Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/124

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Rare Earth


darkness of the night, making the figures of the singers stand out in weird relief against the shadowy forest.

"Hear about ma brudder,
Hear about ma brudder,
He done foun' a shoe.
A shoe, a shoe,
Brudder whut you goin' to do?
With jus' one shoe,
Guess you gotta hop,
With only one shoe,
Guess you gotta hop,
'Cause one shoe am worse
Than a chile withou' a pop."

The nights were seldom cool enough to make a bonfire necessary but the Gullahs loved the warm friendliness of the fire. They sang and dozed and found some measure of happiness in the eternal quietude on the edge of the whispering swamp.

Thus quietly in the Carolina low country was the girlhood of Linda Dixon lived. It was a kingdom of rice. All the neighbors worked

in the rice-fields. They lived isolated lives,

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