as on its last legs, somehow still continued to flourish. The ten-thousand-dollar mortgage had but three more years, and that would end all; but he had hoped for a crash even earlier. Instead of this, Miss Smith was cheerfully expanding the work, hiring new teachers, and especially she had brought to help her two young Negroes whom he suspected. Colonel Cresswell had prevented the Tolliver land sale, only to be inveigled himself into Zora’s scheme which now began to worry him. He must evict Zora’s tenants as soon as the crops were planted and harvested. There was nothing unjust about such a course, he argued, for Negroes anyway were too lazy and shiftless to buy the land. They would not, they could not, work without driving. All this he imparted to John Taylor, to which that gentleman listened carefully.
“H’m, I see,” he owned. “And I know the way out.”
“How?”
“A cotton mill in Toomsville.”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
“Bring in whites.”
“But I don’t want poor white trash; I’d sooner have niggers.”
‚ÄúNow, see here,‚Äù argued Taylor, ‚Äúyou can‚Äôt have everything you want‚ÅÝ‚Äîday‚Äôs gone by for aristocracy of old kind. You must have neighbors: choose, then, white or black. I say white.‚Äù
‚ÄúBut they‚Äôll rule us‚ÅÝ‚Äîoutvote us‚ÅÝ‚Äîmarry our daughters,‚Äù warmly objected the Colonel.