dear, we must keep on
hoping, as father used to say. He used to say, you know, that no one
was ever really poor until he had ceased to hope. We will do our best
and God will look out for the rest, I guess. I don't believe He
intends to let our home be taken from us. He wouldn't have given us
such good men for witnesses if He had."

"Yes, they are good. If we were only able to borrow a little more
money now I should feel quite safe. If we could just borrow money
enough to--"

"Woe unto him that goeth up an' down de lan' seeking fur t' borrow
money! Borrowed money, hit stingeth like an adder; hit biteth like a
surpunt! Hit weaves a chain what bin's hit's victims han' an' foot!
Hit maketh a weight what breaks his heart, amen!"

In the interest of our conversation we had, for the nonce, forgotten
Joe, who was quietly toasting his ragged shoes before the fire, until
his voice thus solemnly proclaimed his presence.

"Dat's w'at ole Mas'r Gordon, yo' chillen's gran'fadder, used fur t'
say, an' hit's true. Hit's true! He knowed; Good Heaven, didn't he
know!"

There was the tragedy of some remembered bitter suffering in the old
man's voice, and, recalling father's stern determination to endure
all things, to lose all things, if need be, rather than to become a
borrower, I felt that the misery hinted at in old Joe's words had been
something very real and poignant in the days of those Gordons, now
beyond all suffering.

"Hit may be," continued the old man reflectively, "dat I ain' got all
dem verses jess right, but dat was deir senses. W'at s'prises me, Miss
Jessie, is dat yo' alls is talkin' ob wantin' fur to borrow money,
too. W'at fur yo' wan' ter borry money, w'en de're's a plenty in de
fambly? A plenty ob hit, yes. W'at yo' reckons I's been doin' all dese
yer weeks, off an' on? T'inks I's a 'possum, an' doan know w'en hit's
time ter come t' life? Ain' I been a knowin' 'bout dish yer lan'
business an' a gittin' ready fur hit, ebber sense long 'fore Mas'r
Ralph was took. I didn't git drownded w'en he did--wish't I had, I
does--an' long 'fore dat, I'se been sabin' up my wages agin' a time
w'en Mas'r Ralph goin' need 'em wustest. I reckoned he goin' need
'em w'en hit comes to de provin' up on dish yer claim. Hit doan tek'
much ter keep a ole nigger like me, an' I ain' been crippled wid de
rheumatiz so bad until 'long dis summah, an' so, chillen, I'se done
got five hundred dollahs in de bank at Fa'hplay, fo' de credit ob