through alley gates, over backyard fences, where they stood loud-mouthed
+and arms akimboed among laden clothes lines. No, the cause of it all was
+that Erastus Smith, Aunt Mandy Smith's boy, who had gone away from home
+several years before, and who, rumour said, had become a great man, was
+coming back, and "Little Africa," from Douglass Street to Cat Alley, was
+prepared to be dazzled. So few of those who had been born within the
+mile radius which was "Little Africa" went out into the great world and
+came into contact with the larger humanity that when one did he became
+a man set apart. And when, besides, he went into a great city and worked
+for a lawyer whose name was known the country over, the place of his
+birth had all the more reason to feel proud of her son.
+
+So there was much talk across the dirty little streets, and Aunt Mandy's
+small house found itself all of a sudden a very popular resort. The old
+women held Erastus up as an example to their sons. The old men told what
+they might have done had they had his chance. The young men cursed him,
+and the young girls giggled and waited.
+
+It was about an hour before the time of the arrival of Erastus, and the
+neighbours had thinned out one by one with a delicacy rather surprising
+in them, in order that the old lady might be alone with her boy for the
+first few minutes. Only one remained to help put the finishing touches
+to the two little rooms which Mrs. Smith called home, and to the
+preparations for the great dinner. The old woman wiped her eyes as she
+said to her companion, "Hit do seem a speshul blessin', Lizy, dat I been
+spaihed to see dat chile once mo' in de flesh. He sholy was mighty nigh
+to my hea't, an' w'en he went erway, I thought it 'ud kill me. But I kin
+see now dat hit uz all fu' de bes'. Think o' 'Rastus comin' home, er big
+man! Who'd evah 'specked dat?"
+
+"Law, Mis' Smif, you sholy is got reason to be mighty thankful. Des'
+look how many young men dere is in dis town what ain't nevah been no
+'count to dey pa'ents, ner anybody else."
+
+"Well, it's onexpected, Lizy, an' hit's 'spected. 'Rastus allus wuz a
+wonnerful chil', an' de way he tuk to work an' study kin' o' promised
+something f'om de commencement, an' I 'lowed mebbe he tu'n out a
+preachah."
+
+"Tush! yo' kin thank yo' stahs he didn't tu'n out no preachah. Preachahs
+ain't no bettah den anybody else dese days. Dey des go roun' tellin' dey
+lies an' eatin' de whiders an' orphins out o' house an' home."
+
+"Well, mebbe hit's bes' he didn' tu'n out dat way. But f'om de way he
+used to stan' on de chaih an' 'zort w'en he was a little boy, I thought
+hit was des what he 'ud tu'n out. O' co'se, being' in a law office is
+des as pervidin', but somehow hit do seem mo' worl'y."
+
+"Didn't I tell you de preachahs is ez worldly ez anybody else?"
+
+"Yes, yes, dat's right, but den 'Rastus, he had de eddication, fo' he
+had gone thoo de Third Readah."
+
+Just then the gate creaked, and a little brown-faced girl, with large,
+mild eyes, pushed open the door and came shyly in.
+
+"Hyeah's some flowahs, Mis' Smif," she said. "I thought mebbe you might
+like to decorate 'Rastus's room," and she wiped the confusion from her
+face with her apron.
+
+"La, chil', thankee. Dese is mighty pu'tty posies." These were the
+laurels which Sally Martin had brought to lay at the feet of her
+home-coming hero. No one in Cat Alley but that queer, quiet little girl
+would have thought of decorating anybody's room with flowers, but she
+had peculiar notions.
+
+In the old days, when they were children, and before Erastus had gone
+away to become great, they had gone up and down together along the
+byways of their locality, and had loved as children love. Later, when
+Erastus began keeping company, it was upon Sally that he bestowed his
+affections. No one, not even her mother, knew how she had waited for him
+all these years that he had been gone, few in reality, but so long and
+so many to her.
+
+And now he was coming home. She scorched something in the ironing that
+day because tears of joy were blinding her eyes. Her thoughts were busy
+with the meeting that was to be. She had a brand new dress for the
+occasion--a lawn, with dark blue dots, and a blue sash--and there was a
+new hat, wonderful with the flowers of summer, and for both of them she
+had spent her hard-earned savings, because she wished to be radiant in
+the eyes of the man who loved her.
