In this mighty chorus, Dr. Sentelle missed a voice that he loved—the superb baritone of Vinegar Atts. That voice, like the tones of a great pipe-organ, was the joy and pride of Tickfall. Now it was silent.
Dr. Sentelle turned and looked at Vinegar. The pastor of the Shoofly church sat huddled in a heap in his broken-bottomed pulpit chair, looking like a big, fat dumpling soaked in gravy. His simple, childish, baby face was puckered and drawn with sad lines until he looked like a big fat baby just tuning up to cry.
In fact, Vinegar was completely crushed. He had set his heart upon that meaningless piece of parchment and that sham degree, and the loss to him was overwhelming. The pathos of ignorance lies here, that the untaught covet above everything the tinsel and feathers and adornments of knowledge.
“Oh, de worl’ is full of sighs,
Full of sad an’ weepin’ eyes;
He’p yo’ fallen brudder rise
While de days is gwine by.”
Still Vinegar’s superb voice was silent, and Dr. Sentelle felt a sense of loss and dissatisfaction. The music was not complete.
Then something happened which explains why all Tickfall, white and black, loved Dr. Sentelle almost to adoration.
Suddenly an idea burst like an opening blossom in the scholar’s brain, and brought forth its fruit of kindly and gracious service. He rose to his feet, leaning his frail body heavily upon his ponderous cane for support, and held up a thin, blue-veined, delicate hand for silence. The singing stopped.
“My friends,” he began in a voice so thrillingly sweet and musical that every word was like a caress, “for over thirty years your pastor, Vinegar Atts, and I have been the only preachers in Tickfall. He and I have spent many an hour in that time discussing together the problems which concern both the white and the black people of Tickfall. While the days have been going by, Vinegar has added much to my joy of living, and I am sure that he has never robbed you of any happiness.”
“Dat’s right!” a dozen voices murmured.
“I have always tried to stand between you colored people and any kind of harm, and it pleases me tonight that I have been instrumental in preventing you from paying something for nothing—absolutely nothing!”