It's growing late and my candle is most burned out.
The first chapter of Genesis is short, is it? Won't take one over three
minutes? Stick like a chestnut burr, don't you," and as if the matter
were decided, Hugh sprang into bed, shivering as if about to take a cold
plunge bath. How then was he disappointed to find the sheets as nice and
warm as Aunt Chloe's warming pan of red-hot coals could make them.

And so he fell away to sleep, dreaming that Golden Hair had come back,
and that he held her in his arms, just as he held the Bible he had
unconsciously taken from the pillow beneath his head.

CHAPTER XI

SAM AND ADAH

It was Saturday night again, and Adah, with heavy eyes and throbbing
head, sat bending over the dazzling silk, which 'Lina had coaxed her to
make.

'Lina could be very gracious when she chose, and as she saw a way by
which Adah might be useful to her, she chose to be so now, and treated
the unsuspecting girl so kindly, that Adah promised to undertake the
task, which proved a harder one than she had anticipated. Anxious to
gratify 'Lina, and keep what she was doing a secret from Hugh, who came
to the cottage often, she was obliged to work early and late, bending
over the dress by the dim candlelight until her head seemed bursting
with pain, and rings of fire danced before her eyes. She never would
have succeeded but for Uncle Sam, who proved a most efficient member of
the household, fitting in every niche and corner, until Aunt Eunice,
with all her New England aversion to negroes, wondered how she had ever
lived without him. Particularly did he attach himself to Willie,
relieving Adah from all care, and thus enabling her to devote every
spare moment to the party dress.

"You'se workin' yourself to death," he said to her, as late on Saturday
night she sat bending to the tallow candle, her hair brushed back from
her forehead and a purplish glow upon her cheek.

"I know I'm working too hard," she said. "I'm very tired, but Monday is
the party. Oh, I am so hot and feverish," and, as if even the slender
chain of gold about her neck were a burden, she undid the clasp, and
laid upon the stand the locket which had so interested Hugh.

Naturally inquisitive Sam took it in his hand, and touching the spring
held it to the light, uttering an exclamation of surprise.

"Dat's de bery one, and no mistake," he said, his old withered face
lighting up with eager joy.

"Who is she, Sam?" Adah asked, forg