art you is
on all sides--dey all sesso."

"Does Tasma Tid belong to your church?" Gabriel inquired with a most
innocent air.

"Do which, suh?" exclaimed Rev. Jeremiah, pausing with his broom
suspended in the air. When Gabriel repeated his inquiry, the Rev.
Jeremiah drew a deep breath, his nostrils dilated, and he seemed to grow
several inches taller. "No, suh, she do not; no, suh, she do not belong
ter my chu'ch. You kin look at her, suh, an' see de mark er de Ol' Boy
on her. She got de hoodoo eye, suh; an' de blue gums dat go long wid it,
an' ef she wuz ter jine my chu'ch, she'd be de only member."

It was very clear to Gabriel that nothing was to be gained by remaining,
so he bade the Rev. Jeremiah good-bye, and went toward Shady Dale. When
he was well out of sight, the negro approached the blackboard, and, with
the most patient curiosity, examined the inscription or announcement
that Gabriel had written. With his forefinger, he traced over the lines,
as if in that way he might absorb the knowledge that was behind the
writing. Then, stepping back a few paces, he viewed the writing
critically. Finally he shook his head doubtfully, exclaiming aloud:
"Dat's whar dey'll git us--yes, suh, dat's whar dey sho' will git us."

After which, he carefully closed the doors of the school-house and
followed the path leading to Shady Dale--the path that Gabriel had
taken. The Rev. Jeremiah mumbled as he walked along, giving oral
utterance to his thoughts, but in a tone too low to reveal their import.
He had taken a step which it was now too late to retrace. He was not a
vicious negro. In common with the great majority of his race--in
common, perhaps with the men of all races--he was eaten up by a desire
to become prominent, to make himself conspicuous. Generations of
civilisation (as it is called) have gone far to tone down this desire in
the whites, and they manage to control it to some extent, though now and
then we see it crop out in individuals. But there had been no toning
down of the Rev. Jeremiah's egotism; on the contrary, it had been fed by
the flattery of his congregation until it was gross and rank.

It was natural, therefore, under all the circumstances, that the Rev.
Jeremiah should become the willing tool of the politicians and
adventurers who had accepted the implied invitation of the radical
leaders of the Republican Party to assist in the spoliation of the
South. The Rev. Jeremiah, once he had been patted on the