Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/240

236 kinder outlandish chune 'thout no words. The chune had a kinder swing ter it lak one er our chu'ch chimes, but it wa' diffunt, too. It sounded mo' wil' lak, an' befo' you know'd what wa' happenin' all the crowd er folks began marchin' behin' Aunt Peachy jes lak so many sheep an' they tuck up the chune same as her. Even my own mammy jined the others, but I ain't never helt it aginst her none 'case I wa' sho' she didn't know what she wa' a doin'. All wa' a circlin' roun' me 'cept'n' one young man. It wa' Si Johnson an' what should he do but come an' kneel down by me an' we foun' ourselves a sayin' what Ol' Miss an' Ol' Marse Thomas done been a learnin' us ter say out'n the lil' Bible book what they calls Pra'r Book: 'O Lamb er Gawd who taketh away the sins er the worl', have mercy upon us! ' We said it over an' over until a kinder peace stol' over us in spite er the turrible dance what wa' a goin' on.

"I looked up to the sky kinder lak I 'spected a sign er somethin' from Jesus. The moon wa' a hangin' low by that time an' the shadows wa' gittin' long. The big hollow tree what wa' servin' as a drum stood out black an' scrawny aginst the sky. All of a sudden I seen the sign an' I know'd somehow it wa' meant fer me, an' the Lamb er Gawd wa' a havin' mercy upon me.