n all huh bo'n days." That
was saying a good deal, for the old woman had lived many years on the
Stone place and had heard many sermons from preachers, white and
black. She was a judge, too.

It really must have been a powerful sermon that Brother Lucius
preached, for Aunt Doshy Scott had fallen in a trance in the middle of
the aisle, while "Merlatter Mag," who was famed all over the place for
having white folk's religion and never "waking up," had broken through
her reserve and shouted all over the camp ground.

Several times Cassie had shown signs of giving way, but because
she was frail some of the solicitous sisters held her with
self-congratulatory care, relieving each other now and then, that each
might have a turn in the rejoicings. But as the preacher waded out
deeper and deeper into the spiritual stream, Cassie's efforts to make
her feelings known became more and more decided. He told them how the
spears of the Midianites had "clashed upon de shiels of de Gideonites,
an' aftah while, wid de powah of de Lawd behin' him, de man Gideon
triumphed mightily," and swaying then and wailing in the dark woods,
with grim branches waving in the breath of their own excitement, they
could hear above the tumult the clamor of the fight, the clashing of
the spears, and the ringing of the shields. They could see the
conqueror coming home in triumph. Then when he cried, "A-who, I say,
a-who is in Gideon's ahmy to-day?" and the wailing chorus took up the
note, "A-who!" it was too much even for frail Cassie, and, deserted by
the solicitous sisters, in the words of Mam' Henry, "she broke
a-loose, and faihly tuk de place."

Gideon had certainly triumphed, and when a little boy baby came to
Cassie two or three days later, she named him Gideon in honor of the
great Hebrew warrior whose story had so wrought upon her. All the
plantation knew the spiritual significance of the name, and from the
day of his birth the child was as one set apart to a holy mission on
earth.

Say what you will of the influences which the circumstances
surrounding birth have upon a child, upon this one at least the effect
was unmistakable. Even as a baby he seemed to realize the weight of
responsibility which had been laid upon his little black shoulders,
and there was a complacent dignity in the very way in which he drew
upon the sweets of his dirty sugar-teat when the maternal breast was
far off bending over the sheaves of the field.

He was a child ear