"
"That's about as straight as any man can give it," old Gid joined in.
"But what puzzles me is why God is more at home in one man's heart than
in another. He fills some hearts with love and denies it to others; and
the heart that has been denied is cursed, through no fault of its
own--simply because it has not received--while the other heart is
blessed. I reckon the safest plan is to conclude that we don't know
anything about it. I don't, and that settles it so far as I'm concerned.
I can't accept man's opinion, for man doesn't know any more about it
than I do; so I say to myself, 'Gideon Batts, eat, drink and be merry,
for the first thing you know they will come along and lay you out where
the worm is whetting his appetite.' You have raked up quite a passle of
negroes, haven't you, colonel?"
The priest looked at him, but not resentfully. "My work has not been
without a fair measure of success," he answered, now sitting upright and
motionless. "You must have noticed that we are building quite a large
church."
"So I see," said the Major. "And you still believe that you are going to
preserve the negro's body as well as save his soul."
"We are going to save his soul, and a soul that is to be saved serves to
protect its habitation."
"But you foresee a race war?"
"I foresee racial troubles, which in time may result in a war of
extermination.
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