The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1918-01-03
There Was Something Different and Spiritual Georgia

had somehow obtained a vastly piano
summoning Penrod Schofeld and the
colored brethren, Herman and Verman,
he expounded to them his building
plans and offered them shares and
benefits in the institution he purposed
to found. Acceptance was enthusiastic;
straightway the assembly became q
union Of carpenters all of one mind,
and ten days saw the shack not COM
pleted but comprehensive. Anybody
could tell, by that time, that it was
intended for a shack.
There was door on leather hinges;
it dropped, perhaps, but it was door.
There was a window-not a glass one,
but, at least, it could be "looked out
Of" as Sam said. There was a chin
ney made of stovepipe, though that was
merely decorative, because the cooking
was done out of doors in an under
ground furnace" which the boys ex-
cavated. There were pictures pasted
on the interior walls, and, hanging from
a nail, there was crayon portrait of
Sans grandfather, which he had
brought down from the attic quietly,
though, as he said, it wasn't any use
on earth up there" There were two
lame chairs from Periods attic, and
along one wall ran low and feeble
structure intended to serve as a bench
or divan. This would come in handy,
Sam said, if any of the party "had to
lay down or anything" and at pinch
(such as meeting Of the association
it would serve to seat all the members
in q row.
For, coincidentally with the develop
ment of the shack, the builders became
something more than partners. Later,
no one could remember who first sug-
gested the founding of secret order
or society, as a measure of exclusive
ness and to keep the shack sacred to
members only, but it was an idea that
presently began to be more absorbing
and satisfactory than even the shack
itself. The outward manifestations Of
it might have been observed in the in
creased solemnity and preoccupation
of the Caucasian members and in q
few ceremonial observances exposed
to the public eye. AS an instance Of
these latter, Mrs. Williams, happen
ing to glance from a rearward window,
about four o'clock one afternoon, found
her attention arrested by what seemed
to be fag-raising before the door Of
the shack. Sam and Herman and Yer
man stood in attitudes Of rigid atten-
tion. shoulder to shoulder, while Pen
rod Schofield, facing them, was APP
parently delivering some sort Of ex-
hortation which he read from scrib-
bled sheet of foOlscap. Concluding
this. he lifted from the ground long
and somewhat warped clothes-prop,
from one end of which hung whitish
flag, or pennon, bearing an inscription.
Sam and Herman and Verman lifted
their right hands, while Penrod placed
the other end Of the clothes-prOp in a
hole In the ground, with the pennon
fiuttering high above TIE shack. He
then raised his own right hand, and
the four boys repeated something In
concert. 1t was inaudible to Mrs. Will
liams, but she was able to make out
the inscription upon the pennon. 1t
consisted Of the peculiar phrase, in
Or-In." done in black paint upon
muslin ground, and consequently SEEM
ing to be in need of a blotter.
It required to her mind, later that
evening, when she happened to find
herself alone with Sam In the library,
and, In merest idle curiosity, she
asked:
"Sam, what does In-Or-In' mean?
Sam, bending over an arithmetic. IN
creased his brow till 1t became OF
blank and marble smoothness.
'Ma'am?"
"What are those words on your
fiagY
Sam gave her a long, cold, mystic
look, rose to his feet, and left the
room with emphasis and dignity. For
moment she was puzzled. But Sans
older brother was this year completing
his education at a university, and Mrs.
Williams was not altogether ignorant
of the obligations Of secrecy imposed