The children had fallen back against the stone wall, where they hung
staring.

"Good-by, Dolly!" they called cheerfully, and the woman answered with a
long-drawn, hopeless whine:--

"Gawd A'moughty bless you twel we
Meet agin."

Zeke broke from the group and ran a few steps beside the wagon, shaking the
outstretched hands.

The driver nodded peaceably to him, and cut with a single stroke of his
whip an intricate figure in the sand of the road. "Git up an' come along
with us, sonny," he said cordially; but Zeke only grinned in reply, and the
children laughed and waved their handkerchiefs from the wall. "Good-by,
Dolly, and Mirandy, and Sukey Sue!" they shouted, while the women, bowing
over the rolling wheels, tossed back a fragment of the song:--

"We hope ter meet you in heaven, whar we'll
Part no mo',
Whar we'll part no mo';
Gawd A'moughty bless you twel we
Me--et a--gin."

"Twel we meet agin," chirped the little girls, tripping into the chorus.

Then, with a last rumble, the wagon went by, and Zeke came trotting back
and straddled the stone wall, where he sat looking down upon the loose