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diff --git a/1052-0.txt b/1052-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0f2382 --- /dev/null +++ b/1052-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2971 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1052 *** + +STEP BY STEP + +OR + +TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM. + + + "Woe to all who grind + Their brethren of a common Father down! + To all who plunder from the immortal mind + Its bright and glorious crown!" + --WHITTIER. + +[colophon omitted] + +Published By The + +American Tract Society, + +28 Cornhill, Boston. + + +Transcriber's Note: I have removed page numbers; all italics +are emphasis only. I have omitted running heads and have closed +contractions, e.g. "she 's" becoming "she's"; in addition, on page +180, stanza 3, line 1, I have changed the single quotation mark at the +beginning of the line to a double quotation mark. + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by THE AMERICAN +TRACT SOCIETY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the +District of Massachusetts. + +Riverside, Cambridge: + +Stereotyped And Printed By H. O. Houghton. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. PAGE + + + I. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . 5 + II. THE BABY. . . . . 13 + III. SUNSHINE. . . . . 24 + IV. SEVERAL EVENTS. . . . 36 + V. A NEW HOME. . . . . 43 + VI. BEGINNINGS OF KNOWLEDGE. 50 + VII. FRANCES. . . . . 62 + VIII. PRAYER. . . . . 75 + IX. THE FIRST LESSON. . . . 87 + X. LONY'S PETITION. . . . . 95 + XI. ROUGH PLACES. . . . . 105 + XII. A GREAT UNDERTAKING. . 112 + XIII. A LONG JOURNEY. . . . 127 + XIV. CRUELTY. . . . . 137 + XV. COTTON. . . . . 147 + XVI. RESCUE. . . . . 154 + XVII. TRUE LIBERTY. . . . 165 + XVIII. CROWNING MERCIES. . . 174 + + +OLD DINAH JOHNSON. . . . . + + + + +STEP BY STEP. + + + +CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. + +MY DEAR CHILDREN,--All of you who read this little book have doubtless +heard more or less of slavery. You know it is the system by which a +portion of our people hold their fellow-creatures as property, and doom +them to perpetual servitude. It is a hateful and accursed institution, +which God can not look upon but with abhorrence, and which no one of +his children should for a moment tolerate. It is opposed to every thing +Christian and humane, and full of all meanness and cruelty. It treats a +fellow-being, only because his skin is not so fair as our own, as +though he were a dumb animal or a piece of furniture. It allows him +no expression of choice about any thing, and no liberty of action. It +recognizes and employs all the instincts of the lower, but ignores and +tramples down all the faculties of his higher, nature. Can there be a +greater wrong? + +It is said by some, in extenuation of this wrong, that the slaves are +well fed and clothed, and are kindly, even affectionately, looked +after. This is true, in some cases,--with the house-servants, +particularly,--but, as a general thing, their food and clothing are +coarse and insufficient. But supposing it was otherwise; supposing they +were provided for with as much liberality as are the working classes at +the North, what is that when put into the balance with all the ills they +suffer? What comfort is it, when a wife is torn from her husband, or a +mother from her children, to know that each is to have enough to eat? +None at all. The most generous provision for the body can not satisfy +the longings of the heart, or compensate for its bereavements. + +They suffer, also, a constant dread and fear of change, which is not +the least of their torturing troubles. A kind owner may be taken away by +death, and the new one be harsh and cruel; or necessity may compel +him to sell his slaves, and thus they may be thrown into most unhappy +situations. So they live with a heavy cloud of sorrow always before +them, which their eyes can not look through or beyond. There is no +hope--no EARTHLY hope--for this poor, oppressed race. + +Their minds, too, are starved. No education, not even the least, is +allowed. It is a criminal offense in some of the States to teach a slave +to read. Now, if they could be made to exist without any consciousness +of intellectual capacity, it would not be so bad. But this is +impossible. They think and reason and wonder about things which they +see and hear; and, in many cases, feel an eager desire to be instructed. +This desire can not be gratified, because it would unfit them for their +servile condition; therefore all teaching is rigidly denied them. The +treasures of knowledge are bolted and barred to their approach, and +they are kept in the utmost darkness and ignorance. Oh, to starve the +mind!--Is it not far worse than to starve the body? + +There is yet another process of famishing to which the slaves are +subjected. They are not, as a general thing, taught by their masters +about God, the salvation of Jesus Christ or the way to heaven. The SOUL +is starved. To be sure, they pick up, here and there, a few crumbs of +religious truth, and make the most of their scanty supply. Many of them +truly love the Lord; and his unseen presence and joyful anticipations +of heaven make them submissive to their hardships, and cheerful and +faithful in their duties. But they can not thank their masters for what +religious light and knowledge they get. + +And who are these that hold their fellow-creatures in such cruel +bondage, starving body, mind, and soul with such indifference and +inhumanity? We blush to tell you. Many of them are of the number of +those who profess to love the Lord their God with all the heart, and +their neighbor as themselves. Can it be possible that God's own children +can participate in such a wickedness; can buy and sell, beat and kill, +their fellow-creatures? Can those who have humbly repented of sin, and +by faith accepted of the salvation of Jesus Christ, turn from his holy +cross to abuse others who are redeemed by the same precious blood, and +are heirs to the same glorious immortality? CAN such be Christians? + +And, children, you probably all understand that slavery is the sole +cause of the sad war which is now ravaging our beloved country; and +Christian people are praying, not only that the war may cease, but +that the sin which has caused it may cease also. We believe that God is +overruling all things to bring about this happy result, and before this +little story shall meet your eyes, there may be no more slaves within +our borders. Still we shall not have written it in vain, if it help +you to realize, more clearly than you have done, the sufferings and +degradation to which this unfortunate class have been subjected, and to +labor with zeal in the work which will then devolve upon us of educating +and elevating them. + +My story is not one of UNUSUAL interest. Thousands and ten of thousands +equally affecting might be told, and many far more romantic and +thrilling. What a day will that be, when the recorded history of every +slave-life shall be read before an assembled universe! What a long +catalogue of martyrs and heroes will then be revealed! What complicated +tales of wrongs and woes! What crowns and palms of victory will then be +awarded! What treasures of wrath heaped up against the day of wrath will +then be poured in fiery indignation upon deserving heads! Truly, then, +will come to pass the saying of the Lord Jesus, "The first shall be last +and the last first." + +Then, too, will appear most gloriously the loving kindness and tender +mercy of God, who loves to stoop to the poor and humble, and to care for +those who are friendless and alone. It seems as if our Heavenly Father +took special delight in revealing the truths of salvation to this +untutored people, in a mysterious way leading them into gospel light +and liberty; so that though men take pains to keep them in ignorance, +multitudes of them give evidence of piety, and find consolation for +their miseries in the sweet love of God. + +It is the dealings of God in guiding one of these to a knowledge of +himself, that I wish to relate to you in the following chapters. + + + +CHAPTER II. THE BABY. + +IN a snug corner of a meager slave-cabin, on a low cot, lies a little +babe asleep. A scarlet honeysuckle of wild and luxuriant growth shades +the uncurtained and unsashed window; and the humming-birds, flitting +among its brilliant blossoms, murmur a constant, gentle lullaby for the +infant sleeper. See, its skin is not so dark but that we may clearly +trace the blue veins underlying it; the lips, half parted, are lovely +as a rosebud; and the soft, silky curls are dewy as the flowers on this +June morning. A dimpled arm and one naked foot have escaped from the +gay patch-work quilt, which some fond hand has closely tucked about the +little form; and the breath comes and goes quickly, as if the folded +eyes were feasting on visions of beauty and delight. Dear little one! + + "We should see the spirits ringing + Round thee, were the clouds away; + 'Tis the child-heart draws them, singing + In the silent-seeming clay." + +Though that child-heart beats beneath a despised skin, though it has its +resting-place in a hovel, the angels may be there. Their loving, pitying +natures shrink not from poverty, but stoop with heavenly sympathy to the +mean abodes of suffering and misery. + +A soft step steals in through the half-opened door, across the room, and +a fervent kiss is laid on the little velvet cheek. + +Who is the intruder? Ah, who cares to watch and smile over a sleeping +infant, save its mother? Here, in this rude cabin, is a mother's +heart,--tender with its holy affections, and all aglow with delight, as +she gazes on the beautiful vision before her. + +We must call the mother Annie. She had but one name, for she was a +slave. Like the horse or the dog, she must have some appellation by +which, as an individual, she might be designated; a sort of appendage +on which to hang, as it were, the commands, threats, and severities that +from time to time might be administered; but farther than that, for her +own personal uses, why did she need a name? She was not a person, only a +thing,--a piece of property belonging to the Carroll estate. + +But for all that, she was a woman and a mother. God had sealed her such, +and who could obliterate his impress, or rob her of the crown he had +placed about her head,--a crown of thorns though it were? Her heart was +as full of all sweet motherly instincts as if she had been born in a +more favored condition; and the swarthy complexion of her child made +it no less dear or lovely in her sight; while a consciousness of its +degradation and sad future served only to deepen and intensify her love. +She knew what her child was born to suffer; but affection thrust far +away the evil day, that she might not lose the happiness of the present. +The babe was hers,--her own,--and for long years yet would be her joy +and comfort. + +Annie had other children, but they were wild, romping boys, grown out +of their babyhood, and so very naturally left to run and take care of +themselves. She had not ceased to love them, however, and would have +manifested it more, but for the idol, the little girl baby, which had +now for nearly a year nestled in her arms, and completely possessed +her heart. When they were hungry, they came like chickens about her +cabin-door, and being mistress of the kitchen, she always had plenty of +good, substantial crumbs for them; and when they were sick, she nursed +them with pitying care; but this was about all the attention they +received. + +The baby engrossed every leisure moment she could command. Many times a +day she would pause in her work to caress it. She would seat it upon the +floor, amid a perfect bed of honeysuckle blossoms, and bring the bright +orange gourds that grew around the door for its amusement. Sometimes a +broken toy or a shining trinket, which she had picked up in the house, +or a smooth pebble from the yard, would be added to the treasures of the +little one. Then she would come with food, the soft-boiled rice, or the +sweet corn gruel, she knew so well how to prepare; and often, often +she would steal in, as now, out of pure fondness, to watch its peaceful +slumbers. + +"Named the pickaninny yet?" asked the master one day, as he passed +the cabin, and carelessly looked in upon the mother and child amusing +themselves within. "'Tis time you did; 'most time to turn her off now, +you see." + +"Oh, Massa, don't say dat word," answered the woman, imploringly. +"'Pears I couldn't b'ar to turn her off