It was Sunday morning in Tickfall. A crowd of men were standing in front of the Shoofly Church, idly waiting and chewing tobacco. A row of men sat like buzzards upon the top of the rickety fence, also chewing tobacco. Half a dozen saddle-horses stood hitched to the trees and two-score dilapidated buggies stood in a row with their horses hitched to the fence.
Now and then some young negro girl wandered aimlessly toward one of these buggies, then hastened her footsteps as if she had just remembered leaving something under the seat.
Some young negro man quickly ceased his low-toned conversation and watched her out of the corner of his eye. Presently the girl climbed into the buggy and sat down. Promptly the young man left his companions and went and sat beside her. That was the end of their interest in the services to be conducted in the church that morning.
The young man had found the saint of his deepest devotion.
The Rev. Vinegar Atts came stalking across the churchyard like a turkey walking through mud and dressed in all his Sunday finery. None of the men seemed to be aware of his presence. Vinegar reflected on the strangeness of this, and began to ponder uneasily on his chance of retaining his job as the preacher at the Shoofly Church.
He bowed and spoke to all the men, and hardly one of them gave him a nod of recognition in return.
Vinegar determined to find out the cause of this indifference, and he chose for his informant a man named Pap Curtain--a tall, slim negro with a yellow monkey face and an habitual sneer upon his lips.
“Whut ails you niggers to-day?” Vinegar demanded in a trembling voice. “How come dis here awful silence aroun’ dis church?”
“Hoodoo gal!” Pap Curtain answered laconically, pointing across the churchyard.
“Huh!” Vinegar grunted with popping eyes.
On the other side of the yard old Ginny Babe Chew, a woman of immense size, was walking beside a slim young negress dressed in white and very handsome.
“Huh,” Vinegar grunted again, unable to comprehend.
“How much will you gib me fer a piece of real news, Revun?” Pap inquired.
“Ef you got any tales to tell, bawl out!” Vinegar snapped, for the men’s actions were getting on his nerves.
“You remember hearin’ ’bout dat Dude Blackum whut got into trouble wid de white folks at Sawtown las’ Monday night?” Pap asked. “Well, suh, dat little gal wid Ginny Babe Chew is Dainty Blackum, Dude’s cote-house wife!”