+
+Of course, Erastus had not written her; but he must have been busy, and
+writing was hard work. She knew that herself, and realised it all the
+more as she penned the loving little scrawls which at first she used to
+send him. Now they would not have to do any writing any more; they could
+say what they wanted to each other. He was coming home at last, and she
+had waited long.
+
+They paint angels with shining faces and halos, but for real radiance
+one should have looked into the dark eyes of Sally as she sped home
+after her contribution to her lover's reception.
+
+When the last one of the neighbours had gone Aunt Mandy sat down to rest
+herself and to await the great event. She had not sat there long before
+the gate creaked. She arose and hastened to the window. A young man was
+coming down the path. Was that 'Rastus? Could that be her 'Rastus, that
+gorgeous creature with the shiny shoes and the nobby suit and the
+carelessly-swung cane? But he was knocking at her door, and she opened
+it and took him into her arms.
+
+"Why, howdy, honey, howdy; hit do beat all to see you agin, a great big,
+grown-up man. You're lookin' des' lak one o' de big folks up in town."
+
+Erastus submitted to her endearments with a somewhat condescending
+grace, as who should say, "Well, poor old fool, let her go on this time;
+she doesn't know any better." He smiled superiorly when the old woman
+wept glad tears, as mothers have a way of doing over returned sons,
+however great fools these sons may be. She set him down to the dinner
+which she had prepared for him, and with loving patience drew from his
+pompous and reluctant lips some of the story of his doings and some
+little word about the places he had seen.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said, crossing his legs, "as soon as Mr. Carrington saw
+that I was pretty bright, he took me right up and gave me a good job,
+and I have been working for him right straight along for seven years
+now. Of course, it don't do to let white folks know all you're thinking;
+but I have kept my ears and my eyes right open, and I guess I know just
+about as much about law as he does himself. When I save up a little
+more I'm going to put on the finishing touches and hang out my shingle."
+
+"Don't you nevah think no mo' 'bout bein' a preachah, 'Rastus?" his
+mother asked.
+
+"Haw, haw! Preachah? Well, I guess not; no preaching in mine; there's
+nothing in it. In law you always have a chance to get into politics and
+be the president of your ward club or something like that, and from that
+on it's an easy matter to go on up. You can trust me to know the wires."
+And so the tenor of his boastful talk ran on, his mother a little bit
+awed and not altogether satisfied with the new 'Rastus that had returned
+to her.
+
+He did not stay in long that evening, although his mother told him some
+of the neighbours were going to drop in. He said he wanted to go about
+and see something of the town. He paused just long enough to glance at
+the flowers in his room, and to his mother's remark, "Sally Ma'tin brung
+dem in," he returned answer, "Who on earth is Sally Martin?"
+
+"Why, 'Rastus," exclaimed his mother, "does yo' 'tend lak yo' don't
+'member little Sally Ma'tin yo' used to go wid almos' f'om de time you
+was babies? W'y, I'm s'prised at you."
+
+"She has slipped my mind," said the young man.
+
+For a long while the neighbours who had come and Aunt Mandy sat up to
+wait for Erastus, but he did not come in until the last one was gone. In
+fact, he did not get in until nearly four o'clock in the morning,
+looking a little weak, but at least in the best of spirits, and he
+vouchsafed to his waiting mother the remark that "the little old town
+wasn't so bad, after all."
+
+Aunt Mandy preferred the request that she had had in mind for some time,
+that he would go to church the next day, and he consented, because his
+trunk had come.
+
+It was a glorious Sunday morning, and the old lady was very proud in
+her stiff gingham dress as she saw her son come into the room arrayed in
+his long coat, shiny hat, and shinier shoes. Well, if it was true that
+he was changed, he was still her 'Rastus, and a great comfort to her.
+There was no vanity about the old woman, but she paused before the glass
+a longer time than usual, settling her bonnet strings, for she must look
+right, she told herself, to walk to church with that elegant son of
+hers. When he was all ready, with cane in hand, and she was pausing with
+the key in the door, he said, "Just walk on, mother, I'll catch you in a
+minute or two." She went on and left him.