yet,--couldn't live without her, +no ways. Reckon I'll call her Tidy; dat ar's my sister's name, and she's +got dat same sweet look 'bout de eyes,--don't you think so, Massa? Poor +Tidy! she's"--and Annie stopped, and a deep sigh, instead of words, +filled up the sentence, and tears dropped down upon the baby's forehead. +Memory traveled back to that dreadful night when this only sister had +been dragged from her bed, chained with a slave-gang, and driven off to +the dreaded South, never more to be heard from. + +WE talk of the "sunny South;"--to the slave, the South is cold, dark, +and cheerless; the land of untold horrors, the grave of hope and joy. + +"'Pears as if my poor old mudder," said Annie, brushing away the tears, +"never got up right smart after Tidy went away. She'd had six children +sold from her afore, and she set stores by her and me, 'cause we was +girls, and we was all she had left, too. Tidy was pooty as a flower; +and dat's just what your fadder, Massa Carroll, sold her for. My poor +mudder--how she cried and took on! but then she grew more settled like. +She said she'd gi'n her up for de good Lord to take care on. She said, +if he could take care of de posies in de woods, he certain sure would +look after her, and so she left off groaning like; but she's never got +over that sad look in her face. 'Oh,' says she to me, says she, 'Annie, +do call dat leetle cretur's name Tidy,--mebbe 'twill make my poor, sore +heart heal up;' and so I will." + +"So I would, Annie; yes, so I would," said the Master soothingly. "So I +would, if 'twill be any comfort to poor old Marcia,--clever old soul she +is. She was my mammy, and I was always fond of her. She has trotted me +on her knee, and toted me about on her back, many an hour. I must +go down to the quarters this very day, and see if she has things +comfortable. She's getting old, and we must do well by her in her old +age. And you, Annie, you mustn't mind those other things. We mustn't +borrow trouble. And we can't help it, you know; and we mustn't cry and +fret for what we can't help. What's the use? It don't do any good, you +see, and only makes a bad matter worse. Must take things as they come, +in this world of ours, Annie;" and the Master thought thus to assuage +the tide of bitter recollection in the breast of his down-trodden +bond-woman, and divert her mind from the painful future before her and +her darling child. In vain. The tears still fell over the brow of the +baby, flowing from the deep fountain of sorrow and tenderness that +springs forth only from a mother's heart. + +"Oh, Massa," she ventured timidly to say amid her sobs, "please don't +never part baby and me." + +"Be a good girl, Annie," said he, "and mind your work, and don't be +borrowing trouble. We'll take good care of you. You've got a nice baby, +that's a fact,--the smartest little thing on the whole plantation; see +how well you can raise her now." + +The fond heart of the trembling mother leaped back again to its +happiness at the praise bestowed upon her baby; and taking up the little +blossom, she laid it with pride upon her bosom, murmuring, "Years of +good times we'll have, sweety, afore sich dark days come,--mebbe they'll +never come to you and me." + +Alas, vain hope! Scarcely a single year had passed, when one day she +came to the cot to look at the little sleeper, and lo, her treasure was +gone! The master had found it convenient, in making a sale of some +field hands, to THROW IN this infant, by way of closing a satisfactory +bargain. + +None can tell, but those who have gone through the trying experience, +how hard it is for a mother to part with her child when God calls it +away by death. But oh, how much harder it must be to have a babe torn +away from the maternal arms by the stern hand of oppression, and flung +out on the cruel tide of selfishness and passion! Let us weep, dear +children, for the poor slave mothers who have to endure such wrongs. + +I will not undertake to describe the distress of this poor woman when +the knowledge of her loss burst upon her. It was as when the tall +tree is shivered by the lightning's blast. Her strong frame shook +and trembled beneath the shock; her eye rolled and burned in tearless +anguish, and her voice failed her in the intensity of her grief. For +hours she was unable to move. Alone, uncomforted, she lay upon the +earth, crushed beneath the weight of this unexpected calamity. + +"Leave her alone," said the master, "and let her grieve it out. The +cat will mew when her kittens are taken away. She'll get over it before +long, and come up again all right." + +"Ye mus' b'ar it, chile," said Annie's poor, old mother, drawing from +her own experience the only comfort which could be of any avail. "De +bressed Lord will help ye; nobody else can. I's so sorry for ye, honey; +but yer poor, old mudder can't do noffin. 'Tis de yoke de Heavenly +Massa puts on yer neck, and ye can't take it off nohow till he ondoes it +hissef wid his own hand. Ye mus' b'ar it, and say, De will ob de bressed +Lord be done." + +But, trying as this separation was, it proved to be the first link in +that chain of loving-kindnesses by which this little slave-child was to +be drawn towards God. Do you remember this verse in the Bible: "I have +loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have +I drawn thee." + + + +CHAPTER III. SUNSHINE. + +IF ever there was a sunshiny corner of slavery, it was that into which +a kind Providence dropped this little, helpless babe, now but a little +more than two years old. + +It was a pleasant day in early spring when Colonel Lee alighted from +his gig before the family mansion at Rosevale, and laid the child, as a +present, at the feet of his daughter Matilda. + +Miss Matilda Lee was about thirty years of age,--as active and thrifty +a little woman as could be found any where within the domains of this +cruel system of oppression. Slavery is like a two-edged knife, cutting +both ways. It not only destroys the black, but demoralizes and ruins +the white race. Those who hold slaves are usually indolent, proud, and +inefficient. They think it a disgrace to work by the side of the negro, +and therefore will allow things to be left in a very careless, untidy +way, rather than put forth their energy to alter or improve them. And as +it is impossible for slaves, untaught and degraded as they are, to give +a neat and thrifty appearance to their homes, we, who have been brought +up at the North, accustomed to work ourselves, assisted by well-trained +domestics, can scarcely realize the many discomforts often to be +experienced in Southern houses. But Miss Lee was unusually energetic and +helpful, desirous of having every thing about her neat and tasteful, and +not afraid to do something towards it with her own hands. + +Being the eldest daughter, the entire charge of the family had devolved +upon her since the death of her mother, which had occurred about ten +years before. Within this time, her brothers and sisters had been +married, and now she and her father were all that were left at the old +homestead. + +Their servants, too, had dwindled away. Some had been given to the +sons and daughters when they left the parental roof; some had died, and +others had been sold to pay debts and furnish the means of living. Old +Rosa, the cook, Nancy, the waiting-maid, and Methuselah, the ancient +gardener, were all the house-servants that remained. So they lived in +a very quiet and frugal way; and Miss Matilda's activities, not being +entirely engrossed with family cares, found employment in the nurture of +flowers and pets. + +The grounds in front of the old-fashioned mansion had been laid out +originally in very elaborate style; and, though of late years they +had been greatly neglected, they still retained traces of their former +splendor. The rose-vines on the inside of the enclosure had grown +over the low, brick wall, to meet and mingle with the trees and bushes +outside, till together they formed a solid and luxuriant mass of +verdure. White and crimson roses shone amid the dark, glossy foliage +of the mountain-laurel, which held up with sturdy stem its own rich +clusters of fluted cups, that seemed to assert equality with the queen +of flowers, and would not be eclipsed by the fragrant loveliness of +their beautiful dependents. The borders of box, which had once been +trimmed and trained into fanciful points and tufts and convolutions of +verdure, had grown into misshapen clumps; and the white, pebbly walks no +longer sparkled in the sunlight. + +Still Miss Matilda, by the aid of Methuselah, in appearance almost +as ancient as we may suppose his namesake to have been, found great +pleasure in cultivating her flower-beds; and every year, her crocuses +and hyacinths, crown-imperials and tulips, pinks, lilies, and roses, +none the less beautiful because they are so commonly enjoyed, gave a +cheerful aspect to the place. + +Her numerous pets made the house equally bright and pleasant. There +was Sir Walter Raleigh, the dog, and Mrs. Felina, the great, splendid, +Maltese mother of three beautiful blue kittens; Jack and Gill, the +gentle, soft-toned Java sparrows; and Ruby, the unwearying canary +singer, always in loud and uninterpretable conversation with San Rosa, +the mocking-bird. The birds hung in the broad, deep window of the +sitting-room, in the shade of the jasmine and honeysuckle vines that +embowered it and filled the air with delicious perfume. The dog and +cat, when not inclined to active enjoyments, were accommodated with +comfortable beds in the adjoining apartment, which was the sleeping-room +of their mistress. + +The new household pet became an occupant of this same room. + +"Laws, now, Miss Tilda, ye a'n't gwine to put de chile in ther wid all +de dogs and cats, now. 'Pears ye might have company enough o' nights +widout takin' in a cryin' baby. She'll cry sure widout her mammy, and +what ye gwine to do thin?" and old Rosa stoutly protested against the +arrangement. + +"Never mind, Aunt Rosa, don't worry now; I'll manage to take good +care of the little creature. I know what you're after,--you want her +yourself." + +"Ho, ho ho! Laws, now, Miss Tilda, you dun know noffing 'bout babies; +takes an old mammy like me to fotch 'em up. Come here, child; what's yer +name?" + +The frightened little one, whose tongue had not yet learned to utter +many words, made no attempt to answer, but stood timidly looking from +one to another of the surrounding group. + +"She ha'n't got no name, 'ta'n't likely," suggested Nance. + +"We must christen her, then," said Miss Lee. + +"Carroll called her Tidy," remarked the old gentleman, entering the room +at that moment. + +"DAT'S a name of 'spectability," said Rosa, with a satisfied air. "'Tis +my 'pinion chillen should allus have 'spectable names, else they're +'posed on in dis yer world. Nudd's Tidy, now, dere's a spec'men for yer. +Never was no more 'complished 'fectioner dan she. She knowed how to cook +all de earth, she did. Hi! couldn't she barbecue a heifer, or brile +a cock's comb, jest as 'spertly as Miss Tilda here broiders a ruffle. +Right smart cretur she wor. And so YE'RE a gwine to be, honey,--your old +mammy sees it in de tips ob yer fingers;" and Rosa caught up the child, +and well-nigh smothered it with all sorts of maternal fondnesses. + +"Now Nance," continued the old negress, turning with an air of authority +to the tall, loose-jointed, reed-like maid, "Now Nance, ye mind yer +doin's in dese yer premises. Don't ye go for to kick de young un round +like as ef she cost noffin'. Ef ye do, look out;" and she shook her +turbaned head, and doubled her fist in very threatening manner before +the girl. "Now we've got a baby in dis yer house, we'll see how de tings +is gwine for to go." + +A baby in the Lee mansion did indeed inaugurate a new order of things +in the family. So young a servant they had not had for many a day on the +estate; and Rosa felt at once the responsibility of her position, and +played the mother to her heart's content. All the care of the child's +education seemed from that moment to devolve upon her, notwithstanding +Miss Lee's repeated assertions that SHE designed to bring up the little +one after her own heart, and that Tidy should never wait upon any one +but herself. + +Between them both, Tidy had things pretty much her own way. Such an +infant of course could not be expected to comprehend the fact that she +was a slave, and born to be ruled over, and trodden under foot. Like any +other little one, she enjoyed existence, and was as happy as could be +all the day long. Every thing