Scarlet Sister Mary (1928, Bobbs-Merrill Company)/Chapter 15
By the time spring came, the big field was plowed and ready for planting. Time was passing the rears were hastening by. One short year ago, Unex was not in the world, and now he could crawl all over the room and go wherever he chose, pulling up to chairs and standing alone. Some day Unex would be as old as Budda Ben. Then a day would come when he must pass on, and other people would live in this old house, while she and Unex would be lying yonder in the graveyard where the pines rose tall and dark over graves that sheltered so many homeless bones.
A soft blue haze covered everything. When the wind blew in sharp gusts, old dead leaves, heaped in low places or caught in dead grasses, crackled and shivered then whirled out into open spaces. Tree branches moaned and shook their swollen buds as the air swished through them.
Only the haze lay quiet and still over the land. The wind couldn't move it at all.
Maum Hannah said that God is a spirit; a hard thing to understand; God in the sky, God up in Heaven, God everywhere in the world.
A man and a mule crossing the field looked like two black specks creeping along no bigger than ants. Maybe to God up there all people look like ants crawling around on the earth.
Maum Hannah said that God is the life of everything. Every grass-blade is His child, every grain of sand is in His care, the same as the sun and moon and clouds are. The trees and flowers and birds and beasts have spirits the same as people; they can do wrong or right. Every field has a spirit that will make generous crops for the people who work well and wisely. The careless and ignorant invite misfortune and even the dumb earth will work evil things against the wicked.
Maum Hannah walked up and found Mary sitting alone in the dusk. "Git up off de steps, gal," she cautioned. "You ain' to set still when de whippoorwill's a-cryin. De whippoorwill's a bad-luck bird, Si May-e. When you hear em, you must go inside de house. Night air ain' good nohow. Night air, or neither studyin. An' honey," the old woman went on, "dis is Wednesday night. Meetin night. I want you to come go to meetin. Meetin don' last long. Do come go, honey. I want to see you pray, so bad."
Maum Hannah's hands were so small, so somehow pitiful as they held fast to each other. Mary looked at them and gave in. Their simple clasping and unclasping made her humble and pitying. Maum Hannah wanted her to go to meeting. To pray. To be a Christian again. To join the church and be saved from sin. She'd have to seek. That meant praying night and day until Jesus sent her a sign that her sins were forgiven.
"Auntie" Mary hesitated. "Please, Auntie, le me wait a while. I ain' gwine dead, not soon. I don' want to pray, not yet. Please le me wait until Unex is bigger."
Maum Hannah turned away with a sigh and went to stand in the door. The stars were bright in the sky and a full moon hung right over the crape-myrtle tree. She stood looking up, and praying to God.
Maum Hannah had been praying for Mary to seek. In the sky a few stars glittered clear. Could God, so far away up there, hear what people down here said to Him?
"Honey," she began in a sorrowful voice. "Hell ain' no hole. E couldn' be a hole." Maum Hannah was usually cheerful, but to-night she sounded low-spirited, down-hearted. "Hell ain' no hole I tell you!" she repeated. "A hole would a been full long time ago. A hole couldn' hold all de sinners! No! I tink Hell must be a lake!"
She groaned mournfully at the doleful-sounding words.
"Hell is a lake. A lake of fire. It is full of sinners strugglin an' burnin now. Right now. Right down under us in the ground."
Hell is a lake!
Mary had never seen a real lake, but she had heard July tell about lakes in the swamp that lay still and stagnant, breeding snakes and alligators. Slime covered them over, fever lived wherever they tarried.
Hell is a lake.
The singing at meeting had begun. The words rose and swelled and filled the dusk.
Set right by His side,
Set right by His side"
Set right by His side,
Set right by His side"
Maum Hannah hobbled away singing.
"Set right by His side." Mary had seen pictures of Jesus. Why would Maum Hannah want to sit always right by His side?
A warm strong hand closed over one of Mary's, and June sang softly, "Set right by His side, set right by His side," then he sat beside Mary and whispered that the night was too shiny and beautiful to waste. Mary laughed but her heart began pounding in her breast in a funny sort of way.
The cabin door was open, and all inside was still. Unex was sound asleep. As they sat on the steps an earth-scented breeze rose from the fresh-plowed field and floated over them.
White gardenias thick on the bush by the door made spots of clean dim light; June picked one and smelled it, then handed it to Mary. It was sweet, too heavy sweet, but Mary said nothing for her fast, beating heart held her breathless.