In the stable yard, Claib, his good-humored face all aglow with pride,
is exercising the fiery Rocket, who arches his neck as proudly as of
old, and dances mincingly around, while Lulu leans over the gate,
watching not so much him as the individual who holds him. And now that
it grows darker, and the ripple of the river sounds more like eventide,
lights gleam from the pleasant parlor, and thither Hugh and Alice
repair, still hand in hand, still looking love into each other's eyes,
but not forgetting others in their own great happiness.
Very pleasantly Alice smiles upon Mrs. Worthington and Aunt Eunice
sitting by the cheerful fire just kindled on the marble hearth; and
then, withdrawing her hand from Hugh's, trips up the stairs and knocking
at a door, goes in where Densie sits, watching the daylight fade from
the western sky, and whispering to herself of the baby she could not
find when she went back to her home in the far-off city. Without turning
her head, she puts to Alice the same question she puts to every one: "Have you children, madam?" and when Alice answers no, she adds: "Be
thankful then, for they will never call you a white nigger, as 'Lina did
her mother. Poor 'Lina, she died, though saying 'Our Father.' Will you
say that with me?"
"Yes, Densie, it's almost time to say our evening prayer, I came for
you," Alice rejoins, and taking the crazed creature's hand, she leads
her gently down to the parlor below, where, ere long, the blacks are all
assembled, and kneeling side by side, they follow with stammering
tongues, but honest hearts, their beloved master as he says first the
prayer our Savior taught, and then with words of thankful praise asks
God to bless and keep him and his in the days to come, even as He has
blessed and kept them in the days gone by.