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“I won’t go!” shrilled Susannah, hysterically weeping; it was with no pretense now. “You cayn’t fo’ce me!”

“You will go, Sister, fo’ you don’ wanter lose the young man you got now. You will go; an’ you will take him along of you; an’ you will go so far he cayn’t heah no word of my sermons. Go in peace.”

Susannah faced about, writhing between fear and rage. “You cowards! you ornery, pusillanimous cowards!” she flung back at the gaping black faces. “You putt on dog when she ain’t heah, but minute she lif’s her han’, you cayn’t make a riffle! Ba-h-h! S-sh!” she hissed at them like a cat or a snake. “Come on, you fool nigger!” she jeered, pulling at her bewildered husband’s collar; and in this sorry fashion, but still with her head high, she left Zion for ever.

“An’ now,” concluded Sister Esmeralda Humphreys sedately, “let us all try fo’ to lead a bettah life. I shall preach nex’ Sunday on the Seventh Commandment, an’ all them that feels they have broke that commandment is at free liberty to stay away. I shall expec’ to see all the res’ of you, even if ’tis fallin’ weader. Let us all sing befo’ we go:

“‘Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.'”

Brother Moore arose. “Sist’ Humphreys,” he announced, “you got de right kin’ o’ gospil light in you. I cayn’t jine in the singin’ ’cause since I got my store teef I ain’t be’n able to cyar’ a chune; but I want to do sumfin de wuk er grace; an’ I got up to say dat de nex’ socherble gatherin’ I’ll donate de lemons.”

“Dis meetin’ accep’s with t’anks,” shouted Brother Morrow. “Now, le’s show our beloved pastor the clouds is swep’ away! All sing!”

And never had so noble a burst of melody wakened the echoes along the moonlit road as that which made the colonel outside turn, smiling, in his saddle.

“She didn’t need me,” he mused. “Well, so much the better. I reckon they need a good despot, and they’ve got one, all right.”