"Our
home has become little better than a bake-shop."
"Well, Missus," replied Aun' Sheba, with the graven-image expression that
she often assumed before Mrs. Hunter, "I'se know'd of homes dat hab become
wuss dan bake-shops. Neber in my bawn days hab I heerd on an active,
prosp'rous baker starbin'. Jes' you try dis cooky right fum de stove an'
see ef it doan melt in you'se mouf." And so Aun' Sheba stopped Mrs.
Hunter's lamentations and clinched her argument.
CHAPTER XVI
HONEST FOES
Captain Bodine's errand was characteristic of the man. He had accepted his
cousin's hospitality and sympathy most gratefully, and his quick
apprehension had gathered from some of her words that she was bent on
moving her little segment of "heaven and earth," to secure him employment.
While perfectly ready to receive any gracious benefactions from heaven,
where he justly believed that the good old lady's power centred chiefly,
he shrank from her terrestrial efforts in his behalf, knowing that they
must be made with very few exceptions among those who were straitened and
burdened already. He did not want a "place made" for him and to feel that
other Southern men were practicing a severer self-denial in order to do
so. With a grim, set look on his face as if he were going into battle, he
halted downtown to the counting-room of one of the wealthiest merchants
and shippers in the City. He knew this man only by reputation, and his
friends would regard an application for employment to Mr.
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