The child climbed up into his lap, slipped her little arms around his neck and hugged and kissed him. “Now, once more, dearie, long and close and hard--oh! That’s worth a pound of candy!” Again she squeezed his neck and kissed him, looking into his face with a smile. “I love you, Charlie,” she said with quaint seriousness. “Do you, dear? Well, that makes me glad. If I can win the love of as pretty a little girl as you I’m not a failure, am I?” And he smoothed her curls. “Ain’t she sweet?” cried Tom with pride as he laid aside his basket and looked at her with moistened eyes. “Tom, she’s the sweetest child I ever saw.” “Yes, she’s God’s last and best gift to me, to show me He still loved me. Talk about trouble. Man, you’re a baby. You ain’t cut your teeth yet. Wait till you’ve seen some things I’ve seen. Wait till you’ve seen the light of the world go out, and staggerin’ in the dark met the devil face to face, and looked him in the eye, and smelled the pit. And then feel him knock you down in it, and the red waves roll over you and smother you. I’ve been there.” Tom paused and looked at Gaston. “You weren’t here when I come to the end of the world, the time when that baby was born, and Annie died with the little red bundle sleepin’ on her breast. The oldest girl was murdered by Legree’s nigger soldiers. Then Annie give me that little gal. Lord, I was the happiest old fool that ever lived that day! And then when I looked into Annie’s dead face, I went down, down, down! But I looked up from the bottom of the pit and I saw the light of them blue eyes and I heard her callin’ me to take her. How I watched her and nursed her, a mother and a father to her, day and night, through the long years, and how them little fingers of hers got hold of my heart! Now, I bless the Lord for all His goodness and mercy to me. She will make it all right. She’s going to be a lady and such a beauty! She’s goin’ to school now, and me and the General’s goin’ to take her ter college bye and bye, and she’s goin’ to marry some big handsome fellow like you, and her crippled grey haired daddy ’ll live in her house in his old age. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.” “Tom, you make me ashamed.” “You ought to be, man, a youngster like you to talk about gettin’ the blues. What’s all your education for?” “Sometimes I think that only men like you have ever been educated.” “G’long with your foolishness, boy. I ain’t never had a show in this world. The nigger’s been on my back since I first toddled into the world, and I reckon he ’ll ride me into the grave. They are my only rivals now making them baskets and they always undersell me.” Gaston started as Tom uttered the last sentence.