THE ORDEAL AT MT. HOPE
her tirade, as her eyes took in the expression on her son's face.
"I'll kill some o' dem damn—"
"'Lias!"
"'Scuse me, Mistah Dokesbury, but I feel lak I'll bus' ef I don't 'spress myse'f. It makes me so mad. Don't you go out o' hyeah no mo' 'dout me. I'll go 'long an' I'll brek somebody's haid wif a stone."
"'Lias! how you talkin' fo' de ministah?"
"Well, dat's whut I'll do, 'cause I kin outth'ow any of 'em an' I know dey hidin' places."
"I'll be glad to accept your protection," said Dokesbury.
He saw his advantage, and was thankful for the mud,—the one thing that without an effort restored the easy relations between himself and his protégé. Ostensibly these relations were reversed, and Elias went out with the preacher as a guardian and protector. But the minister was laying his nets. It was on one of these rambles that he broached to 'Lias a subject which he had been considering for some time.
"Look here, 'Lias," he said, "what are
61
