However inconsistent Felo’s ideas of theology might appear, there were three important purposes he endeavored to live up to with a sincerity that became him nobly. Three purposes he took great pleasure in making known at all times: “To hol’ a high head an’ keep a good name ’munks de cullud folks”; “to stick close to Mr. Amos, and look aft’ his welfare long’s he staid single”; and, “to hol’ cov’nan wid Gawd an’ serve Jesus long as I got my good sense.”
However inconsistent Felo’s ideas of theology might appear, there were three important purposes he endeavored to live up to with a sincerity that became him nobly. Three purposes he took great pleasure in making known at all times: “To hol’ a high head an’ keep a good name ’munks de cullud folks”; “to stick close to Mr. Amos, and look aft’ his welfare long’s he staid single”; and, “to hol’ cov’nan wid Gawd an’ serve Jesus long as I got my good sense.”
The first of these, interpreted by many of his unsympathetic friends as a sort of unseemly arrogance, which they called his “biggidy ways,” won for him the name of “w’ite-folks nigger.” While the second brought him the assurance of a permanenthome, and fixed his standing as a member of the household, a sort of heir by annexation;—“joint arran’ de fam’ly,” as he called it. As he and Mr. Amos had been playmates from early childhood, his connection in reality was more like that of a faithful friend, than the position of a common servant without rights and privileges. And to keep faith with Mr. Amos and hold his confidence and lasting respect, was next to keeping his covenant with God.
When he came back to work the day after his visit to Susan’s cook shop, he was conscious of something having happened which might shake this feeling of trust; and the burdening thought troubled him sorely. Try as he would, he was unable to free himself of the haunting fact or invent a reasonable excuse to explain his somber mood, which he was certain would not escape Mr. Amos’s attention. Song, at all times an easy means for expressing the gladness or turbulence of his emotional soul, now deserted him completely. And when he tried to pray, his mind went groping about in a wilderness of mist and fog, unable to find a word or thought that would bring him any spiritual relief.
To elude Mr. Amos was out of the question; because it was an understood custom, that Felo mustsit across the room and talk while Mr. Amos ate; giving a detailed account of his week-end trip across the river, with the doings and sayings of his colored friends, most of whom Mr. Amos knew from early childhood. It was always a delightful conference, and Mr. Amos encouraged it with genuine interest.
A quiet evening spent at home alone with Felo, he declared, was sure to be an evening of picturesque thought and spontaneous, refreshing entertainment. Because humble Felo had more to offer in the way of colorful, living literature, than one could ever expect to find at the colorless teas and elaborate dinner parties of many pseudo-literary white friends.