"Y" is good!" said Robelia. "You knows you is!"
"Never mind," I said; "do you belong to--Zion?"
The dark face grew radiant. "Ya.s.s"m, I does!"
"Euonymus, how many more of you-all are there besides _daddy and mammy_?"
The surprise was cruel. The runaway"s eyes let out a gleam of alarm and then, as I lighted with kindness, filled with rapt wonder at my miraculous knowledge: "Be"--be"--beside"--beside" d-daddy an" m-mammy?
D"ain"t no mo", m-mist"ess; no"m!"
"Ya.s.s"m," put in Robelia, "da"s all; us fo"."
"Just you four. Euonymus, a bit ago I noticed on your sister"s ankles some white mud."
"Ya.s.s"m." Another gleam of alarm and then a fine, awesome courage.
Robelia stared in panic.
"The nearest white mud--marl--in the State, Robelia, is forty miles south of here."
"Is d"--dat so, mist"ess?"
"Yes, and so you also are travellers, Euonymus."
"Trav"--y"--ya.s.s"m, I--I reckon you mought call us trav"luz, in a manneh, ya.s.s"m."
"Well, my next town is thirty miles north of----"
"Nawth!" Euonymus broke in, thinking furiously.
"Now, if instead of hiring just your sister and her daddy I should----"
"Ya.s.s"m!"
"Suppose I should take all four of you along, as though you were my slaves----"
"De time bein"," Euonymus alertly slipped in.
"Certainly, that"s all. How would that do?"
"Oh, mist"ess! kin you work dat miracle?"
"I can do it if it suits you."
"Lawd, it suit" _us_! Dey couldn"t be noth"n" mo" rep"ehensible!"
Robelia vanished. Euonymus gazed into my eyes.
[Had my disguise failed?] "What is it, boy?"
"May I ax you a question, mi"ss?"
"You may ask if you won"t tell."
"Oh, I won"t tell! Is you a sho" enough "oman?--Lawd, I knowd you wa"n"t! No mo"n you is a man! I seen it f"om de beginnin"!"
"Why, boy, what do you imagine I am?"
"Oh, I don"t "magine, I knows! "T"uz me prayed Gawd to sen" you. Y"
ain"t man, y" ain"t "oman! an" yit yo" bofe! Yo" de same what visit Ab"am, an" Lot, an" Dan"l, and de motheh de Lawd!"
"Stop! Stop! Never mind who I am; I"ve got to put you fifty miles from here before bedtime."
"Yes, my Lawd. Oh, yes, my Lawd!"
"Euonymus! you mustn"t call me that!"
"Ain"t dat what Ab"am called you?"
"I forget! but--call me mistress!--only!"
"Ya.s.s, suh--ya.s.s, mi"ss!"
"Good. Now, lad, I can take you alone, horseback, which"ll be far swifter, safer, surer----"
A new alarm, a new exaltation--"Oh, no, my--mist"ess; no, no! you knows you on"y a-temptin" o" dy servant!"
"You wouldn"t leave daddy and mammy?"
"Oh, daddy kin stick to mammy, an" her to he! but Robelia got neither faith nor gumption, an" let me never see de salvation o" de Lawd ef I cayn"t stick by dat--by--by my po" Robelia!"
"But suppose, my boy, we should be mistaken for runaways and tracked and run down."
"Ya.s.s"m, o" co"se. Ya.s.s"m."
"Can you fight--for your sister?"
"Ya.s.s, my La"--ya.s.s"m, I kin an" I will. I"s qualified my soul to"
dat, suh; ya.s.s"m."
"Dogs?"
"Ya.s.s"m, dawgs. Notinstandin" de dawgs come pa.s.s me roun" about, in de name o" de Lawd will I lif up my han" an" will perwail."
"Have you only your hands?"
"Da"s all David had, ag"in lion an" bah."
"True. Euonymus, I need a man"s clothes."