And agin I sez, “No you can’t, not from the place he is in now. The boy has got another gardeen now, a better one.”
“Another guardian!” sez the father; “well, I will tear him right out of his hands; I will make him give him up!”
He wuz jealous as a dog, I could see, of the gardeen.
“No you won’t!” sez I.
“Yes he will!” sez the B. I. L.; “we’ll teach him what the law is, and that a father can get his boy every time!”
“Not this time!” sez I; “this gardeen is powerful and kind, too; and he has got him in a safe place. He wuz misused and kicked and beaten and half starved; but he has enough now; he has got a home of plenty and rest and happiness. He is safe,” sez I.
“No matter how safe it is we will have him right out of it!” sez the B. I. L.
“He is my child, and I will have him!” says Ellick Gurley.
“No,” sez I, “you can’t have him. You can’t pull that tender little body out of the grave to misuse it agin. You can’t draw the sweet little sperit out of God’s happy home to torment it agin. The Lord is his father and his gardeen now, and He will keep the boy!”
“Dead!” cried the B. I. L., and he staggered back like a drunken man, and his face turned white as a bleached white cotton shirt.