He took his flute more cheerfully now, and began to play that sweet melody “New London.” His whole soul was breathed into the instrument.
When he looked again at Keebo, why, there were tears rolling down the boy’s cheeks.
“You remember your mother, Keebo?”
“Ess, Massa Kennie, I ’member she. De cruel Arab men kill she wid one spear. Sometimes Keebo tink she speak to her boy yet in his dreams.”
“So she does, Keebo. So she does, dear child. She lives, Keebo.”
“She lib, sah! My moder lib?”
Then Kenneth told Essequibo the Bible tale and all the sweet story of Jesu’s love; and every word sank deep into Keebo’s heart, and was never, never forgotten.
When returning that day from the bush in Indian file, Archie, who was first, checked the others with uplifted hands, and pointed through the plantain bushes to the clearing where Kenneth knelt in prayer beside the boy Keebo.
Both Archie and Harvey doffed their caps, and stood reverently there, not daring to reveal their presence till Kenneth had arisen. The very sky above them seemed at that moment a holy sky.