on at his wife's explanation: "'Lias ain't
bad; he jes' ca'less. Sometimes he stays at home, but right sma't o' de
time he stays down at"--she looked at her husband and hesitated--"at de
colo'ed s'loon. We don't lak dat. It ain't no fitten place fu' him. But
'Lias ain't bad, he jes' ca'less, an' me an' de ol' man we 'membahs him
in ouah pra'ahs, an' I jes' t'ought I'd ax you to 'membah him too,
Brothah Dokesbury."

The minister felt the old woman's pleading look and the husband's
intense gaze upon his face, and suddenly there came to him an intimate
sympathy in their trouble and with it an unexpected strength.

"There is no better time than now," he said, "to take his case to the
Almighty Power; let us pray."

Perhaps it was the same prayer he had prayed many times before; perhaps
the words of supplication and the plea for light and guidance were the
same; but somehow to the young man kneeling there amid those humble
surroundings, with the sorrow of these poor ignorant people weighing
upon his heart, it seemed very different. It came more fervently from
his lips, and the words had a deeper meaning. When he arose, there was a
warmth at his heart just the like of which he had never before
experienced.

Aunt Caroline blundered up from her knees, saying, as she wiped her
eyes, "Blessed is dey dat mou'n, fu' dey shall be comfo'ted." The old
man, as he turned to go to bed, shook the young man's hand warmly and in
silence; but there was a moisture in the old eyes that told the minister
that his plummet of prayer had sounded the depths.

Alone in his own room Howard Dokesbury sat down to study the situation
in which he had been placed. Had his thorough college training
anticipated specifically any such circumstance as this? After all, did
he know his own people? Was it possible that they could be so different
from what he had seen and known? He had always been such a loyal Negro,
so proud of his honest brown; but had he been mistaken? Was he, after
all, different from the majority of the people with whom he was supposed
to have all thoughts, feelings, and emotions in common?

These and other questions he asked himself without being able to arrive
at any satisfactory conclusion. He did not go to sleep soon after
retiring, and the night brought many thoughts. The next day would be
Saturday. The ordeal had already begun,--now there were twenty-four
hours between him and the supreme trial. What would be its outcome?
There we