+
+He did not catch her that morning on her way to church, and it was a
+sore disappointment, but it was somewhat compensated for when she saw
+him stalking into the chapel in all his glory, and every head in the
+house turned to behold him.
+
+There was one other woman in "Little Africa" that morning who stopped
+for a longer time than usual before her looking-glass and who had never
+found her bonnet strings quite so refractory before. In spite of the
+vexation of flowers that wouldn't settle and ribbons that wouldn't tie,
+a very glad face looked back at Sally Martin from her little mirror. She
+was going to see 'Rastus, 'Rastus of the old days in which they used to
+walk hand in hand. He had told her when he went away that some day he
+would come back and marry her. Her heart fluttered hotly under her
+dotted lawn, and it took another application of the chamois to take the
+perspiration from her face. People had laughed at her, but that morning
+she would be vindicated. He would walk home with her before the whole
+church. Already she saw him bowing before her, hat in hand, and heard
+the set phrase, "May I have the pleasure of your company home?" and she
+saw herself sailing away upon his arm.
+
+She was very happy as she sat in church that morning, as happy as Mrs.
+Smith herself, and as proud when she saw the object of her affections
+swinging up the aisle to the collection table, and from the ring she
+knew that it could not be less than a half dollar that he put in.
+
+There was a special note of praise in her voice as she joined in singing
+the doxology that morning, and her heart kept quivering and fluttering
+like a frightened bird as the people gathered in groups, chattering and
+shaking hands, and he drew nearer to her. Now they were almost together;
+in a moment their eyes would meet. Her breath came quickly; he had
+looked at her, surely he must have seen her. His mother was just behind
+him, and he did not speak. Maybe she had changed, maybe he had forgotten
+her. An unaccustomed boldness took possession of her, and she determined
+that she would not be overlooked. She pressed forward. She saw his
+mother take his arm and heard her whisper, "Dere's Sally Ma'tin" this
+time, and she knew that he looked at her. He bowed as if to a stranger,
+and was past her the next minute. When she saw him again he was swinging
+out of the door between two admiring lines of church-goers who separated
+on the pavement. There was a brazen yellow girl on his arm.
+
+She felt weak and sick as she hid behind the crowd as well as she could,
+and for that morning she thanked God that she was small.
+
+Aunt Mandy trudged home alone, and when the street was cleared and the
+sexton was about to lock up, the girl slipped out of the church and down
+to her own little house. In the friendly shelter of her room she took
+off her gay attire and laid it away, and then sat down at the window and
+looked dully out. For her, the light of day had gone out.
+
+
+
+
+_Sixteen_
+
+THE BOY AND THE BAYONET
+
+
+It was June, and nearing the closing time of school. The air was full of
+the sound of bustle and preparation for the final exercises, field day,
+and drills. Drills especially, for nothing so gladdens the heart of the
+Washington mother, be she black or white, as seeing her boy in the blue
+cadet's uniform, marching proudly to the huzzas of an admiring crowd.
+Then she forgets the many nights when he has come in tired out and dusty
+from his practice drill, and feels only the pride and elation of the
+result.
+
+Although Tom did all he could outside of study hours, there were many
+days of hard work for Hannah Davis, when her son went into the High
+School. But she took it upon herself gladly, since it gave Bud the
+chance to learn, that she wanted him to have. When, however, he entered
+the Cadet Corps it seemed to her as if the first steps toward the
+fulfilment of all her hopes had been made. It was a hard pull to her,
+getting the uniform, but Bud himself helped manfully, and when his
+mother saw him rigged out in all his regimentals, she felt that she had
+not toiled in vain. And in fact it was worth all the trouble and expense
+just to see the joy and pride of "little sister," who adored Bud.
+
+As the time for the competitive drill drew near there was an air of
+suppressed excitement about the little house on "D" Street, where the
+three lived. All day long "little sister," who was never very well and
+did not go to school, sat and looked out of the window on the
+uninteresting prospect of a dusty thoroughfare lined on either side with
+dull red brick houses, all of the same ugly pattern, interspersed with
+older, uglier, and viler frame shanties. In the evening Hannah hurried
+home to get supper against the time when Bud should return, hungry and
+tired from his drilling, and the chore work which followed hard upon its
+heels.
