Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/94

 saying so, Mr. Moultrie, but for a country which has had as much experience of the negro as yours has, it seems to me that about as much intelligence has been shown in handling the problem as … as … I will spare you the metaphor. First you whack him through slavery; then you liberate him, and encourage him to ride his old master; then you give him a vote in one part of the country and take it away from him in another; though why Uncle Sam should give a vote to an ignorant, low-grade, semicivilized son of a black slave and deny it to his own highly educated and responsible white daughters is more than I can see; then you want to hug him, to elect him to office, to deport him, to burn him at the stake, all in one breath. Why don't you draw up an armistice with our black brother, find out what the nation really does want to do with him, and then go ahead and do it. Civilize your backwoods and half-savage white districts first, and then go to work and civilize your negro."

Leyden's even voice stopped abruptly, when he listened.

"I hear Miss Moultrie coming; she dislikes the topic. I hope that you will be successful in your search for thoroughbreds; your Carolina horses, as I remember them, are already very good, however."

Virginia joined them at this moment and Giles rang for the horses.

"Which way?" asked Leyden, as he fell in at the right of Virginia.

"River road." She slacked her snaffle and they cantered down the broad, straight avenue, swung sharply around the north end of the water garden, through the oak grove next, and so into the highway. 84