She turned at the threshold and shook her head rather sadly as she saw the imprint of the day's cares on the young pastor's face.
“Yo' mus' be pow'ful tired,” she said.
“No, no; not at all. Good night, Mandy!”
She closed the door behind her, and Douglas was alone. He gazed absently at the pages of his unfinished sermon as he tapped his idle pen on the desk. “The show has got to go on,” he repeated, and far up the hillside with the slow-moving wagons, Jim and Toby looked with unseeing eyes into the dim, star-lit distance, and echoed the thought: “The show has got to go on.”
Chapter V
THE church bells were ringing their first warning for the morning service when Mandy peeped into the spare bedroom for the second time, and glanced cautiously at the wisp of hair that bespoke a feminine head somewhere between the covers and the little white pillow on the four-poster bed. There was no sound from the sleeper, so Mandy ventured across the room on tiptoe and raised the shades. The drooping boughs of Autumn foliage lay shimmering against the window panes, and through them might be seen the grey outline of the church. Mandy glanced again toward the bed to make sure that the burst of sunlight had not wakened the invalid, then crossed to a small, rickety chair, laden with the discarded finery of the little circus rider.
“Lawdy sakes!” she cried, holding up a spangled dress, admiringly. “Ain't dat beautiful!” She drew near the mirror, attempting to see the reflection of the tinsel and chiffon against her very ample background of gingham and avoirdupois. “You'd sure be a swell nigger wid dat on, Honey,” she chuckled to herself. “Wouldn't dem deacons holler if dey done see dat?”
The picture of the deacons' astonishment at such a spectacle so grew upon Mandy, that she was obliged to cover her generous mouth to shut in her convulsive laughter, lest it awaken the little girl in the bed. She crossed to the old-fashioned bureau which for many months had stood unused against the wall. The drawer creaked as she opened it to lay away the gay, spangled gown.
“It'll be a mighty long time afore she puts on dem tings agin,” she said, with a doubtful shake of her large, round head.