around her,--the chickens and turkeys +in the yard, the flowers in the garden, the kittens and birds in the +sitting-room, and the goodies in the kitchen,--added to her pleasure. +She frisked and gamboled about the house and grounds as free and joyous +as the squirrels in the woods, and without a thought or suspicion that +any thing but happiness was in store for her. She not only slept at +night in the room of her mistress, but when the daily meals were served, +the child, seated on a low bench beside Miss Lee, was fed from her own +dish. So that, in respect to her animal nature, she fared as well as any +child need to; but this was all. Not a word of instruction of any kind +did she receive. + +As she grew older, and her active mind, observing and wondering at the +many objects of interest in nature, burst out into childish questions, +"What is this for?" and "Who made that?" her mistress would answer +carelessly, "I don't know," or "You'll find out by and by." Her thirst +for knowledge was never satisfied; for while Miss Lee was good-natured +and gentle in her ways toward the child, she took no pains to impart +information of any kind. Why should she? Tidy was only a slave. + +Here, my little readers, you may see the difference between her +condition and your own. You are carefully taught every thing that will +be of use to you. Even before you ask questions, they are answered; and +father and mother, older brothers and sisters, aunties, teachers, and +friends are ready and anxious to explain to you all the curious and +interesting things that come under your notice. Indeed, so desirous are +they to cultivate your intellectual nature, that they seek to stimulate +your appetite for knowledge, by drawing your attention to many things +which otherwise you would overlook. At the same time, they point you to +the great and all-wise Creator, that you may admire and love him who has +made every thing for our highest happiness and good. + +But slavery depends for its existence and growth upon the ignorance of +its miserable victims. If Tidy's questions had been answered, and her +curiosity satisfied, she would have gone on in her investigations; and +from studying objects in nature, she would have come to study books, and +perhaps would have read the Bible, and thus found out a great deal which +it is not considered proper for a slave to know. + +"We couldn't keep our servants, if we were to instruct them," says +the slaveholder; and therefore he makes the law which constitutes it a +criminal offense to teach a slave to read. + +But Tidy was taught to WORK. That is just what slaves are made for,--to +work, and so save their owners the trouble of working themselves. +Slaveholders do not recognize the fact that God designed us all to work, +and has so arranged matters, that true comfort and happiness can only be +reached through the gateway of labor. It is no blessing to be idle, and +let others wait upon us; and in this respect the slaves certainly have +the advantage of their masters. + +Tidy was an apt learner, and at eight years of age she could do up Miss +Matilda's ruffles, clean the great brass andirons and fender in the +sitting-room, and set a room to rights as neatly as any person in the +house. + + +CHAPTER IV. SEVERAL EVENTS. + +SHALL I pause here in my narrative to tell you what became of Annie +and some of the other persons who have been mentioned in the preceding +chapters? + +Tidy often saw her mother. Miss Lee used to visit Mr. Carroll's family, +and never went without taking Tidy, that the child and her mother might +have a good time together. And good times indeed they were. + +When Annie learned that her baby had been taken to Rosevale, that she +was so well cared for, and that they would be able sometimes to see one +another, her grief was very much abated, and she began to think in what +new ways she could show her love for her little one. She saved all the +money she could get; and, as she had opportunity, she would buy a bit +of gay calico, to make the child a frock or an apron. Mothers, you +perceive, are all alike, from the days of Hannah, who made a "little +coat" for her son Samuel, and "brought it to him from year to year, +when she came up with her husband to the yearly sacrifice," down to the +present time. Nothing pleases them more than to provide things useful +and pretty for their little ones. Even this slave-mother, with her +scanty means, felt this same longing. It did her heart good to be +doing something for her child; and so she was constantly planning and +preparing for these visits, that she might never be without something +new and gratifying to give her. In the warm days of summer, she would +take her down to Sweet-Brier Pond, a pretty pool of water right in the +heart of a sweet pine grove, a little way from the house, and Tidy +would have a good splashing frolic in the water, and come out looking +as bright and shining as a newly-polished piece of mahogany. Her mother +would press the water from her dripping locks, and turn the soft, glossy +hair in short, smooth curls over her fingers, put on the new frock, +and then set her out before her admiring eyes, and exclaim in her fond +motherly pride,-- + +"You's a purty cretur, honey. You dun know noffin how yer mudder lubs +ye." + +Tidy remembers to this day the delightful afternoon thus spent the +very last time she went to see her mother, though neither of them then +thought it was to be the last. Mr. Carroll, Annie's master, was very +close in all his business transactions, never allowing, as he remarked, +his left hand to know what his right hand did. He stole Tidy away, as we +have already told you, from her mother; and this was the way he usually +managed in parting his slaves, especially any that were much valued. He +said it was "a part of his religion to deal TENDERLY with his people!" + +"'Tis a great deal better," said he, "to avoid a row. They would +moan and wail and make such a fuss, if they knew they were to change +quarters." + +Humane man, wasn't he? + +Mr. Carroll got into debt, and an opportunity occurring, he sold Annie +and her four boys. The bargain was made without the knowledge of any +one on the estate; and in the night they were transferred to their new +master. Nobody ever knew to what part of the country they were