Scarlet Sister Mary (1928, Bobbs-Merrill Company)/Chapter 32
The deacons appointed Wednesday night, for Mary to come and give in her experience and they invited all the people to hear them decide if her vision meant that her sins were forgiven, or if Satan had sent a dream to deceive her.
Before first dark she dressed herself carefully in a new black and white checked homespun dress and a large white apron which covered the whole front of her skirt. She bound her head with a fresh white cloth instead of a colored head-kerchief, then put on a wide-brimmed white straw hat. The hat was old, its crown was broken and its brim flopped down at one side, but it was white, and she felt it was better for to-night than her new black sailor.
She had not worn her earrings lately, for the babies liked them and tried to snatch them out of her ears. They were in her trunk wrapped up with her love-charm. She slowly untied the cloth that held them and put the earrings on, then the charm.
Instead of tarnishing, the earrings had got brighter with the years. They glittered as gaily as on the first day she ever saw them. Should she wear her charm? Would it be sinful to wear it to-night? She looked in the glass and asked the question to herself. One of her minds said, "Take it off." The other mind said, "Don't be a fool, keep it on." The earrings shook and twinkled. The deacons were men who needed to be ruled in her favor to-night. She would wear the charm too.
When she reached Maum Hannah's house, the place was packed and jammed with people. The news of her finding peace had traveled fast, the crowd had come to hear her experience and to see how the deacons dealt with her. She held her head high and her eyes straight in front of her as she walked through the crowd and took her seat on the candidate's bench at one side of the fireplace facing the five deacons who sat on the other side. Andrew was dressed in his Sunday clothes and his face had a solemn look; Doll sat high up in front with the members, with her sharp little eyes on her husband.
Doll was nervous. Her hands kept clasping and unclasping, her eyelids batted fast now and then, and she kept whispering to Maum Hannah, who sat with her eyes closed, praying.
Brer Dee whispered to Andrew, who nodded his head and stroked his chin and gazed around at the assembled crowd. The time had come. He got up and took the cow-bell off the mantelpiece and made a few hoarse tinkles, then he began lining out the hymn to be sung, two lines at a time:
Ten thousand foes arise."
Brer Dee raised it, all the people joined in singing it; high treble voices mingled with deep basses, but Mary stood dumb. If she cracked her teeth and tried to sing she would break down and cry like a child.
To draw thee from the skies."
Andrew's voice rose high and his eyes stared at something away above Mary's head.
When the hymn was sung, Brer Dee read out of the Book how the angels in Heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents; then he prayed a short prayer asking God and Jesus to guide the deacons to-night; to help them know whether the sister who was a candidate here before them was truly saved or if she had only been deceived by a vision from Satan.
Mary felt a vague dread of standing up try ing to tell all these people what she had seen: of trying to make them understand how her misery and mourning had been changed to joy. Her knees were shaking and when the prayer was over she sat with downcast eyes, while Andrew announced that on the night after her son was buried, Mary Pinesett, a fallen member, had experienced a deep conviction of sin. She did not wait to seek forgiveness, but started to pray that very night, and had prayed on without a drop of water to drink, without a crumb of bread to eat until a vision had come before her mortal eyes. She was here to-night to tell the deacons this vision.
When she got to her feet to speak, the room grew so quiet she could hear her own quickened breath. She was very hoarse and her first words were low and trembling, but as soon as they cleared the way, others that were steady rushed in and loosened her tongue. She was back in the pine woods, seeking, praying, crying in the night. She could hear Unex speaking again, but now his voice was no voice from the grave but an angel's voice from Heaven.
A strange power seized her and held her and she spoke with a new, quickened tongue. Instead of looking first at one deacon, then at another she hardly took her eyes from Andrew's face and he gazed back at her spellbound, with his eyes as bright as stars.
She could feel how eagerly the people listened, how they leaned forward trying not to miss a word she said. Some of them smiled kindly, others wiped tears away.
Brer Dee listened eagerly too, but when she finished, he got to his feet and said solemnly, "Brudders an' sisters, Si May-e has been a turrible sinner. E has sent many mens to Hell. His soul might be clean but his body ought to be baptized again befo we receives em into Heaven's Gate Church."
Brer Dee's words stung. The blood burned Mary's face. A flutter of whispers ran through the room. Andrew rose and cleared his throat. A frown was on his face, and his rumbling voice was deep as he said that Brer Dee was the head deacon, and besides, Brer Dee was a wise man. But Brer Dee was sometimes so anxious to safeguard the church that it made him fall into mistakes. Andrew had never heard of anybody who was baptized more than once. No matter how much they sinned or how many times they fell, one baptizing was enough.
He sat down, but Brer Dee got up and held his ground. "You ain' never hear-ed of no sinner wicked as Si May-e, Brer Andrew. Evybody in dis house to-night knows as good as me, if Gawd didn't take Si-Maye's son to break em heart, e would be a sinnin right on till yet. I think e needs a new baptizin."
Mary felt bewildered. Brer repeated what he said as if she had not understood him. "I say you needs to be baptized again, Si May-e."
Doll got up and said that Brer Dee was right, exactly right. Another baptizing would do well if it rid Mary of all the sin she had.
Mary's earrings quivered in her ears for all the grudges she had ever felt against Doll rose and rankled in her heart for a bitter second. Then she glanced up and met Andrew's eyes, and her hatred suddenly melted. Pity for poor short-necked, short-waisted, short-winded Doll took its place.
The deacons talked on and on, the members said what they thought. Most of them agreed that Brer Dee was right; Mary should be baptized again.
She stood waiting for the decision, listening, thinking, looking at Doll. Maybe, Doll was not to blame for being fat and mean and deceitful. No woman would be so heavy and ugly and common if she could help it. God made her what she was. He had fixed Doll so she knew nothing of pleasure or sorrow, and spent all her days on foolish tasteless half-baked things. Poor duck-legged Doll.
The discussion was done at last. Mary bowed her head meekly and said she was willing to be baptized again. She felt cool and steady; as she bowed she felt her earrings dangle. They were not down-hearted, but gay and bold and shiny.
Meeting was over and the people came up to welcome Mary back into the fold. They shook her hand until it was numb, her arm ached with weariness, but her heart was warmed through with so much kindliness.
Old Daddy Cudjoe came last, after most of the others had gone and only Andrew waited outside to see Mary home. He took Mary's hand and shook it, then he cut his eyes all around to be certain Maum Hannah could not hear him when he whispered:
"If you gwine to quit wid mens now, Si May-e, do gi me you conjure rag. E's de best charm I ever made."
Mary looked straight into his eyes and smiled as she shook her head.
"I'll lend em to you when you need em, Daddy, but I couldn' gi way my love-charm. E's all I got now to keep me young."
The End
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