+
+Things were all cheerful, however, for as they applied themselves to the
+supper, the boy, with glowing face, would tell just how his company "A"
+was getting on, and what they were going to do to companies "B" and "C."
+It was not boasting so much as the expression of a confidence, founded
+upon the hard work he was doing, and Hannah and the "little sister"
+shared that with him.
+
+The child often, listening to her brother, would clap her hands or cry,
+"Oh, Bud, you're just splendid an' I know you'll beat 'em."
+
+"If hard work'll beat 'em, we've got 'em beat," Bud would reply, and
+Hannah, to add an admonitory check to her own confidence, would break in
+with, "Now, don't you be too sho', son; dey ain't been no man so good
+dat dey wasn't somebody bettah." But all the while her face and manner
+were disputing what her words expressed.
+
+The great day came, and it was a wonderful crowd of people that packed
+the great baseball grounds to overflowing. It seemed that all of
+Washington's coloured population was out, when there were really only
+about one-tenth of them there. It was an enthusiastic, banner-waving,
+shouting, hallooing crowd. Its component parts were strictly and frankly
+partisan, and so separated themselves into sections differentiated by
+the colours of the flags they carried and the ribbons they wore. Side
+yelled defiance at side, and party bantered party. Here the blue and
+white of Company "A" flaunted audaciously on the breeze beside the very
+seats over which the crimson and gray of "B" were flying, and these in
+their turn nodded defiance over the imaginary barrier between themselves
+and "C's" black and yellow.
+
+The band was thundering out "Sousa's High School Cadet's March," the
+school officials, the judges, and reporters, and some with less purpose
+were bustling about, discussing and conferring. Altogether doing nothing
+much with beautiful unanimity. All was noise, hurry, gaiety, and
+turbulence. In the midst of it all, with blue and white rosettes pinned
+on their breasts, sat two spectators, tense and silent, while the
+breakers of movement and sound struck and broke around them. It meant
+too much to Hannah and "little sister" for them to laugh and shout. Bud
+was with Company "A," and so the whole programme was more like a
+religious ceremonial to them. The blare of the brass to them might have
+been the trumpet call to battle in old Judea, and the far-thrown tones
+of the megaphone the voice of a prophet proclaiming from the hill-top.
+
+Hannah's face glowed with expectation, and "little sister" sat very
+still and held her mother's hand save when amid a burst of cheers
+Company "A" swept into the parade ground at a quick step, then she
+sprang up, crying shrilly, "There's Bud, there's Bud, I see him," and
+then settled back into her seat overcome with embarrassment. The
+mother's eyes danced as soon as the sister's had singled out their dear
+one from the midst of the blue-coated boys, and it was an effort for her
+to keep from following her little daughter's example even to echoing her
+words.
+
+Company "A" came swinging down the field toward the judges in a manner
+that called for more enthusiastic huzzas that carried even the Freshman
+of other commands "off their feet." They were, indeed, a set of
+fine-looking young fellows, brisk, straight, and soldierly in bearing.
+Their captain was proud of them, and his very step showed it. He was
+like a skilled operator pressing the key of some great mechanism, and at
+his command they moved like clockwork. Seen from the side it was as if
+they were all bound together by inflexible iron bars, and as the end man
+moved all must move with him. The crowd was full of exclamations of
+praise and admiration, but a tense quiet enveloped them as Company "A"
+came from columns of four into line for volley firing. This was a real
+test; it meant not only grace and precision of movement, singleness of
+attention and steadiness, but quickness tempered by self-control. At the
+command the volley rang forth like a single shot. This was again the
+signal for wild cheering and the blue and white streamers kissed the
+sunlight with swift impulsive kisses. Hannah and Little Sister drew
+closer together and pressed hands.
