"Yes, you'll be free, Viney. Den I's gwine to set to wo'k an' buy my
free papahs."

"Oh, kin you do it--kin you do it--kin you do it?"

"Kin I do it?" he repeated. He stretched out his arm, with the sleeve
rolled to the shoulder, and curved it upward till the muscles stood
out like great knots of oak. Then he opened and shut his fingers,
squeezing them together until the joints cracked. "Kin I do it?" He
looked down on her calmly and smiled simply, happily.

She threw her arms around his waist and sank on her knees at his feet
sobbing.

"Ben, Ben! My Ben! I nevah even thought of it. Hit seemed so far away,
but now we're goin' to be free--free, free!"

He lifted her up gently.

"It's gwine to tek a pow'ful long time," he said.

"I don' keer," she cried gaily. "We know it's comin' an' we kin wait."

The woman's serious mood had passed as quickly as it had come, and she
spun around the cabin, executing a series of steps that set her
husband a-grin with admiration and joy.

And so Ben began to work with renewed vigor. He had found a purpose in
life and there was something for him to look for beyond dinner, a