Ole Mammy's Torment

feather bed. Bud was gently snoring in his corner of the trundle-bed below, but John Jay kicked restlessly beside him. He could not sleep with the moonlight in his

with her elbows on her knees. She was crooning

artha in de

vah brer Laz

nd. Thus barricaded, he did not hear slow footsteps shuffling up the path; but presently the powerf

the cabin in a straight splint-bottomed chair. The usual opening remarks about the state of the family health, the weather, and the crops were of very little interest to John Jay; indeed he nea

ly across the floor, he curled up on his pillow just inside the doorway, where the shadows fell heav

e home yestiddy," a

my. "Not lame Jintsey's

he gospel now, home from college with a Rev'und befo' his name, an' a long-tailed black coat o

usan. "What a day it would have been for her, if s

slavery days. The rule of their master, Nat Chadwick, had been an easy one. There had always been plenty in the smoke-house and contentment

cause he was born on the same day as his little Mars' Nat. John Jay knew the whole family history. He was very proud of these people of gentle birth and breeding, whom Sheba spoke of as "ou' family." One by one they had been carried to the li

fellow, who had sown his wild oats early, and met disappointment at every turn. It was passed about, too, that there was a romance in his life which had changed and embittered it. Certain it is

y of Jintsey's boy, who seemed to have been born with the ambition hot in his heart to win an education. He had done it. There was a quiver of pride in Uncle Billy's voice as he

his hopes. He had grown to be a grave man of thirty-three before it was accomplis

with a scriptural quotation. "He have fought a good fight, and he have finished hi

s warm little body. He raised his head fro

in' nights in a room 'thout no fiah. He took ole Mars's name an' he have brought honah upon it, but what good i

Mammy sharply, although she drew the

onic for him. The white folks up Nawth must a thought a heap of him. He'd just got a lettah from one of the college professahs 'quirin' bout his health. Mars' Nat read out what was on the back of it: 'Rev'und Gawge W. Chadwick, an' some lettahs on the end that I kain't remembah. An' he said, laughin'-like, sezee, 'well, Uncle Billy, you'd nevah take that as meanin' Jin

had suddenly become such a hero in his boyish eyes. But their talk gradually drifted to the details of Mrs. Watson's last illness. He had heard them so many times that he soon felt his eyelids slowly closing. Then he dozed for a few minutes, awakening with a start. They had

s breathing was a little louder. Then his hand dropped down at his side. He was sound

th a little snort. Aunt Susan nearly jumped out of her chair, and Uncle Billy dropped his pipe. There was a moment of frightened silence ti

ate. It would not be so lonely for Mars' Nat, now that George had come home. She recalled the laughing face of the little black boy as she had known it long ago, and tried to call up in her imagination a picture of the man t

she stepped over the threshold and started to shuffle her way along to the candle shelf. The chair came down in

a candle that made him sit up and blink his eyes. Then something struck him, first on one ear, then the other, cuffing him soundly. He was too dazed to know why. Some blind instinct helped him to find the bed and burrow down under the clothes, where he