+
+The "A" adherents, however, were considerably cooled when the next
+volley came out, badly scattering, with one shot entirely apart and
+before the rest. Bud's mother did not entirely understand the sudden
+quieting of the adherents; they felt vaguely that all was not as it
+should be, and the chill of fear laid hold upon their hearts. What if
+Bud's company, (it was always Bud's company to them), what if his
+company should lose. But, of course, that couldn't be. Bud himself had
+said that they would win. Suppose, though, they didn't; and with these
+thoughts they were miserable until the cheering again told them that the
+company had redeemed itself.
+
+Someone behind Hannah said, "They are doing splendidly, they'll win,
+they'll win yet in spite of the second volley."
+
+Company "A," in columns of fours, had executed the right oblique in
+double time, and halted amid cheers; then formed left halt into line
+without halting. The next movement was one looked forward to with much
+anxiety on account of its difficulty. The order was marching by fours
+to fix or unfix bayonets. They were going at a quick step, but the boys'
+hands were steady--hope was bright in their hearts. They were doing it
+rapidly and freely, when suddenly from the ranks there was the bright
+gleam of steel lower down than it should have been. A gasp broke from
+the breasts of Company "A's" friends. The blue and white drooped
+disconsolately, while a few heartless ones who wore other colours
+attempted to hiss. Someone had dropped his bayonet. But with muscles
+unquivering, without a turned head, the company moved on as if nothing
+had happened, while one of the judges, an army officer, stepped into the
+wake of the boys and picked up the fallen steel.
+
+No two eyes had seen half so quickly as Hannah and Little Sister's who
+the blunderer was. In the whole drill there had been but one figure for
+them, and that was Bud, Bud, and it was he who had dropped his bayonet.
+Anxious, nervous with the desire to please them, perhaps with a shade
+too much of thought of them looking on with their hearts in their eyes,
+he had fumbled, and lost all that he was striving for. His head went
+round and round and all seemed black before him.
+
+He executed the movements in a dazed way. The applause, generous and
+sympathetic, as his company left the parade ground, came to him from
+afar off, and like a wounded animal he crept away from his comrades, not
+because their reproaches stung him, for he did not hear them, but
+because he wanted to think what his mother and "Little Sister" would
+say, but his misery was as nothing to that of the two who sat up there
+amid the ranks of the blue and white holding each other's hands with a
+despairing grip. To Bud all of the rest of the contest was a horrid
+nightmare; he hardly knew when the three companies were marched back to
+receive the judges' decision. The applause that greeted Company "B" when
+the blue ribbons were pinned on the members' coats meant nothing to his
+ears. He had disgraced himself and his company. What would his mother
+and his "Little Sister" say?
+
+To Hannah and "Little Sister," as to Bud, all of the remainder of the
+drill was a misery. The one interest they had had in it failed, and not
+even the dropping of his gun by one of Company "E" when on the march,
+halting in line, could raise their spirits. The little girl tried to be
+brave, but when it was all over she was glad to hurry out before the
+crowd got started and to hasten away home. Once there and her tears
+flowed freely; she hid her face in her mother's dress, and sobbed as if
+her heart would break.
+
+"Don't cry, Baby! don't cry, Lammie, dis ain't da las' time da wah goin'
+to be a drill. Bud'll have a chance anotha time and den he'll show 'em
+somethin'; bless you, I spec' he'll be a captain." But this consolation
+of philosophy was nothing to "Little Sister." It was so terrible to her,
+this failure of Bud's. She couldn't blame him, she couldn't blame anyone
+else, and she had not yet learned to lay all such unfathomed
+catastrophes at the door of fate. What to her was the thought of another
+day; what did it matter to her whether he was a captain or a private?
+She didn't even know the meaning of the words, but "Little Sister," from
+the time she knew Bud was a private, knew that that was much better than
+being captain or any of those other things with a long name, so that
+settled it.
+
+Her mother finally set about getting the supper, while "Little Sister"
+drooped disconsolately in her own little splint-bottomed chair. She sat
+there weeping silently until she heard the sound of Bud's step, then she
+sprang up and ran away to hide. She didn't dare to face him with tears
+in her eyes. Bud came in without a word and sat down in the dark front
+room.
+
+"Dat you, Bud?" asked his mother.
+
+"Yassum."
+
+"Bettah come now, supper's puty 'nigh ready."
+
+"I don' want no supper."
+
+"You bettah come on, Bud, I reckon you mighty tired."
