Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/156



was over. The cabin was dim, the fire almost dead, the dim lamp sputtered out. Most of the crowd hurried out into the cool night.

A few of them lingered outside around the door-step, the men smoking, the women talking low. The street was full of happiness. Some of the people hummed snatches of hymn tunes as they walked home. Some of the sinners were whistling.

A thin yellow moon had risen above the trees that rimmed the fields, and its light fell clear on the earth as Mary stepped carefully down the rickety steps out into the yard. Andrew greeted her kindly, "You baby sho is growin nice, Si May-e. E'll soon be too heavy for you to tote, enty?"

"Gawd sends strength wid every load," Maum Hannah answered as she grunted and hobbled down the steps. "Wait! honey, wait on me! I want to walk a piece wid you. Stretchin my leg will help to run some o de misery out o my knee, den I can rest mo better to-night."

Nothing but Maum Hannah's kindness of