And for the most part Jim
was silent, too, but Mrs. Mayfield was aroused by what she had seen and
heard. "Every day this rugged world up here presents something new, Mr.
Reverend. Instead of becoming more able to compare it with other places
I have known, it is further and further removed as time passes. Of
course I had read books and heard songs, but never before coming here
did I believe that in real slavery had there existed poetry."
"They tell me, ma'm, that the greatest poetry has come out of the dark,"
he replied, walking with his eyes cast down.
"Then even as a Southerner you don't believe that slavery was right."
"No, ma'm, for slavery must dwarf the soul and the Book teaches that the
Ethiopian had a soul to save."
"But some of the slaves must have been kindly treated."
"Yes, ma'm, but the true way to be kind to ignorance is to enlighten
it."
"The old man who preached had known enlightenment and yet he holds no
bitterness against the people who kept his race in the dark."
"Ma'm, as a general thing the negro is not revengeful.
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