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"No, suh," he was saying to them generally, "I'm goin' to withdraw my hoss, because thaih ain't nobody to ride him as he ought to be rode. I haven't brought a jockey along with me, so I've got to depend on pick-ups. Now, the talent's set agin my hoss, Black Boy, because he's been losin' regular, but that hoss has lost for the want of ridin', that's all."
"Whereth thith push wo'kin'?" he said briefly. "Right ovah thaih," said the old Negro, indicating a part of the grounds not far distant. "All right, you go on ovah thaih an' wait fu' me; an' if you thee me, remembah, you don't thee me. I don't know you, you don't know me, but I'll try to thee you out all right."
S'p'osin' God 'ud sen' a jedgment on me s'p'osin' He'd take our little Jim?" "Sh, sh, honey," said Jim, with a man's inadequacy in such a moment. "'Tain't yo' fault; you nevah wished huh any ha'm." "No; but I said it, I said it!" "Po' Ike," said Jim absently; "po' fellah!" "Won't you go thaih," she asked, "an' see what you kin do fu' him?" "He don't speak to me."
"I thought I heehed sup'n nutha like a hollehin' kine of a noise, an' some guns, aw sup'n, an' I wuz look'n' to see, but thaih don't 'peah to be nuthin' goin' on." "They're mending the railroad on Baltimore Street," I said. "I suppose that is what you heard." And I gave the papers into his hand repeating my directions: "If the gentleman is not there, don't leave them on any account.
"Ike Johnson got a boy at his house, too," he said, "an' he done put Junior to his name." Martha raised her head from the pillow and hugged her own baby to her breast closer. "It do beat all," she made answer airily; "we can't do a blessed thing but them thaih Johnsons has to follow right in ouah steps.
"I ain't doubtin' you mean well, Robbie," said his father, "but I guess I'd be a good deal out o' place up thaih." "No, you wouldn't, father. You come up and see me. Promise me." And the old man promised. It was not, however, until nearly a year later that the Rev. Abram Dixon went up to visit his son's church.
They tried to keep the news from Martha's ears, but somehow it leaked into them, and when Jim came home on that evening she looked into her husband's face with a strange, new expression. "Oh, Jim," she cried weakly, "'Tildy done gone, an' me jes' speakin' ha'd 'bout huh a little while ago, an' that po' baby lef thaih to die! Ain't it awful?" "Nev' min'," said Jim, huskily; "nev' min', honey."
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