interest. It clung to Peter's mind longer than to any other person's in
Hooker's Bend, and it presented to the brown man a certain problem in
casuistry.

Should he accede to Tump Pack's possession of Cissie Dildine and give up
seeing the girl? Such a course cut across all his fine-spun theory about
women having free choice of their mates. However, the Harvard man could
not advocate a socialization of courtship when he himself would be the
first beneficiary. The prophet whose finger points selfward is damned.
Furthermore, all Niggertown would side with Tump Pack in such a
controversy. It was no uncommon thing for the very negro women to fight
over their beaux and husbands. As for any social theory changing this
régime, in the first place the negroes couldn't understand the theory;
in the second, it would have no effect if they could. Actions never grow
out of theories; theories grow out of actions. A theory is a looking-
glass that reflects the past and makes it look like the future, but the
glass really hides the future, and when humanity comes to a turn in its
course, there is always a smash-up, and a blind groping for the lost
path.

Now, in regard to Cissie Dildine, Peter was not precisely afraid of Tump
Pack, but he could not clear his mind of the fact that Tump had been
presented with a medal by the Congress of the United States for killing
four men. Good sense and a care for his reputation and his skin told
Peter to abandon his theory of free courtship for the time being. This
meant a renunciation of Cissie Dildine; but he told himself he renounced
very little. He had no reason to think that Cissie cared a picayune
about him.

Peter's work kept him indoors for a number of days following the