DANNY'S OWN STORY BY DON MARQUIS TO MY ... - Pink Monkey

too. Dey got some dese hyah coal-ile lamps dar
des inside de chu'ch do' an' dey been keepin' on
'em lighted, daytimes an' night times, fo' two days
now, kaze dey say dey ain't gwine fo' ter be cotched
napping when de bridegroom COMeth. Yass, SAH!--
dey's ten o' dese hyah vergims dar, five of 'em
sleepin' an' five of 'em watchin', an' a-takin' tuhns
at hit, an' mebby dat how-come free or fouah dey
bes' young colo'hed mens been projickin' aroun'
dar all arternoon, a-helpin' dem dat's a-waitin'
twell de bridegroom COM eth!"
We seen a little knot of them, down the road there
in front of the church, gathering around the nigger
that had been with Sam. They all starts toward
us. But one man steps out in front of them all,
and turns toward them and holds his hands up, and
waves them back. They all stops in their tracks.
Then he turns his face toward us, and comes slow
and sollum down the road in our direction, walking
with a cane, and moving very dignified. He was
a couple of hundred yards away.
But as he come closeter we gradually seen him
plainer and plainer. He was a big man, and stout,
and dressed very neat in the same kind of rig as
white bishops wear, with one of these white collars
that buttons in the back. I suppose he was coming
on to meet us alone, because no one was fitten fur
to give us the first welcome but himself.
Well, it was all dern foolishness, and it was hard
to believe it could all happen, and they ain't so
many places in this here country it COULD happen.
But fur all of it being foolishness, when he come
down the road toward us so dignified and sollum
and slow I ketched myself fur a minute feeling like
we really had been elected to something and was
going to take office soon. And Sam, as the bishop
come closeter and closeter, got to jerking and
twitching with the excitement that he had been
keeping in--and yet all the time Sam knowed it
was dope and works and not faith that had made
him spotted that-a-way.