Emma started. “Naw’m. My shoe sole was floppin’. I had to go to de shop to git it sewed on.�
“De shop� was a shed on The Back Way where shoes were cobbled by Lincum Gabe, old Solomon Gabe’s son.
“I’m gwine to start de fire now.� Emma’s voice was mournful, and as she rattled the stove lids, she shook her head and sighed dolefully.
“Is anything the matter? Are you sick?� Mrs. Osborne asked anxiously.
“Naw’m, I ain’t sick, Miss M’randa. I don’t reckon I is. I ain’t got no out’ard pains. I’m just thinkin’ ’bout my boy, an’ wonderin’ who’ll git him——� She went off into a confused mumble. Suddenly she turned to her mistress and said earnestly: “If dey take de colored folks back in slavery, I’ll belong to you; won’t I, Miss M’randa? Like my folks always did to yore folks?�
“What nonsense are you talking, Emma?� Mrs. Osborne asked sharply. “No one could put you back in slavery. No one wants to. We hate and abhor it more than you do. Why, we wouldn’t have you back in slavery for anything in the world. What put such a silly notion in your head?�
“I ain’t faultin’ you ’bout it, Miss M’randa. It’s dem folks off yander,� said Emma, vaguely. “Dey done started it. Dey done numbered de young bucks an’ dey’re goin’ to nomernate ’em to be slaves. Dey’re just waitin’ for de orders. My boy Tom is one of ’em.�
Patsy, who had followed her mother, laughed and exclaimed: “Why Aunt Emma! They numbered all the men, white and colored, from twenty-one to thirty years old, and they are going to select soldiers from them, to go and fight the Germans.�
“Emma, some due has told you a lie, a wicked, silly lie,� said Mrs. Osborne. “There isn’t a word of truth in it. As Patsy says, the white boys are going, too. Why, some of them have gone—Fayett Mallett and Jeff Spencer and Will Eppes—boys that you know, and lots of others. They need a great many soldiers, and they are going to select them from that draft list.�
“Dey say as how dem white ones was took to be offiseers, an’ boss de colored ones till dey git ’em handcuffed an’ back in slavery,� said Emma, lowering her voice and glancing fearfully around as if she were betraying secrets of state.