FOLKS FROM DIXIE
a bad boy. The face was too open and the eyes too honest for that. 'Lias was n't bad; but environment does so much, and he would be if something were not done for him. Here, then, was work for a pastor's hands.
"You'll walk on home with me, 'Lias, won't you?"
"I reckon I mout ez well," replied the boy. "I don't stay erroun' home ez much ez I oughter."
"You'll be around more, of course, now that I am there. It will be so much less lonesome for two young people than for one. Then, you can be a great help to me, too."
The preacher did not look down to see how wide his listener's eyes grew as he answered: "Oh, I ain't fittin' to be no he'p to you, suh. Fust thing, I ain't nevah got religion, an' then I ain't well larned enough."
"Oh, there are a thousand other ways in which you can help, and I feel sure that you will."
"Of co'se, I'll do de ve'y bes' I kin."
"There is one thing I want you to do soon, as a favour to me."
"I can't go to de mou'nah's bench," cried the boy, in consternation.
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