“I’ll give the niggers all the lime they need,” Gaitskill said promptly. “Tell ’em to come to this store and get it free!”
Hitch Diamond turned and walked hastily down the street. In the next half hour he paid a call at every cabin in all the negro settlements of Tickfall. He pounded on each cabin door with his iron fist, and when the door was opened he entered and looked around.
“How many niggers lives in dis cabin?” he asked. “How many of dat gang is got ’um a job?”
When he found a negro who had no employment, he swept down upon him with all the righteous fury of a prophet of old.
“Whut ails you, nigger? Don’t you know you’s gwine to die? Git ready! Git ready! Go to Marse Tom Gaitskill’s sto’ an’ tell dem white men to gib you a bucket of lime an’ a white-wash brush. Den you white dis cabin, inside an’ out, an’ put whut’s lef’ on dis ole rickety, busted-down fence! Fix de fence up, too!”
At noon, when Gaitskill passed his store on the way to lunch, a clerk ran out and said:
“Colonel, do you really mean for us to give all that lime away? The niggers have carried away forty barrels of whitewash in the last two hours!”
Gaitskill emitted a sharp whistle of surprise. He scratched his head a moment, then grinned:
“It’s all right, Frank. Let ’em have it. Christmas is coming!”
Rev. Vinegar Atts found himself overwhelmed with work. The sudden change in the moral life of his parishioners made a demand upon his services every moment of that busy day. Sick people, who could not come to the church, sent for him to come to see them. Prayer-meetings were held in many of the cabins. A constant stream of people moved in and out of the Shoofly church, and their singing and shouting could be heard for a mile.