"Stop! Stop! Never mind who I am; I've got to put you fifty miles from here before bedtime." "Yes, my Lawd. Oh, yes, my Lawd!" "Euonymus! you mustn't call me that!" "Ain't dat what Ab'am called you?" "I forget! but--call me mistress!--only!" "Yass, suh--yass, mi'ss!" "Good. Now, lad, I can take you alone, horseback, which'll be far swifter, safer, surer----" A new alarm, a new exaltation--"Oh, no, my--mist'ess; no, no! you knows you on'y a-temptin' o' dy servant!" "You wouldn't leave daddy and mammy?" "Oh, daddy kin stick to mammy, an' her to he! but Robelia got neither faith nor gumption, an' let me never see de salvation o' de Lawd ef I cayn't stick by dat--by--by my po' Robelia!" "But suppose, my boy, we should be mistaken for runaways and tracked and run down." "Yass'm, o' co'se. Yass'm." "Can you fight--for your sister?" "Yass, my La'--yass'm, I kin an' I will. I's qualified my soul to' dat, suh; yass'm." "Dogs?" "Yass'm, dawgs. Notinstandin' de dawgs come pass me roun' about, in de name o' de Lawd will I lif up my han' an' will perwail." "Have you only your hands?" "Da's all David had, ag'in lion an' bah." "True. Euonymus, I need a man's clothes." "Yass'm, on a pinch dey mowt come handy." XII Here Robelia came again, conducting "Luke" and "Rebecca." Luke's garments were amusingly, heroically patched, yet both seniors were thoroughly attractive; not handsome, but reflecting the highest, gentlest rectitude. One of their children had inherited all that was best from both parents, beautifully exalting it; the other all that was poorest in earlier ancestors. They were evolution and reversion personified. The father was frank yet deferential. Our parley was brief. His only pomp lay in his manner of calling me madam. I felt myself a queen. Handing him a note to the stable-keeper, "You can read," I said, "can't you? Or your son can?" "No, madam, I regrets to say we's minus dat." I hid my pleasure. "Well, at the stable, if they seem to think this note is from a man, or that the coach is owned by a man----" "Keep silent," put in Euonymus, "an' see de counsel o' de Lawd ovehcome." Luke went. I pencilled another note. It requested my landlady to give Euonymus a hat, boots, and suit from my armoire and speed him back all she could. (To avoid her queries.) Rebecca gazed anxiously after this second messenger. Robelia, near by, munched blackberries. "Rebecca, did you ever think what you'd do if both your children were in equal danger?" "Why, yass'm, I is studie' dat, dis ve'y day, ef de trufe got to be tol'." Thought I: "If anything else has to be told, Robelia'll be my only helper." I asked Rebecca which one she would try to save first. "Why, mist'ess, I could tell dat a heap sight betteh when de time come. De Lawd mowt move me to do most fo' de one what least fitt'n' to"--she choked--"to die. An' yit ag'in dat mowt depen' on de circumstances o' de time bein'."