To Make My Bread by Grace Lumpkin Page B

came up coughing and he held her until she recovered and could walk to the edge of the creek. There Sally Swain met her with a blanket from the store and covered her. This covering was for warmth and also for modesty. The wet robe stuck fast to the young girl’s body.
    Minnie Hawkins was next in the line of girls. She had just reached the preacher and was ready to be immersed when a low sound went up from the congregation. The sound was like a hive of bees beginning to swarm. It swelled in places and as it died down in one place grew louder in another. Minnie tried to raise her head, for she heard the commotion distinctly. The preacher paid no attention and held Minnie’s head firmly under his hand. These excitements sometimes happened and he had found it best whether in church or outside to pay no attention, but to let the excitement pass off of itself.
    His back was turned and neither he nor Minnie, whose head he held fast, could see Kirk McClure sitting astride a horse on the opposite bank of the stream. Kirk had ridden up so quietly no one had seen until the horse’s forefeet were already in the water. He must have been waiting behind a thicket for the moment when Minnie Hawkins went in.
    He was riding the preacher’s horse. Everyone recognized the saddle bags. Kirk began to cross the creek. No one ever found out what he had expected to do. Perhaps his coming was simply a show for Minnie. The water came up to the horse’s belly and in places above it. The horse slipped on the stones and splashed the water over Kirk. It glittered over him in the afternoon sunshine. All this took only a moment, that moment when the preacher laid his hand on Minnie’s forehead and began saying the words over her. At that moment Kirk reached them. He had on his old felt hat, turned up in front. Leaning across the saddle he took the hat off with a flourish right under the nose of the preacher. Minnie saw him as he had meant her to. She jerked away from the horse and rider with a single startled movement. And she slipped on the rocks. As she slid into the water both her hands grasped at the preacher’s robe. His feet teetered on the round stones and in another second he was under the water with Minnie. The two scrambled and fought under the water and might have choked each other if help had not come. At first people were too shocked to move. They were shocked into a stillness like death. Even Kirk sat on the horse without moving, a dazed look on his face. But he was the first to get in the water. And it was Kirk who forced Minnie’s arms from around the preacher and set them both on their feet. Before the men could reach them, Kirk had swung the horse around and splashed out of the water. He rode through the excited crowd of people on the bank and galloped up the road.
    It was some time before the baptizing could proceed. The preacher was helped on to the bank and sat there panting until his breath came regularly again. Sally Swain wrapped Minnie in the blanket and took her to the dressing place.
    There was so much excitement, it was not until the next day people began to ask themselves and each other whether Minnie Hawkins had actually been baptized. The preacher had begun the words, but no one had heard him finish. And he never told anyone. Since he never again asked Minnie to join the church, many people came to the conclusion that he had finished the words and Minnie was saved. But others disagreed, and this baptism was the subject of many discussions for years afterward, especially when Minnie herself later became the chief subject of talk in the community.

CHAPTER NINE
    W HEN older girls and boys were baptized they became grown and ready for courting and marriage. Though Kirk McClure had not joined the church, because of Basil’s baptism along with his brother he became a man. The two boys began to go out at night courting girls. Basil never went to dances but he visited the girls and was known to be