preacher, exhorter, and I 'lowed I knowed hit
all. One candlelight I had a congregation an' I hit 'er up loud that
night, an' I 'lowed I'd done right smart with those people's souls.
But--but hit were no such thing. This boy, Jock, he runned away that
night, 'count of my foolishness, an' we know he's down thisaway; if I
could git to find him, his mammy'd shore be comforted. She's a heap more
faith in me'n I have, but I come down yeah. Likely I couldn't do much
for that boy, but I kin show I'd like to."

"Trippin' a thousand miles shows some intrust!" somebody said.

"I lived all my life up theh in the mountangs, an' hit's God's country,
gem'men! This yeah--" he glanced around him till his glance fell upon
the card cabinet on the wall between two windows, full of decks of cards
and packets of dice and shaker boxes--"this yeah, sho! Hit ain't God's
country, gem'men! Hit's shore the Devil's, an' he's shore ketched a
right smart haul to-night! But I live yeah now!"

Buck, who had been coming and going, had stopped at the parson's voice.
He did not laugh, he did not even smile. The point was not missed,
however. Far from it! He went out, bowed by the truth of it, and in the
kitchen he looked at Slip, who was sitting in black and silent
consideration of that cry, carried far in the echoes.

"You're one of us, Parson!" a voice exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yas, suh," Rasba smiled as he looked into the man's eyes, "I'm one of
you. I 'low we uns'll git thar together, 'cordin' as we die. Look! This
gem'men gives me bread an' meat; he quenches my thirst, too. An' I take
hit out'n his hands. 'Peahs like he owns this boat!"

"Yas, suh," someone affirmed.

"Then I shall not shake hit's dust off my feet when I go," Rasba
declared, sharply. Buck stared; Rasba did not look at even his shoes;
Buck caught his breath. Whatever Rasba meant, whatever the other
listeners understood, Buck felt and broke beneath those statements which
brought to him things that he never had known before.

"He'll not shake the dust of this gambling dive from his feet!" Buck
choked under his breath. "And this is how far down I've got!"

Rasba, conscious only of his own shortcomings, had no idea that he had
fired shot after shot, let alone landed shell after shell. He knew only
that the men sat in respectful, drawn-faced silence. He wondered if they
were not sorry for him, a preacher, who had fallen so far from his
circuit riding and feastings and meetings i