nt complexion, and he could be heard
calling across a lot to a mischievous sister, "Bettah tek keer daih,
Lucy Jane, Gawd's a-watchin' you; bettah tek keer."

The appointed man is always marked, and so Gideon was by always
receiving his full name. No one ever shortened his scriptural
appellation into Gid. He was always Gideon from the time he bore the
name out of the heat of camp-meeting fervor until his master
discovered his worthiness and filled Cassie's breast with pride by
taking him into the house to learn "mannahs and 'po'tment."

As a house servant he was beyond reproach, and next to his religion
his Mas' Dudley and Miss Ellen claimed his devotion and fidelity. The
young mistress and young master learned to depend fearlessly upon his
faithfulness.

It was good to hear old Dudley Stone going through the house in a mock
fury, crying, "Well, I never saw such a house; it seems as if there
isn't a soul in it that can do without Gideon. Here I've got him up
here to wait on me, and it's Gideon here and Gideon there, and every
time I turn around some of you have sneaked him off. Gideon, come
here!" And the black boy smiled and came.

But all his days were not days devoted to men's service, for there
came a time when love claimed him for her own, when the clouds took on
a new color, when the sough of the wind was music in his ears, and he
saw heaven in Martha's eyes. It all came about in this way.

Gideon was young when he got religion and joined the church, and he
grew up strong in the faith. Almost by the time he had become a
valuable house servant he had grown to be an invaluable servant of the
Lord. He had a good, clear voice that could lead a hymn out of all the
labyrinthian wanderings of an ignorant congregation, even when he had
to improvise both words and music; and he was a mighty man of prayer.
It was thus he met Martha. Martha was brown and buxom and comely, and
her rich contralto voice was loud and high on the sisters' side in
meeting time. It was the voices that did it at first. There was no
hymn or "spiritual" that Gideon could start to which Martha could not
sing an easy blending second, and never did she open a tune that
Gideon did not swing into it with a wonderfully sweet, flowing,
natural bass. Often he did not know the piece, but that did not
matter, he sang anyway. Perhaps when they were out he would go to her
and ask, "Sis' Martha, what was that hymn you stahrted to-day?" and
she would probably