rting at the same moment, as
they saw his helpless form; they smiled determinedly, and winked back
the moisture, he should see none but cheerful faces as he passed. At the
end of the line the senior warden, in their name, stepped forward and
pressed the rector's hand. And then from the other side came Father
Florencio, who heartily did the same.

Penelope, looking from the open carriage behind, was crying. But Mr.
Moore himself was not excited. He thought it very beautiful that they
should all have come out in this way to meet him, it was the sign of a
great kindness.

It did not occur to him that it was the sign of a great admiration as
well.

When the litter came abreast of the two long lines of blacks, they could
not keep back their demonstrations of welcome quite so completely as the
whites had done; the Baptist minister of their own race, who was the
pastor of most of them, stood, in his Sunday clothes, with his hand up
warningly, in order to check their exuberance. One broad gleam of white
teeth extended down the entire line, and, "He's come back fum de gold'n
gate!" "_Bless_ de passon!" were murmured in undertones as the litter
passed. And then, behind it, there were noiseless leaps, and hats (most
of them battered) in the air; next, they all ran forward over the barren
in a body, in order to precede the procession into Gracias.

"Don't shout--do you hear me?--no shouting," said Dr. Kirby,
imperatively. He had been obliged to leave his place beside the litter,
there was no room for his horse between the close-pressing ranks; now he
rode forward in order to keep a control, if possible, over the joyous
throng. "If you shout, it will be very bad for him," he went on,
threateningly. He had stopped his horse and was addressing them from the
saddle; the litter was some distance behind.

"But we gotter do _sumpen_, marse," said one of the men, protestingly.

"Dance, then! But make no noise about it; when he's safely in his own
house again, _then_ go down to the pier, if you like, and shout as much
as you please."

This was done. The negroes preceded the litter through the streets of
Gracias, and waited in sympathetic silence until Mr. Moore had been
carried into the rectory, and the door was closed behind him; then they
adjourned to the pier, and danced and shouted there as if, old Mrs.
Kirby declared, with her hand over her little ears--"as if they meant to
raise the dead."

"No, ma, no; they mean to raise th