age," he said, "tell 'em to give you
another five-cent check; I'm short to-night."

"I ain't goin' to the Hermitage store; I'm goin' to the ferry. They give
me cash there for the checks."

"What do they take off?"

"They takes one cent out'n every five. But I'm 'bliged to have the hard
money. We has to pay for a good many things we git for Min in hard
money." She had taken up the empty bags, but still waited. "I wish you'd
please, sir, see if you 'ain't got another check nowhere."

"You're a sight, Religion," he said, good-naturedly. "Here's a nickel."

With her bags on her arm she went out across the dry grass to where a
little black mule, not much larger than a goat, was standing. Beck
greeted her with a bray astonishing for one of her size, and a switch
with her rope of a tail. Unheeding the cheerful greeting, Religion gave
all her attention to untying the halter, and soon they were going along
the sandy road straight through the woods.

The rickety box-wagon and the chain traces rattled noisily. Religion
cracked her whip--it was a stick with a plaited leather string on the
end. Beck was in a hurry to get home, and the wagon bumped along over
roots and stumps until it was a wonder how Religion kept herself on the
board which served for a seat. All the swamps and woods in Sawny were in
bad repute. There was an old cemetery, rambling over many acres, lost in
ivy and briers and immense trees, but abundant in ghost stories. There
was the swamp through which Sherman's soldiers had cut a road, and near
by was the hill-side where many sunken hollows marked their graves. A
"spirit" could be raised there at a thought's notice. Beck flew past
these unpleasant places, and her little hoofs were clattering over the
loose bridge at the foot of the hill, where, the cemetery ending, the
plantation road began, when she backed suddenly--so suddenly that the
board tipped up and dropped Religion into the bottom of the wagon.

Beck had some tricks like all of her kind, and thinking this was one,
Religion was scrambling up and readjusting her seat when she saw a face
bending over her that she never forgot--a strange evil face, the lower
part hidden by a short bushy beard, the upper by many thin braids of
hair curling at the ends. Between the two crops of hair she saw a pair
of small red eyes, dull and sleepy, but with a curious gleam in them
like the eyes of the snakes in the swamp, and thick widespread nostrils.
She only had time