“I reckon you-all can count on my nevvy,” he said.

When he reached Scratch Hill, in the waning light of day, Hannibal, in a state of high excitement, met him at the log shed, which served as a barn.

“I hear you-all have been entertaining visitors while Uncle Bob was away,” observed Yancy, and remembering what Crenshaw had told him, he rested his big hand on the boy’s head with a special tenderness.

“There’s going to be a school in the cabin in the old field!” said the boy.  “May I go?—­Oh, Uncle Bob, will you please take me?”

“When’s this here school going to begin, anyhow?”

“To-morrow at four o’clock, she said, Uncle Bob.”

“She’s a quick lady, ain’t she?  Well, I expected you’d be hopping around on one leg when you named it to me.  You wait until Sunday and see what I do fo’ my nevvy,” said Yancy.

He was as good as his implied promise, but the day began discouragingly with an extra and, as it seemed to Hannibal, an unnecessary amount of soap and water.

“You owe it to yo’self to show a clean skin in the house of worship.  Just suppose one of them nice ladies was to cast her eye back of yo’ ears!  She’d surely be put out to name it offhand whether you was black or white.  I reckon I’ll have to barber you some, too, with the shears.”

“What’s school like, Uncle Bob?” asked Hannibal, twisting and squirming under the big resolute hands of the man.

“I can’t just say what it’s like.”

“Why, didn’t you ever go to school, Uncle Bob?”

“Didn’t I ever go to school!  Where do you reckon I got my education, anyhow?  I went to school several times in my young days.”

“On a Sunday, like this?”

“No, the school I tackled was on a week-day.”

“Was it hard?” asked Hannibal, who was beginning to cherish secret misgivings; for surely all this soap and water must have some sinister portent

“Well, some learn easier than others.  I learned middling easy —­it didn’t take me long—­and when I felt I knowed enough I just naturally quit and went on about my business.”

“But what did you learn?” insisted the boy.

“You-all wouldn’t know if I told you, because you-all ain’t ever been to school yo’self.  When you’ve had yo’ education we’ll talk over what I learned—­it mostly come out of a book.”  He hoped his general statement would satisfy Hannibal, but it failed to do so.

“What’s a book.  Uncle Bob?” he demanded.

“Well, whatever a body don’t know naturally he gets out of a book.  I reckon the way you twist, Nevvy, mebby you’d admire fo’ to lose an ear!” and Mr. Yancy refused further to discuss the knowledge he had garnered in his youth.

Hannibal and Yancy were the first to arrive at the deserted cabin in the old field that afternoon.  They found the place had been recently cleaned and swept, while about the wall was ranged a row of benches; there was also a table and two chairs.  Yancy inspected the premises with the eye of mature experience.