morning, noon
Her children had been robbed of all their clothing except what they wore . The neighbors hurried in with clothes . The newspaper of Savannah of the new régime , _ The Republican _ , published and republished with gleeful comments the most sensational accounts of the brutal scene of the shackling of Davis . Maggie composed a prayer and taught her little brothers to repeat it in concert for their grace at the table morning , noon and night : `` Dear Lord , give our father something he can eat , and keep him strong , and bring him back to us with eyes that can see and in his good senses , to his little children , for Jesus ' sake . '' Nearly every day the child who composed the prayer was so moved by its recital she would run from the table and dry her tears in the next room before she could eat . Hourly scenes of violence increased between the whites and the inflamed blacks . A negro sentinel leveled his gun at little Jeff and threatened to shoot him for calling him `` Uncle . ''