51�Թ�

Now if there is anything mortifying to our feelings when we are young, it is to be told that, and to be bidden to “run away, dear” is still more trying to us.

There were no relatives at hand; and as Arthur had to be back the next day to attend at his father’s funeral, we were unable to notify any one who should have been bidden.

He knew the flood would come, and he had bidden his son build the chest, store it with provisions, and embark in it with his wife.

It’s as if black people are being bidden to look up from the groundwork of daily living by the very forces that made our single-minded focus necessary.

Still, as the religion of the Perfect Woman teaches, “it is man’s chiefest honour to be chosen: his highest duty to give, wherever bidden, his love, his devotion, and his loyalty.”