Jesus?"

I tried to make plain the law it was obeying.

"And do it p'int dah dess de same in de broad day, an' all day
long?--Pra-aise Gawd! And do it p'int dah in de rain, an' in de stawmy
win' a-fulfillin' of his word, when de ain't a single stah admissible
in de ske-eye?--De Lawd's na-ame be pra-aise'!" Her father, mother,
and brother were all looking at it with her, now, and she glanced from
one to another with long heavings of rapture.

"Miss Maud," said Silas, in a subdued voice, "dat little trick mus' 'a'
cos' you a mint o' money."

"Silas," put in Hester, "you know dass not a pullite question!" But
she was ravening for its answer, and I said I had bought it for
twenty-five cents. They laughed with delight. Yet, when I told
Sidney she might have it, her thanks were but two words, which her lips
seemed to drop unconsciously while she gazed on the trinket.

They all sat down on the steps nearest below me, and presently,
beginning where I had begun with Sidney, I went on to point out the
polar constellations and to relate the age-worn story of Cepheus and
Cassiopeia, Andromeda and the divine Perseus.

"Lawd, my Lawd !" whispered the mother, "was dey--was dey colo'd?"

I said two of them were king and queen of Ethiopia, and a third was
their daughter.