“Vinegar, my friend and I would like to attend the meeting at the Shoofly church to-night.”
Vinegar’s stovepipe hat swept the ground and his grotesque body was distorted into an elaborate bow.
“My Lawd, white folks,” he howled in delight. “Dis pore ole nigger won’t ax de good Lawd fer no better blessin’ dan to hab you-alls come out to de Shoofly. I’ll hab a place on de flatforms fer bofe you-alls. De orgies begins at nine o’clock.”
“That rascal, Green Trapps, is at the bottom of this,” Dr. Gilbo said with conviction. “I am going out to the Shoofly church to-night, but I don’t intend to arrive at the beginning of the exercises. I think I shall appear at the psychological moment.”
“I’s wid you in dat plan, white folks,” Dr. Sentelle snickered.
It was never any trouble to get a crowd in the Shoofly church. All that was necessary was to ring the bell and the colored population flocked to the church like doves to the windows.
But on this occasion all the brothers of the lodge had hinted that there would be a most important meeting on this particular night, the grapevine telephone had carried the news, and the people began to arrive from the swamps and plantations long before dark. Some of the old women anxious to get a good seat, went trailing up to the church just about sunset like a lot of old hens going to roost.
By nine o’clock there was not standing room in the church, nor a fence-post or a tree around the building to which another horse or mule could be hitched.
After the congregation had sung songs until they were almost exhausted, Hitch Diamond stepped up to the platform and spoke: