gives me
I'd have $500, and what would I do with it? For I've always got to work
anyway."

Suddenly we saw lights ahead in the road and heard the rattle of wheels.
It was the stage coming into Jacksonville. It was upon us almost at
once. The lights of the lantern made us blink our eyes. We stepped to
one side. A voice called out: "Well I'll be damned if there ain't a
white feller strollin' with a nigger!" "Shut your trap," said the
driver, and the stage rolled rapidly away from us.

My mind was suddenly made up as to the farm by the remark falling so
brutally from these unknown lips. I took Zoe's hands. I drew her to me.
She was weeping. Was not one half of her blood English blood? Yes, and
what Englishman would not resent with tears an insult which he could
neither deny nor punish? But I would punish it. Zoe should have her
rightful half.... And silently we walked back.

CHAPTER IX

The next morning the alarm over the cholera is more intense. All kinds
of horrifying stories go the rounds. News has been brought by passengers
on the stage that a man and his wife, living near the Illinois River,
died within an hour of each other. They were well at dawn. At noon they
were both under the black soil of the river's shore, buried by three
stalwart sons, who carried their bodies in the bed clothing and let them
down by it into hastily made graves.

Something has happened here. The stage driver who silenced the rowdies
last night is stricken this morning at the tavern. He is dead. By noon
he is buried in the village cemetery where the ashes of my father lie.

Mrs. Spurgeon thinks that Reverdy should leave the tavern and come here
with the rest of us. I am to take the word to him when I go to see Mr.
Brooks. She has seen the ravages of cholera before. There is nothing to
do but to be careful about diet, keep cheerful, and surrender to no
fears. I am not in the least alarmed. But the negroes are panic
stricken. They are calling upon the Lamb to save them. They are singing
and wailing. They are congregating at the hut of Aunt Leah, an aged
negress, who is sanctified and gifted with supernatural power. Zoe is
not in fear, and Sarah goes about the duties of the day with calm
unconcern.

I am off to see Mr. Brooks again. The streets are almost deserted. The
faces of those I meet are white and drawn. Mr. Brooks acts as if his
mind is stretched out of him in apprehension. Yet he is in his office
ready to pick up what b