The Earth Trembled

lancy grumpy. He go by me like a brack cloud. I'se got a big grudge against dat ar young man. He use to be bery sweet on Missy. He mus' be taken wid some Norvern gal, and dat's 'nuff f

ner wat'll make Missy real peart 'fore she gin to work," and full of her kindly intentions she bou

king. Not the least among them, as she regarded it, was an account book. When, therefore, Aun' Sheba bustled in between

what all dese?" the

t in trade," repl

ighty big start, fer I got

think I was going to let y

ob de 'terials what mo' you o

d cheat you out af

ink, Missy," she repli

ter your interests as well as my own. I am going

got to do wid

ent you from ever losing a

if I'se gwine to

careful accounts are kept, and you must promise to tell me the whole truth about thing

o down in black, I s'pose, an' you'se in white. How funny it all am!" an

e to me," said Mrs. Hunter, lookin

a, suddenly becoming st

your sake as well as my own. Nothing will prevent me from carrying out this

lly known, I shall have it understood that you acted without my

her, Aun' Sheba again shoo

e one dat lib in de dark an' can't see notin' right." Then in sudden revulsion of feeling she ad

ly, "I've been compel

keer ob her, an' she be a heap betteh off ebe

going to get i

bite nudder, an' I'se gwine to ta

little we have, you but know I'

one ting I'se jes' got to 'sist on in de pahnaship. I don't keer notin' 'bout 'count books and sich, but ef we'se gwine to make a fort'n you got to hab a

l get stronger now that I have

et de table in de oder room, an' I'll be de brack raben dat'll pervide. Now you must min' k

I see through all your talk, but I know you'll feel bad if you

blood in her vein, shuah, but habn't got neah 'nuff. Heah's de 'terial wat gibs hope sometimes better'n preachin," and she whipped out the steak and prepared it for the broiler. Then she clapped some potatoes into the oven, threw together the constituents of light biscuit, and

of life if they were provided without personal compromise on her part. Mara made a silent note of this, and felt more strongly than ever that her aunt's needs and not her words must control her actions. After dinner she said, "Come, aunty, you have had much to try your nerves of late, and there must be much more not in harmony with your feelings. It can't be helped, but I absolve you of al

deal, "I will submit, even though I can not approve, on the o

. Clancy. After-" then remembering that Aunt Sheba was within ear-shot, she concluded, "Mr. Clancy will have nothing to say to m

rs. Hunter, "and it will be about the

ide which blinds as well as paralyzes, she was by no means ready to accept his views or go to his lengths. She would have shared poverty with him gladly if he would continue to be "a true Southerner," in other words, one who submitted in cold and unrelenting protest to the new order of things. In accepting this new order, and in availing himself of it to advance his fortunes and those of his State as he also claimed, he alienated her in spite of all his arguments, and his avowed love. She felt that he should take the ground with her that they had suffered too deeply, and had been wronged too greatly, to ignore the past. They were a conquered people, but so were the Poles and Alsatians. Were those subject races ready to take t

to the memory of her father and mother. Her new impulse was to make the most and best of her life as far as she could conscientiously: and the hope would assert itself that if she were firm he would eventually be won over to her position. "If he loves as I do," she thought, "he will be. He, no doubt, is sincere, but he has been beguiled into seeing things in the light of his immediate interests. Love to me, if it is genuine, and loyalt

g, and therefore, when she joined Aun' Sheba in the kitchen, she was ready

er unsubdued spirit, and maintain a consistency which should not be marred, even