Page:Folks from Dixie (1898).pdf/292

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FOLKS FROM DIXIE

Miss Callena," he said, with subdued ardour, "'cause I'm a ign'ant man. I ain't had no ejication nor no schoolin'. I'm jes' a se'f-made man. All I know I've lunned fom de white folks I've wo'ked fu'."

"It isn't always education that makes the man, Mr. Taft," said the school-teacher, encouragingly. "I've seen a great many men in my life who had all the education and schooling that heart could wish, but when that was said, all was said. They had n't anything here." She pressed her hand feelingly and impressively upon her heart. "It's the noble heart, after all, that makes the real man."

Mr. Taft also pressed his hand against his heart and sighed. They were both so absorbed that neither of them saw the shadow that fell on the floor from a form that stood in the doorway.

"As for being self-made," Miss Callena went on, "why, Mr. Taft, what can be nobler or better for a man to know than that all he has he has got by his own efforts?"

The shadow disappeared, and the form receded from the doorway as the suitor was saying: "I tek no credit to myse'f fu' what I've got, neither

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