state of bondage."

She was standing by his side, her hand on his arm. "My husband," she
said in trembling tones, looking up into his face with brimming eyes,
"what may they not do next? I begin to fear for you and my father and
brother."

"I think you need not, little wife," he said, drawing her head to a
resting place on his shoulder, and passing his hand caressingly over her
hair, "I think they will hardly meddle with us, natives of the place,
and men of wealth and influence. And," he added low and reverently, "are
we not all in the keeping of Him without whom not one hair of our heads
can fall to the ground?"

"Yes, yes, I will trust and not be afraid," she answered, smiling
sweetly through her tears. Then catching sight, through the open window,
of a couple of horsemen coming up the avenue, "Ah, there are papa and
Horace now!" she cried, running joyfully out to meet them.

"Have you heard of last night's doings of the Ku Klux?" were the first
words of Horace Jr. when the greetings had been exchanged.

"Run away, dears, run away to your play," Elsie said to her children,
and at once they obeyed.

"Uncle Joe came in this morning with a story that Jones, the stage
driver had been shot by them last night in this vicinity," Mr. Travilla
answered, "but I stopped him in the midst of it, as the children were
present. Is it a fact?"