+
+He did not reply, but just then a pair of thin arms were put around his
+neck and a soft cheek was placed close to his own.
+
+"Come on, Buddie," whispered "Little Sister," "Mammy an' me know you
+didn't mean to do it, an' we don' keer."
+
+Bud threw his arms around his little sister and held her tightly.
+
+"It's only you an' ma I care about," he said, "though I am sorry I
+spoiled the company's drill; they say "B" would have won anyway on
+account of our bad firing, but I did want you and ma to be proud."
+
+"We is proud," she whispered, "we's mos' prouder dan if you'd won," and
+pretty soon she led him by the hand out to supper.
+
+Hannah did all she could to cheer the boy and to encourage him to hope
+for next year, but he had little to say in reply, and went to bed early.
+
+In the morning, though it neared school time, Bud lingered around and
+seemed in no disposition to get ready to go.
+
+"Bettah git ready fer school," said Hannah cheerily to him.
+
+"I don't believe I want to go any more," Bud replied.
+
+"Not go any more? Why ain't you shamed to talk that way! O' cose you a
+goin' to school."
+
+"I'm ashamed to show my face to the boys."
+
+"What you say about de boys? De boys ain't a-goin' to give you no
+edgication when you need it."
+
+"Oh, I don't want to go, ma; you don't know how I feel."
+
+"I'm kinder sorry I let you go into dat company," said Hannah musingly;
+"'cause it was de teachin' I wanted you to git, not de prancin' and
+steppin'; but I did t'ink it would make mo' of a man of you, an' it
+ain't. Yo' pappy was a po' man, ha'd wo'kin', an' he wasn't high-toned
+neither, but from the time I first see him to the day of his death I
+nevah seen him back down because he was afeared of anything," and Hannah
+turned to her work.
+
+"Little Sister" went up to Bud and slipped her hand in his. "You ain't
+a-goin' to back down, is you, Buddie?" she said.
+
+"No," said Bud stoutly, as he braced his shoulders, "I'm a-goin'."
+
+But no persuasion could make him wear his uniform.
+
+The boys were a little cold to him, and some were brutal. But most of
+them recognised the fact that what had happened to Tom Harris might have
+happened to any one of them. Besides, since the percentage had been
+shown, it was found that "B" had outpointed them in many ways, and so
+their loss was not due to the one grave error. Bud's heart sank when he
+dropped into his seat in the Assembly Hall to find seated on the
+platform one of the blue-coated officers who had acted as judge the day
+before. After the opening exercises were over he was called upon to
+address the school. He spoke readily and pleasantly, laying especial
+stress upon the value of discipline; toward the end of his address he
+said: "I suppose Company 'A' is heaping accusations upon the head of the
+young man who dropped his bayonet yesterday." Tom could have died. "It
+was most regrettable," the officer continued, "but to me the most
+significant thing at the drill was the conduct of that cadet afterward.
+I saw the whole proceeding; I saw that he did not pause for an instant,
+that he did not even turn his head, and it appeared to me as one of the
+finest bits of self-control I had ever seen in any youth; had he
+forgotten himself for a moment and stopped, however quickly, to secure
+the weapon, the next line would have been interfered with and your whole
+movement thrown into confusion." There were a half hundred eyes glancing
+furtively at Bud, and the light began to dawn in his face. "This boy has
+shown what discipline means, and I for one want to shake hands with him,
+if he is here."
+
+When he had concluded the Principal called Bud forward, and the boys,
+even his detractors, cheered as the officer took his hand.
+
+"Why are you not in uniform, sir?" he asked.
+
+"I was ashamed to wear it after yesterday," was the reply.
+
+"Don't be ashamed to wear your uniform," the officer said to him, and
+Bud could have fallen on his knees and thanked him.
+
+There were no more jeers from his comrades now, and when he related it
+all at home that evening there were two more happy hearts in that South
+Washington cottage.
+
+"I told you we was more prouder dan if you'd won," said "Little Sister."
+
+"An' what did I tell you 'bout backin' out?" asked his mother.
+
+Bud was too happy and too busy to answer; he was brushing his uniform.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The heart of happy hollow, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
+
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