Arnold took him into the front parlor, hoping to daunt with formality, for this was the place they had their rare serious talks. And this is where Deborah found them after she had rung the hand bell in the dining room and found herself still sitting alone after some minutes had passed.

Soon after her came Lovey, who stood in the doorway frowning and watching her master and mistress talk to the boy. As their voices grew colder, her frown made deeper ruts in her face. Leon looked at her miserably, and when he saw her shoulders rise and fall in a sympathetic sigh, he ran to her and hid his face in her apron front. Her arms went around him automatically, and she said to the two who turned, “What harm? Him and Floyd used to one another. He’ll learn better with Floyd along. Besides, he’s young to go all that way by hisself. What if a snake jumped out and scared the horse?” The expressions of Arnold and Deborah relaxed at this unlikely supposition. “I hear there’s a band of Indians camping in the eastern part of the county. We all know they go out stealing from their camps, a horse, a chicken, whatever they find. Like nothing better than to find a little boy alone on a fine horse. Never see that horse again, maybe not the boy. Take both and vanish like smoke, the way Indians do. Think about that.”

On Wednesday, when Plumboy saddled the horse and Leon mounted him, Floyd mounted too and sat back of the saddle, his legs straight out at the sides and he giggling until everyone present smiled—Lovey and Deborah and Posie and Plumboy.

Rooster thought the whole thing a great joke. Mr. Bartram made no demur at the presence of the Negro boy in his classroom. Other young men had colored attendants, he reminded himself. Bonard, remembering the incident of the marble dispute and the boy’s part in Leon’s attack, insisted that Floyd, if he were allowed to stay at all, sit on the floor.

9

Selma was six years old, a quiet, private child who responded politely enough when noticed but seemed not to require the attention of her elders. Some are born strangers to their world, time and place wrong, feeling no fiber or drop of kinship with those called family, no affinity for the larger circle of the local order. Such a one was Selma.