e, Honey."
She threw her arms about my neck and drew me down beside her, and
pointing to a verse in the prayer of Habakkuk said: "Read it loud,
Honey. That's whar I stan'. 'Although the fig tree shall not blossom,
neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail,
and the fields shall yield no meat.' 'The flock shall be cut off from
the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet will I rejoice in
the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.' These are her
sentiments." "This demonstrates the strength of her faith. She will not
believe that her child was killed. In some miraculous way he must have
escaped, and will some day come to her. For the faith of the simple
Negro woman I would give a world." It was near the midnight hour when
Mrs. McLane's visitors departed, wiser women by that Thanksgiving Day
visit, we hope.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Colonel's Repentance.

The riotous excitement was slowly abating in the old city. The woods
were full of panic-stricken, starving colored people, and trains were
leaving the city laden with those who had means to get away. The leading
whites, feeling both alarmed at and ashamed of the havoc and misery
their ambition had wrought, had begun to send men into the woods to
carry food to the starving, and induce them to return to the city. But
so thoroughly frightened were these poor refugees that the sight of
white faces made them run away from the very food offered them. The
ambassadors came back to the city disgusted, and dispatched colored men,
who were more successful. It was the evening of the 15th of November.
Mr. Julius Kahn, Eastern North Carolina's representative of the Life
Insurance Company of Virginia, sat at his desk in his office on Front
street. This company, which had been giving, for a small weekly payment,
quite a substantial and satisfactory death benefit, and consequently
doing quite an enormous business among the poorer classes of the colored
people, were among the heaviest sufferers from the massacre, for some of
the collectors had been pressed into the service of the rioters to shoot
down, and intimidate their very means of support. As Mr. Kahn sat there,
he saw nothing but absolute ruin staring him in the face. "Well, what
news?" he asked a man who stalked in, and sank heavily into a chair. The
man threw his book upon the desk before him, shrugged his shoulders and
sighed wearily. "It's useless," he answered finally. "I give i