“Dat’s all right. I ain’ so anxious fo’ wu’k as that. I don’ haf to wu’k with devils. An’ yo’ bettah eat. You-all too thin. It’s a shame you-all havin’ ter eat alone heah while Mis’ Glorie go out to pahties. She don’ treat yo’ like folks. Dat devil man he’s hoodooed her. I’ve seen him lookin’ at her with his red eyes.” She went on muttering and returned with dinner on a tray, and Ruth knowing the uselessness of resistance dutifully ate, while Amy hovered near. “Tell me all about it, Amy. What has George been doing now? I thought you would be satisfied when I let you sleep upstairs.” “No, sir, I ain’ satisfied nohow. I wouldn’t wu’k heah or sleep heah ’nother night not for all the money in the worl’. Dat man he sets an’ sets lookin’ at nothin’ an’ then he runs knives inter his hans—an’ he don’ bleed. He ain’ human—that’s what.” “I’m sorry, Amy—I don’t want you to go and neither does Gloria, but of course we can’t keep you. Let me know if you don’t get another place or if anything goes wrong. Perhaps later George may go and then you can come back.” “He won’t go. One mawnin’ you-all will wake up dade—that’s what goin’ happen.” She shook her head, looking at Ruth with real tears in her eyes. Apparently she thought she looked at one doomed to early death, and Ruth, though she knew the threatened evil was not for herself, had long since lost the ability to laugh at Amy’s superstitions. CHAPTER X Terry Riordan arranged an interview for Ruth with the Sunday editor of the _Express_, with the result that she found herself promised to do a weekly page of theatrical sketches, beginning the first of the year, and she discovered the unique joy of having real work which was wanted and for which she would receive money. Also she discovered that association with a newspaper and connection with a weekly stipend gave her a prestige with her fellow students which no amount of splendid amateur effort would have won for her. Dorothy and Nels told every one they knew about “Ruth Mayfield’s splendid success,” and Professor Burroughs congratulated her. “It is always sad to see a student with a real gift neglecting it for a fancied talent,” he said, “and it is equally satisfying when any of our students wisely follow the line of work for which they are fitted. We don’t want to turn out dabblers, and too often that’s what art students become.”