ty shining
plunks out of this benighted nigger! Selah!

As Uncle Aleck walked away with Aunt Cindy shouting in derision, "Dar,
now! Dar, now!" the bow in his legs seemed to have sprung a sharper
curve.

CHAPTER VI

A WHISPER IN THE CROWD

The excitement which preceded the first Reconstruction election in the
South paralyzed the industries of the country. When demagogues poured down
from the North and began their raving before crowds of ignorant negroes,
the plow stopped in the furrow, the hoe was dropped, and the millennium
was at hand.

Negro tenants, working under contracts issued by the Freedman's Bureau,
stopped work, and rode their landlords' mules and horses around the
county, following these orators.

The loss to the cotton crop alone from the abandonment of the growing
plant was estimated at over $60,000,000.

The one thing that saved the situation from despair was the large grain
and forage crops of the previous season which thrifty farmers had stored
in their barns. So important was the barn and its precious contents that
Dr. Cameron hired Jake to sleep in his.

This immense barn, which was situated at the foot of the hill some two
hundred yards behind the house, had become a favourite haunt of Marion and
Hugh. She had made a pet of the beautiful thoroughbred mare which had
belonged to Ben during the war. Marion went every day to give her an apple
or lump of sugar, or carry her a bunch of clover. The mare would follow
her about like a cat.

Another attraction at the barn for them was Becky Sharpe, Ben's setter.
She came to Marion one morning, wagging her tail, seized her dress and led
her into an empty stall, where beneath the trough lay sleeping snugly ten
little white-and-black spotted puppies.

The girl had never seen such a sight before and went into ecstasies. Becky
wagged her tail with pride at her compliments. Every morning she would
pull her gently into the stall just to hear her talk and laugh and pet her
babies.

Whatever election day meant to the men, to Marion it was one of unalloyed
happiness: she was to ride horseback alone and dance at her first ball.
Ben had taught her to ride, and told her she could take Queen to Lover's
Leap and back alone. Trembling with joy, her beautiful face wreathed in
smiles, she led the mare to the pond in the edge of the lot and watched
her drink its pure spring water.

When he helped her to mount in front of the hotel under her mother's gaze