To William George Peterkin...

The black people who live in the Quarters at Blue Brook Plantation believe they are far the best black people living on the whole “Neck,” as they call that long, narrow, rich strip of land lying betwe...

Mary had grown up in Maum Hannah’s old house in the Quarters like a weed, and, although she could remember her mother faintly, Maum Hannah and Budda Ben were the only parents she knew. Maum Hannah was...

Mary’s wedding-day had dawned but instead of being up at first fowl crow and running around helping Maum Hannah get everything ready, she lay still in her bed in the shed room, thinking, pretending to...

As the wedding-time drew near, the house and yard were jammed with people. July came, all clean shaved, with a fresh haircut, dressed up in the fine new clothes June’s money bought him. Mary’s heart b...

Night had fallen; trees, houses, roads, fields were all melted into one darkness with a clear starlit sky far above them. The house where sinners went for pleasure was flooded with bloodred light from...

The mild autumn days streamed swiftly past, some warm, some cool, most of them fair. All of them were busy for Mary, who went to the cotton-field almost every day and picked a fair weight of cotton, b...

Christmas Eve was the gayest in years, for the crops had been good, the price of cotton high and money more plentiful than usual. All day the sky had been overcast, but at sunset a keen wind rose from...

The short winter passed quickly and before Mary knew it spring had come. The old black plum tree beside her door hid its knotty black branches with soft white blossoms, which became thicker and sweete...

On a fine afternoon in the late summer, Mary stayed at home to wash the clothes and to cook a fine fat possum July had caught the night before for supper. The Quarter street was quiet, except for the ...

Maum Hannah kept Unex while Mary picked cotton all the week until Saturday, when she washed the clothes early and ironed them all before noon. She was starting to the spring to fetch water to scour be...

Summer’s time was out, yet it tarried stubbornly on the plantation. The deceitful season had fooled everything into striving for the utmost growth and fruitfulness and now, when harvest-time had come ...

The road leaving the Quarters ran straight to the river which was the plantation’s main highway out into the world, the faithful carrier which took away its bales of cotton and brought back all its lu...

Saturday passed, then Sunday. All the excursion people were back home except July and Cinder and nobody knew what had become of them or where they had gone. Mary was so miserable she scarcely knew wha...

Meeting was over. The cabin was dim, the fire almost dead, the dim lamp sputtered out. Most of the crowd hurried out into the cool night. A few of them lingered outside around the doorstep, the men sm...

By the time spring came, the big field was plowed and ready for planting. Time was passing, the years were hastening by. One short year ago, Unex was not in the world, and now he could crawl all over ...

With each morning the sun rose earlier, a great shining blossom that moved across the sky, making the day warmer and brighter. All the cabin doors and windows were flung wide open at dawn to let in th...

The next Christmas Day found Mary with Seraphine, a tiny baby girl, in her arms. Mary herself was a new creature. Her heart was light, her eyes sparkled and her laughter rang out as gaily as anybody’s...

Fifteen years passed and although everything on the plantation looked much the same, many changes had crept in. The pots on Mary’s hearth were always full, the pigpen always kept a shoat fattening on ...

Peach buds were swelling, trees were in bloom, birds chirped around them, but Mary and crippled Budda Ben sat on the woodpile talking so earnestly she completely forgot to enjoy the morning’s bright s...

Maum Hannah was coming out of her door and, after closing it behind her, she hobbled painfully down the steps. Her clean white apron was starched stiff and her wide-brimmed, black sailor hat, which sh...

As the years passed life seemed to divide most of the people Mary knew into two groups: men and women; and the women were all her rivals and competitors, except Maum Hannah. Even her oldest girl child...

The last time Mary was turned out of the church, she swore she would never darken the door of Heaven’s Gate again, but now as the old building came in sight and a cloud of dust rose right in front of ...

On Friday Mary was washing clothes at the spring. The tubs were set close beside a tree whose shade was thick that morning, but the sun had crept around and was shining hot and bright on her back. She...

“Lawd, we had a time!” Mary said to Maum Hannah when all was over. Then she looked at her two newborn sons and said gently, “Dat picture o’ Hell scared me so bad I couldn’ wait for de moon to change, ...

Mary mended fast and before long she was her old strong able self, out in the field, doing a regular field hand’s work. Every morning she thanked God that she was well again, and that the babies were ...

As they walked home a bright afterglow tinged the fields and Mary hummed happily. At last, thank God, everything in the world was right. She talked of how she’d cook the bread for supper that night; s...

Mary spent most of the day lying on the bed except when she heard footsteps on the path in front of the door, then she got up quickly and pretended to be patching clothes. When she heard Maum Hannah’s...

The day had been lowering and gray, and before the first dark fell, rain began. Nobody could go out in such weather, so the children ate supper early and went to bed, the three babies in Mary’s bed in...

A wide-seated split-bottom chair with a pillow for a mattress, made a fine bed for Emma, who seemed glad enough to sleep and roused only for food or fresh clothes. Then she wailed pitifully and shook ...

The women woke up, and one of them ran to the doorway screaming and howling. Voices from the other houses answered and people came running down the street and into the room until it was jammed full. E...

The sky was thick with stars, but the earth was black with sadness. Hot grief tore at Mary’s heart, almost splitting it in two, yet her eyes stayed dry. Her joints ached, her flesh was sore, but she t...

The deacons appointed Wednesday night, for Mary to come and give in her experience and they invited all the people to hear them decide if her vision meant that her sins were forgiven, or if Satan had ...