Page:Folks from Dixie (1898).pdf/132

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FOLKS FROM DIXIE

"You lemme go," shrieked Bud Lewis. "Lemme go, I say."

"But you mus' be quiet, so de res' o' de congregation kin hyeah."

"I don't keer whethah dey hyeahs er not. I reckon I kin shout ef I want to." The minister had paused in his sermon, and the congregation was alert.

"Brother, you mus' not distu'b de meetin'. Praise de Lawd all you want to, but give somebidy else a chance too."

"I won't, I won't; lemme go. I 's paid fu' shoutin', an' I 's gwine to shout." Hezekiah Sneedon caught the words, and he followed up his advantage.

"You 's paid fu' shoutin'! Who paid you?"

"Hannah Williams, dat's who! Now you lemme go; I 's gwine to shout."

The effect of this declaration was magical. The brothers, by their combined efforts, lifted the struggling mulatto from his feet and carried him out of the chapel, while Sister Williams' face grew ashen in hue.

The congregation settled down, and the sermon was resumed. Disturbance and opposition only seemed to have heightened the minister's

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