“An’ do sums?”
“Yes, I can do sums.”
“You can’t get along in the world without some learnin’, kin you?”
“Not very well,” answered Herbert.
The woman pointed to the south.
“There’s lots of us, down that-a-way what ain’t got no use for learnin’ an’ we’re dyin’ like flies with our airless lives. We’ve got the tisic an’ the takin’-off an’ we won’t listen to no one. I’m willin’ to learn an’ to have my children learn, an’ sometimes one comes to show us the way, but they get druv off by those that are against ’em. I tell you the mountain people don’ know what’s for their good; they’re blind an’ they won’t see, as the Good Book says. They—”
Jinny was not allowed to finish her speech. Her husband approached with Black Smith, and Herbert heard the account of Black Smith’s conversation with Elizabeth.
“She says if we let her have the boy, she’ll git us the paper.”
“Where is she?”