carried. + +When the news reached the ear of Marcia, Annie's mother, it proved to be +more than she could bear. Her very last comfort was thus torn from her. +When she was told of it, the poor, decrepit old woman fell from her +chair upon the floor of her cabin insensible. The people lifted her up +and laid her upon the bed, but she never came to consciousness. She lay +without sense or motion until the next day, when she died. The slaves +said, "Old Marcia's heart broke." + +Thus little Tidy was left alone in the world, without a single relative +to love her. Didn't she care much about it? That happened thirty +years ago, and she can not speak of it even now without tears. But she +comforts herself by saying, "I shall meet them in heaven." Annie may not +yet have arrived at that blessed home; but Marcia has rejoiced all these +years in the presence of the Lord she loved, and has found, by a glad +experience, that the happiness of heaven can compensate for all the +trials of earth. + + "For God has marked each sorrowing day, + And numbered every secret tear; + And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay + For all his children suffer here." + +And now I must tell you of another death which occurred about this same +time. It was that of Colonel Lee. He had been a rich and a proud man, +and it would seem, that, like the rich man in the parable, he had had +all his good things in this life; and now that he had come to the +gates of death, he found himself in a sadly destitute and lamentable +condition. He was afraid to die; and when he came to the very last, his +shrieks of terror and distress were fearful. His mind was wandering, and +he fancied some strong being was binding him with chains and shackles. +He screamed for help, and even called for Rosa, his faithful old +servant, to come and help him. + +"Take off those hand-cuffs," he cried; "take them off. I can not bear +them. Don't let them put on those chains. Oh, I can't move! They'll drag +me away! Stop them; help me! save me!" + +But, alas! no one could save him. The man who had all his life been +loading his fellow-creatures with chains and fetters was now in the +grasp of One mightier than he, who was "delivering him over into chains +of darkness, to be reserved unto the judgment." + +How dreadful was such an end! + +"I would rather be a slave with all my sorrows," said Tidy, when she +related this sad story, "and wait for comfort until I get to heaven, +than to have all the riches of all the slaveholders in the world, gained +by injustice and oppression; for I could only carry them as far as the +grave, and there they would be an awful weight to drag me down into +torments for ever." + + + +CHAPTER V. A NEW HOME. + +AFTER Colonel Lee's death, which happened when Tidy was about ten years +old, the plantation and all the slaves were sold, and Miss Matilda, with +Tidy, who was her own personal property, found a home with her brother. +Mr. Richard Lee owned an estate about twenty miles from Rosevale. +His lands had once been well cultivated, but now received very little +attention, for medicinal springs had been discovered there a few years +before, and it was expected that these springs, by being made a resort +for invalids and fashionable people, would bring to the family all the +income they could desire. + +Mr. and Mrs. Lee were not very pleasant people. They were selfish and +penurious, and hard-hearted and severe towards their servants. They no +doubt were happy to have their sister take up her abode with them; but +there is reason to believe she was chiefly welcome on account of the +valuable little piece of property she brought with her. Tidy was just +exactly what Mrs. Lee wanted to fill a place in her family, which she +had never before been able to supply to her satisfaction. She needed +her as an under-nurse, and waiter-and-tender in general upon her four +children. Amelia, the eldest, was just Tidy's age, and Susan was two +years younger. Then came Lemuel, a boy of three, and George, the baby. + +Mammy Grace was the family nurse, but as she was growing old and +somewhat infirm, she required a pair of young, sprightly feet to +run after little Lemmy to keep him out of mischief, and to carry the +teething, worrying baby about. Tidy was just the child for her. + +The morning after her arrival, Mrs. Lee instructed her in her duties +thus:-- + +"You are to do what Mammy Grace and the children tell you to. See that +Lemmy doesn't stuff things into his ears and nose; mind you don't let +the baby fall, and behave yourself." + +She wasn't told what would be the consequence if she did not "behave +herself," but Tidy felt that she had something to fear from that +flashing eye and heavy brow. Miss Matilda had protected her, as far as +she was able, though without the child's knowledge, by saying to her +sister that she was willing her little servant should be employed in the +family, but that she was never to be whipped. + +"You're mighty saving of your little piece of flesh and blood," said her +sister-in-law. "I find it doesn't work well to be too tender; they need +a little cuffing now and then to keep them straight." + +"Tidy is a good child," replied Miss Matilda. "She always does as she is +told, and I have never had occasion to punish her in my life; and I can +not consent to her being treated severely." + +"We shall see," said Mrs. Lee; "but, I tell you, I take no impudence +from my hands." + +Miss Matilda's stipulation and her constant presence in the family no +doubt screened Tidy from much that was unpleasant from her new mistress; +for if children or servants are ever so well inclined, an ugly and +easily excited temper in a superior will provoke evil dispositions in +them, and MAKE occasions of punishment. But in this case the mistress +was evidently held in check. A knock on the head sometimes, a kick or a +cross word, was the greatest severity she ventured to inflict; so that, +upon the whole, the new home was a pleasant and happy one. + +The services Tidy was required to render were a perfect delight to her. +Like all children, she liked to be associated with those of her own age, +and, though called a slave, to all intents and purposes she was +received as the playmate and companion of Amelia and Susan. They were +good-natured, agreeable little