He sat down, but Brer Dee got up and held his ground. “You ain’ never hear-ed of no sinner wicked as Si May-e, Brer Andrew. Evybody in dis house tonight knows as good as me, if Gawd didn’t take Si May-e’s son to break em heart, e would be a sinnin right on till yet. I think e needs a new baptizin.”
Mary felt bewildered. Brer repeated what he said as if she had not understood him. “I say you needs to be baptized again, Si May-e.”
Doll got up and said that Brer Dee was right, exactly right. Another baptizing would do well if it rid Mary of all the sin she had.
Mary’s earrings quivered in her ears for all the grudges she had ever felt against Doll rose and rankled in her heart for a bitter second. Then she glanced up and met Andrew’s eyes, and her hatred suddenly melted. Pity for poor short-necked, short-waisted, short-winded Doll took its place.
The deacons talked on and on, the members said what they thought. Most of them agreed that Brer Dee was right; Mary should be baptized again.
She stood waiting for the decision, listening, thinking, looking at Doll. Maybe, Doll was not to blame for being fat and mean and deceitful. No woman would be so heavy and ugly and common if she could help it. God made her what she was. He had fixed Doll so she knew nothing of pleasure or sorrow, and spent all her days on foolish tasteless half-baked things. Poor duck-legged Doll.
The discussion was done at last. Mary bowed her head meekly and said she was willing to be baptized again. She felt cool and steady; as she bowed she felt her earrings dangle. They were not downhearted, but gay and bold and shiny.
Meeting was over and the people came up to welcome Mary back into the fold. They shook her hand until it was numb, her arm ached with weariness, but her heart was warmed through with so much kindliness.
Old Daddy Cudjoe came last, after most of the others had gone and only Andrew waited outside to see Mary home. He took Mary’s hand and shook it, then he cut his eyes all around to be certain Maum Hannah could not hear him when he whispered:
“If you gwine to quit wid mens now, Si May-e, do gi me you conjure rag. ’E’s de best charm I ever made.”
Mary looked straight into his eyes and smiled as she shook her head.
“I’ll lend em to you when you need em, Daddy, but I couldn’ gi way my love-charm. ’E’s all I got now to keep me young.”
Colophon
Scarlet Sister Mary
was published in 1928 by
Julia Peterkin.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Brendan Fattig,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2021 by
Alex White and The Online Distributed Proofreaders Canada Team
for
Faded Page
and on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
A Dog Swap,
a painting completed in 1881 by
Richard Norris Brooke.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
October 15, 2024, 3:48 p.m.
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Uncopyright
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