Hazel explained what had happened. They hurried over the road, and once she stumbled and caught Scip’s hand.
“How cold you are!” she exclaimed; and noticed that he had only a ragged jacket and that his feet were bare.
“It was kind of you to come, Scip,” she began, and then she saw Granny on the road in front of her cabin, and ran into her arms.
“Won’t you come in and get warm?” she called to the boy; but he answered “No,” and went on his way.
Granny heard the whole story that night before the fire.
“I tried to remember what you said about knowing them by their fruits,” Hazel explained seriously, “and they were kind to me and gave me food and sent me home with Marty. But they hurt my feelings dreadfully. They said I was impertinent when I said ‘Miss Fairmount,’ instead of ‘Miss Jane,’ and at home, really truly, it would have been impertinent to have said Miss Jane; and,” the child hung her head, “they called me ‘nigger.’”
Granny’s strong, kindly face grew sad.
“You’s a hard road to travel, dearie, as you goes through life with your pretty face and your gentle ways. I’s feared the stones will often bruise your feet and the briars tear your hands. Shall I give you a token to keep in your heart as you go down the road? I learned it to your father when he was a boy and he never forgot it.”
“Please tell me, Granny, and I will not forget.”
“Watch how folks says things, and not what they says. Now, Miss Jane, she didn’t do that to-day, and she hurt my baby girl. She ain’t quality and that’s a fact. She were thinking of the words when you said ‘Miss Jane’ and not the feeling in your heart and voice. Don’t you make the mistake she made.”