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 "No, it won't stand for that kind of a marriage. A marriage that is honorable, and clean, and noble, and Godlike, but it will stand for associations in the dark between white men and black women, where these associations are forced on poor defenceless women. It will stand for the rearing of two families, one white and the other black, so long as they're in adjoining counties," Lida fought back.

"That's true, and it's not always that the counties are different either." Both Lida and Elvin turned quickly to see the speaker. They looked into the eyes of Mrs. Gorton.

"Howdy, Mrs. Gorton," Lida greeted the woman. "Come up and join us. We were just having a brotherly spat."

"Yes, I heard your quarrelling and didn't want to spoil a good fight. You know the best fight I ever saw was a family affair. They're always the best and sometimes the most vicious. I don't know why nature made it so but there seems always antagonisms between brother and brother, and brother and sister. Sometimes they're bitter and last a lifetime. Sometimes again they're just temporary and, like all children, the fights are soon forgotten. But that's right about these men and their didoes. I've had the experience, I know.

"But I didn't come here to settle or to join any fussing. I came here to find out what all this excitement's about—this running around over the country looking for a white man and calling him a black man."

"But he is black, Mrs. Gorton," maintained Elvin. "He is black."