"I didn't
know that there could be so much pleasure without incident. Ah, a
quaint and plotless people, Mr. Reverend."
"There may be more plot than you think, ma'm. These folks all have their
troubles. And on the hill-side where you see the white flower, blood
runs sometimes. Uncle Jasper and I are about the last of our race--last
of the men folks. Most of us have been killed."
"I don't see how that could be, Mr. Reverend. Such gentleness--"
"Don't be fooled in us, ma'm. We ain't been always blameless. Through
our house old Satan has walked, leaving his tracks."
"Satan tempted the Son of Man, Mr. Reverend."
"Yes, ma'm; but didn't walk through His house, leaving of his tracks."
CHAPTER X.
TIED TO A TREE.
The sun was down and the stars were abroad and the young moon looked
like a silver bear-claw in the sky when Jasper turned his steers
homeward; and all the party broke out in song as down the hill they
rattled. The shallows in the river sang too, and high in a tree, a bird
too riotous to leave off with the coming of night, was carrolling the
tired end of his spree.
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