At the same moment the Clerk of the Court was ordered to record another charge against the prisoner, that of violating a contract for the performance of labor and directed that a warrant be served on the boy at the expiration of his term.
Miss Schofield returned to her school and consoled Matilda with the story of the old servant who was hanged for the loss of a costly necklace of beads from the household in which she had been intrusted with the property of her mistress. “Some years after the execution of the faithful maid,” said Miss Schofield, “a bolt of lightning from the sky struck one of the monuments on the public square near the home and burst it into fragments and there in the center, in a magpie’s nest lay the necklace, in all its parts, just as it was on the day the bird, instead of the old servant had stolen it away. The lady who prosecuted the maid for the theft stated to the judges who heard the case that she would be satisfied with nothing but the death of the prisoner unless she divulged the hiding place of the jewels, committed suicide by swallowing poison on learning of the fatal mistake in the execution of poor Jeannie Junne, for that was her name.
“So you see my friends,” concluded the brilliant story teller, for such Miss Schofield was when she had occasion to be, “God never permits the infliction of great injustices, such as this which has happened to Leslie and you, without exposing them and compelling those responsible for them to repent of their sins.”
Miss Schofield knew the heart of the Negroes better than they themselves knew them and this knowledge served her well in all her dealings with them. In the control of them she knew just when to use harshness and to what extent and equally well she knew when other means would prove more availing. The simple, child-like, trusting faith common to all colored people, she realized this faith would cause her story to find a lasting lodgment and would prove a source of genuine consolation to Matilda in her hour of despair, and so it proved to be, not only for the moment, but throughout the whole long period of Leslie’s confinement. Whenever reference to him was made she would in her simple way show that she understood clearly that God never allowed people to suffer without compensating them for it; that He also punished those responsible for the misery of others. The latter contingency, Miss Schofield had taught her was a necessary condition in nature fixed there by God for the protection of men in all their human relations, and was as inevitable as fate itself.
What an immensely valuable doctrine for the control of the passions of men, especially those of a lowly race, steeped in ignorance and allowed a free reign in the exercise of the more vicious instincts.
Make them afraid to do wrong; not indeed afraid of man’s law but an eternal law which is irrevocable even by God himself. It was the doctrine, believed in to the depths of his soul, that inspired the immortal Georgian, Alex H. Stephens, to exclaim that he was afraid of nothing above earth or below it except to do wrong.
When one reaches this stage of belief it is not a difficult matter to induce him to begin doing right for righteousness sake only. He has already conceived firmly the fact that only virtue is any just reward for being virtuous. The bribes offered men for being good in the shape of escape from earthly punishment and the hope of earthly blessings are wholly inadequate to restrain them from evil as is proven by the many artifices resorted to in concealing crimes; but when they are made to see that only righteous living can produce real happiness and that there is absolutely no way of concealing the evidences of evil doing, substantial progress has been made in their reformation. They will not do wrong, wilfully, because, as Miss Schofield always taught, the wrong done will show eternally in their faces every time they look in the glass.
Miss Schofield never permitted opportunities to impress and teach great moral truths to pass by unimproved. Living on them herself she depended upon them entirely to support her work which was her life in itself. The great Normal and Industrial school at Aiken is Martha Schofield reincarnated out and out. The lifeless body has been taken and carried away but the spirit which is of God, still lingers on and around all the place, crying out aloud as of yore for the perfection of those means of justice and freedom of action in both body and mind that alone can make life ideal and our work eternal.
On the occasion of her visit to the home of Allen Dodson for the purpose of securing his endorsement to the petition for the pardon of Leslie Duncan, she was received with scant courtesy by Mrs. Dodson, who strange to say, bore the reputation of being one of the most zealous and faithful followers of Christ in Lick Skillet neighborhood. Indeed she was president of the local Mary Magdalene Missionary Society of the First Baptist Church, and besides had been honored by the national president of her society with appointment to the position of treasurer in the national association of Mary Magdaleners. Throughout the community and in church and benevolent circles all over the State and country she was well and favorably known. At home she was regarded as the pillar of the Baptist church and an unselfish and philanthropic soul in whose leadership the community could rely with perfect confidence that the work of salvation was abreast of that in any other community of like population in the whole moral vineyard of Christ.
Seating Miss Schofield in the parlor while she waited on the return of Mr. Dodson, other duties and responsibilities of the house engaged the attention of Mrs. Dodson. She left her visitor to entertain herself as best she might, placing within her reach a few religious periodicals and a library of perhaps a dozen or more books, mostly of Baptist denominational interest, especially devoted to the work of that church in the foreign missionary field.