flowers she had gathered herself.  With a part of the dollar given her by “the man from the Norf,” she had commissioned Ted to buy her a ring in Jacksonville.  It had proved too small for any finger, except her little one, and she had seldom worn it.  Now, as she dressed her mistress for the last time an idea came to her; she was a well-grown girl of sixteen, and understood many things better than when she was younger.  Going to Jake, she said, “Ain’t thar somethin’ ’bout a ring in that pra’r book you got in Richmon’ an’ reads on Sundays?”

“Yes, in de weddin’ service,” Jake replied, and Mandy continued:  “Doan’ it show dey’s married for shoo’!”

“For shoo?  Yes.  I wish Miss Dory had one,” Jake answered.

Mandy Ann nodded.  She had learned what she wanted to know, and going to the little paper box where she kept her ring she took it up, looked at it lovingly, and tried it on.  She had paid fifty cents for it, and Ted had told her the real price was a dollar, but he had got it for less, because the jeweler was selling out.  It tarnished rather easily, but she could rub it up.  It was her only ornament, and she prized it as much as some ladies prize their diamonds, but she loved her young mistress more than she loved the ring, and her mistress, though dead, should have it.  It needed polishing, and she rubbed it until it looked nearly as well as when Ted brought it to her from Jacksonville.

“I wish to de Lawd I knew ef dar was any partic’lar finger,” she thought, as she stood by the coffin looking at the calm face of her mistress.

By good luck she selected the right finger, on which the ring slipped easily, then folding the hands one over the other, and putting in them some flowers, which, while they did not hide the ring, covered it partially, so that only a very close observer would be apt to think it was not real, she said, “If you wasn’t married with a ring you shall be buried with one, an’ it looks right nice on you, it do, an’ I hope ole granny Thomas’ll be hyar an’ see it wid her snaky eyes speerin’ ’round.  Axed me oncet who I s’posed de baby’s fader was, an’ I tole her de gemman from de Norf, in course, an’ den made up de lie an’ tole her dey had a weddin’ on de sly in Georgy—­kinder runaway, an’ his kin was mad an’ kep’ him to home ‘cept oncet when he comed hyar to see her, an’ I ’clar for’t I doan think she b’lieve a word ’cept that he was hyar.  Everybody knowd that.  I reckon she will gin in when she see de ring.”

Pleased with what she had done, Mandy Ann left the room just as the first instalment of people arrived, and with them old granny Thomas.  In the little community of Crackers scattered through the neighborhood there were two factions, the larger believing in Eudora, and the smaller not willing to commit themselves until their leader Mrs. Thomas had done so.  On the strength of living in a frame house, owning two or three negroes and a democrat wagon, she was a power