He found his Reverend George sitting on the porch in his overcoat, with a shawl thrown over his knees.

A book lay in his lap, but his hands were folded on the open pages, and he was looking far away across the brown fields of tattered corn-stalks.

He was much better than he had been for several weeks, and welcomed John Jay so gaily, that the child felt that a weight had somehow been lifted from him.

Mammy and Uncle Billy had been whispering together many times of late, and the little listener shared their fears.

He had made so many visits to the toll-gate since the day he was left in charge, that he felt almost as much at home there as Mars' Nat himself.