"What, me, mist'ess? Why, eh, o' co'se I kin drive _some_, but--" The soft, honest eyes, seeking Robelia's, betrayed a mental conflict. I guessed there were more than two runaways, and that Euonymus was debating whether for Robelia's sake to go with me and leave the others behind, or not. "You kin drive de coach," blurted the one-ideaed Robelia. "You knows you kin." "No, mi'ss, takin' all roads as dey come I ain't no ways fitt'n'; no'm." "Well, daddy's fitt'n'!" said the sun-bonnet. Euonymus flinched, yet smilingly said: "Yass, da's so, but I ain't daddy, no mo'n you is." "Well, us kin go fetch him--in th'ee shakes." Euonymus flinched again, yet showed generalship. "Yass'm, us kin go ax daddy." I smiled. "Let Robelia go and you stay here." Robelia waited on tiptoe. "Go fetch him," murmured Euonymus, "an' make has'e." "Wait! You're a good boy, Euonymus, ain't you?" "I cayn't say dat, mi'ss; but I'm glad ef you thinks so." "Y' is good!" said Robelia. "You knows you is!" "Never mind," I said; "do you belong to--Zion?" The dark face grew radiant. "Yass'm, I does!" "Euonymus, how many more of you-all are there besides _daddy and mammy_?" The surprise was cruel. The runaway's eyes let out a gleam of alarm and then, as I lighted with kindness, filled with rapt wonder at my miraculous knowledge: "Be'--be'--beside'--beside' d-daddy an' m-mammy? D'ain't no mo', m-mist'ess; no'm!" "Yass'm," put in Robelia, "da's all; us fo'." "Just you four. Euonymus, a bit ago I noticed on your sister's ankles some white mud." "Yass'm." Another gleam of alarm and then a fine, awesome courage. Robelia stared in panic. "The nearest white mud--marl--in the State, Robelia, is forty miles south of here." "Is d'--dat so, mist'ess?" "Yes, and so you also are travellers, Euonymus." "Trav'--y'--yass'm, I--I reckon you mought call us trav'luz, in a manneh, yass'm." "Well, my next town is thirty miles north of----" "Nawth!" Euonymus broke in, thinking furiously. "Now, if instead of hiring just your sister and her daddy I should----" "Yass'm!" "Suppose I should take all four of you along, as though you were my slaves----" "De time bein'," Euonymus alertly slipped in. "Certainly, that's all. How would that do?" "Oh, mist'ess! kin you work dat miracle?" "I can do it if it suits you." "Lawd, it suit' _us_! Dey couldn't be noth'n' mo' rep'ehensible!" Robelia vanished. Euonymus gazed into my eyes. [Had my disguise failed?] "What is it, boy?" "May I ax you a question, mi'ss?" "You may ask if you won't tell." "Oh, I won't tell! Is you a sho' enough 'oman?--Lawd, I knowd you wa'n't! No mo'n you is a man! I seen it f'om de beginnin'!" "Why, boy, what do you imagine I am?" "Oh, I don't 'magine, I knows! 'T'uz me prayed Gawd to sen' you. Y' ain't man, y' ain't 'oman! an' yit yo' bofe! Yo' de same what visit Ab'am, an' Lot, an' Dan'l, and de motheh de Lawd!"