The Children of Blood

OL· Ckiíáxzn o^Blooá by ÜBstty ¿¿a?te?. ANDREW Chapter IX m The Preacher came with the first cold thunderstorm, his voice blowing up the hill among the shivering trees, his words rising even above the sound of thunder. We heard and opened the door. He led his horse inside, water running in rivulets down its bony sides, and it stood miserable with one forefoot propped aimless against the other as The Preacher knocked the rain from his bedraggled old hat and stamped his boots on the earthen floor of the barn. Where did he shelter, now that the church was burned? I stared at him, remembering the phophecy in the woods. "Praise be His Almighty Goodness! Let us pray, Brothers, Our dear Heavenly Father Who hast led us into the wilderness where we have wandered starving and feeding upon manna these forty years, deliver us from the storm of Thy wrath and the deluge of Thy Vengeance." Hebe and Zella went stoically to their knees. I bowed my head, stealing a glance at Darius, who stood as though transfixed before the sight of this violent spectre with rainsoaked hair and sodden clothes. We had just finished eating. Our cracked and fire-worn dishes were scattered here and there about the stove where we had been seated. Sabina sat with her face turned away, suddenly very pale and ill-looking, holding Hazlitt's coat clutched tight about her. The faded ribbon Zella had tied about the bright hair 59 had loosened, allowing it to slip and fall forward over her shoulder. Her hand trembled in its grasp on Hazlitt's coat. What is it? I thought. What is this feeling I have, a sensation of doom, some prescience of impending terribleness? "Lift us from the shadow of Thy wrathful sword, O Exalted Jehovah, lead Thy children through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, lend them Thy rod of wisdom and Thy staff of solace, feed them upon the fruit ofThy bountiful goodness, and they shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever and ever, Amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Three separate and unified in one Being, the undying Holy Trinity, Amen." "Amen," we echoed. "Well, Brothers and Sisters," he said, his voice rising to the rafters and causing the Yankee horses to stir and mill about in their open place beyond us. The storm had made them restless, and now his loud voice frightened them. "Morgan is dead, that gallant flower of the Confederacy." Then seeing the horses, he frowned and turned past us to the barrier we had set up between their area and ours. His boots squished as he stalked forward. Then he stopped and stared at the horses for a long time, while we waited behind him, startled into guilt. "Where is Brother Kincaid?" As he wheeled to confront us, his eyes roved over all of us. Blazing and wild. He pointed a finger at Darius. "You, stranger! Explain this overwhelming bounty which I find in the midst of the desert," but without waiting, turning then to Hebe, "Where is your master?" Hebe rose from his knees and put his hand back behind him against the wall for support. "Done passed on, Preacher. Five weeks ago tomorrow. We didn't know where to send for you, so we laid him away and said a few Bible verses over him." "You consider that a proper burial for a deacon of the ordained congregation ? You, Hazlitt! Are you tending his flocks?" I hesitated, uncertain ofhis meaning. Finally, beneath the burning weight of his eyes, I nodded my head, waiting for the proper time so that I might ask him about John Hunt Morgan and if he had received any word of Father. "Glory be to God," he yelled then. "And a little child shall lead them!" Beginning to pace back and forth before the barrier, turning now and then to survey us with his savage eyes. The horses moved in a group to the farthest corner, away from him, and when his pacing brought him close to that corner, they plunged in a group to...