girls, and it was a pleasure rather +than a task to walk to and from school, and carry their books and +dinner-basket for them. And to go into the play-house, and have the +handling of the dolls, the tea-sets, and toys, was employment as +charming as it was new. + +The nursery was in the cabin of Mammy Grace, which was situated a few +steps from the family mansion, and was distinguished from the log-huts +of the other slaves, by having brick walls and two rooms. The inner room +contained the baby's cradle, a crib for the little one who had not yet +outgrown his noon-day nap, her own bed, and now a cot for Tidy. In the +outer stood the spinning-wheel,--at which the old nurse wrought when not +occupied with the children,--a small table, an old chest of drawers, and +a few rude chairs. Some old carpets which had been discarded from the +house were laid over the floors, and gave an air of comfort to the +place. One shelf by the side of the fireplace held all the china and +plate they had to use; for, you must know, little readers, that slave +cabins contain very few of the conveniences which are so familiar to +you. To assert, as some people do, that the negroes do not need them, is +simply to say that they have never been used to the common comforts of +life, and so do not know their worth. + +Nevertheless, the place with all its scantiness of furniture was a happy +abode for Tidy, who found in Mammy Grace even a better mother than old +Rosa had been to her; for, besides being kind and cheerful, she was +pious, and from her lips it was that Tidy first heard the name of +God. Would you believe it? Tidy had lived to be ten years old in this +Christian land, and had never heard of the God who made her. Miss Lee, +with all her kindness, was not a Christian, and never read the Bible, +offered prayer, or went to church; so that the poor child had grown up +thus far as ignorant of religious truth as a heathen. + +We may well consider then the providence of God which brought her under +the care of Mammy Grace, the negro nurse, as another link in that golden +chain of love which was to draw her up out of the shame and misery +of her abject condition to the knowledge and service of her Heavenly +Father. + + + +CHAPTER VI. BEGINNINGS OF KNOWLEDGE. + +THE first day of the new service was over. The two babies had been +carried to the house and put to bed as usual at sunset, and Mammy Grace +had mixed the corn-pone for supper, and laid it to bake beneath the hot +ashes. + +Tidy stretched herself at full length near the open door of the cabin, +and resting her head upon her hand looked out. All was still save the +hum of voices from the house, and now and then the plaintive song of +the whippoorwill in the meadow. The new moon was just hiding its silvery +crescent behind Tulip Mountain, and the shadows were growing every +moment darker among the flower-laden trees that covered its sides. +It was just the hour for thinking; and as the weary child lay there, +watching the stars that, one by one, stepped with such strange, +noiseless grace out upon the clear, blue sky, soothed by the calm +influence that breathed through the beautiful twilight, she soon forgot +herself and her surroundings, and was lost in the mazes of speculation +and wonder. What were these bright spots that kept coming thicker +and faster over her head, winking and blinking at her, as if with a +conscious and friendly intelligence? Who made them? what were they +doing? where did they hide in the daytime? If she could climb up yonder +mountain, and then get to the top of those tall tulip-trees, she was +sure she could reach them, or, at least, see better what they were. Were +they candles, that some unseen hand had lighted and thrust out there, +that the night might not be wholly dark? That could not be, for then the +wind, which was fanning the trees, would blow them out. How the little +mind longed to fathom the mystery! Once she had ventured to ask Miss +Matilda what those bright specks up in the sky were, and she answered, +in an indifferent sort of way, "Stars, you little silly goose,--why, +don't you know? They are stars." And then she was just about as wise and +as satisfied as she had been before. + +She was so busy with her thoughts, that she did not perceive Mammy +Grace, as she drew the old, broken-backed rocking-chair up to the door, +and sitting down, with her elbows on her knees and her head upon her +hands, leaned forward, to discover, if possible, what the child was so +intently gazing at. She could discern no object in the deep twilight; +but, struck herself with the still beauty of the scene, she exclaimed,-- + +"Pooty night, a'n't it? How de stars of heaben do shine!" + +The voice disturbed Tidy in her reverie. Her first impulse was to get +up and walk away, that she might finish out her thinking in some other +place, where she could be alone. But the thought flashed through her +mind, that perhaps the kind-looking old nurse at her side might be able +to tell her some of the many things she was so perplexed about; and, +almost before she knew she was speaking, she blurted out,-- + +"What's them things up thar?" + +"Dem bright little shiny tings, honey, in de firm'ment? Laws, don' ye +know? Whar's ye lived all yer days, if ye don' know de stars when ye +sees 'em?" + +"Who owns 'em? and what they stuck up ther for?" asked the child, +somewhat encouraged. + +"Who owns 'em? Hi! dey's de property ob de Lord ob heaben, chile, I +reckons; and dey's put dar to gib us light o'nights. Jest see 'em shine! +and what a sight of 'em dar is, too; nobody can't count 'em noway. And +de Lord he hold 'em all in de holler ob his hand," said the old negress, +shaping her great black palm to suit the idea; "and he knows 'em all +by name, too. Specs 'tis wonderful; but ebery one ob dem leetle, teenty +tings has got a name, and de great Lord he 'members 'em ebery one." + +Tidy's wonder was not at all diminished by what she heard; and the +questions she wanted to ask came up so fast in her mind, she hardly +knew which to utter first. What they were made out of, how they came and +went, what they meant by twinkling so, were things she had long desired +to know; but for the moment these were forgotten in the burning, eager +curiosity she had, now that she had heard the name of their Maker, to +know more of him, and where he was to be found. Half rising from +her former position, and looking earnestly in the face of her humble +instructor, which was beaming with her own admiration of the glorious +works and power of the Lord, she exclaimed vehemently,-- + +"That Lord,--who's him? I's never heerd of him afore." + +"Laws, honey, don' ye know? He's de great Lord of heaben and earf, dat +made you and me and ebery body else. He made all de tings ye sees,--de +trees, de green grass, de birds, de pigs,--dere's noffin dat he didn't +make. Oh, he's de mighty Lord, I tells ye, chile! Didn't ye neber hear +'bout him afore?" + +Tidy shook her head; she could hardly speak. + +"Tell me some more," she said at last. + +"Well, chile, dis great Lord he lib up in de heaben of heabens, way up +ober dat blue sky, and he sits all de time on a great trone, and he sees +ebery ting dat goes on down har in dis yer world. Ef ye does any ting +bad, he puts it down in a great book he's got, and byme-by he'll punish +de wicked folks right orful." + +"Whip?" questioned Tidy. + +"Whip! no; burn in de hot fire and brimstone for eber and for eber. 'Tis +orful to be wicked, and hab de great Lord punish." + +"I ha'n't done noffin," cried out Tidy, fairly trembling with terror. + +"Laws, no,--course not, chile; ye's noffin but a chile, ye know; but +some folks does orful tings. But ye needn't be afeard, honey; he's +a good Lord, and lubs us all; and ef ye tries to be good, and 'beys +missus, and neber lies, nor steals, nor swars, he'll be a good friend to +ye. He'll make de sun to shine on yer, and de rain to fall; and when ye +dies, he'll take yer right up dar, to lib wid him allus. There now, jest +hark,--dat's old Si comin' up de lane. Don' ye h'ar him singin'? He lubs +de Lord, he does, and he's allus a-singin'. Hark, now! a'n't it pooty? +Guess de pone's done by dis time;" and she shuffled to the fireplace, to +look after her cake. + +Tidy, almost overwhelmed with the weight of knowledge that had been +poured in upon her inquiring spirit, and hardly knowing whether what +she had heard should make her glad or sorry, leaned back against the +door-post, and carelessly listened to the voice, as it came nearer and +nearer. In a minute the words fell with pleasing distinctness upon the +ear. + + "Dear sister, didn't you promise me + To help me shout and praise him? + Den come and jine your voice to mine, + And sing his lub amazin'. + I tink I hear de trumpet sound, + About de break of day; + Good Lord, we'll rise in de mornin', + And fly, and fly away, + On de mornin's wings, to Canaan's land, + To heaben, our happy home, + Bright angels shall convey our souls + To de new Jerusalem." + +"Hallelujah, amen, bress de Lord. How is ye dis night, Mammy Grace?" +said a cheerful voice at the cabin-door. + +"Ho! go 'long, Simon,--I knowed ye was comin'. Ye allus blows yer +trumpet 'fore yer gits here. Come in, help yerse'f to a cha'r. Here, +chile," addressing Tidy, "here's yer supper,--eat it now; and don' ye +neber let what I's telled ye slip out of yer 'membrance." + +Which Tidy was not at all likely to do. She picked up the bread which +was thrown to her, and, munching it as she went along, walked away to +the pump to get a drink of water. + +Children, when you rise in the morning and come down stairs to the +cheerful breakfast, or when you are called at noon and night, to join +the family circle again around a neatly-spread table, did you ever think +what a refining influence this single custom has upon your life? The +savage eats his meanly-prepared food from the vessel in which it is +cooked, each member of his household dipping with his fingers, or some +rude utensil, into the one dish. He is scarcely raised above the cattle +that eat their fodder at the crib, or the dog that gnaws the bone thrown +to him upon the ground. And are the slaves any better off? They are +neither allowed time, convenience, or inducements to enjoy a practice, +which is so common with us, that we fail to number it among our +privileges, or to recognize its elevating tendency; and yet they are +stigmatized as a debased and brutish class. Can we expect them to be +otherwise? Who is accountable for this degradation? By what system have +they become so reduced? and have any suitable efforts ever been made for +their elevation? + + +Since I wrote this chapter, I have learned some things with regard to +the freed men at Port Royal, where so many fugitive slaves have taken +refuge during the war, and are now employed by Government, and being +educated by Christian teachers, which will make what I have just said +more apparent. Dr. French, who has labored among this people, in a +public address, drew a pleasing picture of the improvements introduced +into the home-life of the negroes,--how, as they began to feel free, and +earn an independent subsistence, their cabins were whitewashed, swept +clean, kept in order, and pictures and maps, cut from illustrated +newspapers, were pasted up on the walls by the women as a decoration. +He spoke of the rivalry in neatness thus produced, and of the general +elevating and refining effect. On his representation, the commanding +officers and the society by whom he is employed permitted him to +introduce into some twenty-five of the cabins, on twenty-five different +plantations, what had never been known before,--a window with panes of +glass. To this luxury were added tables, good, strong, tin wash-basins, +and soap, stout bed-ticks, and a small looking-glass. The effect of the +father of the family, sitting at the head of his new table, while his +sable wife and children gathered around it, and asking a blessing on the +simple fare, was very touching. Hitherto they had boiled their hominy in +a common skillet, and eaten it out of oyster-shells, when and wherever +they could, some in-doors and some outside, in every variety of +attitude. He said, also, that the ludicrous pranks of both old and +young, on eying themselves for the first time in the mirror, were quite +amusing. + + + +CHAPTER VII. FRANCES. + +QUITE a number of children were gathered in the vicinity of the pump, +performing their usual antics, under the direction and leadership of +a girl larger and older than the rest,--a genuine, coal-black, +woolly-headed, thick-lipped young negro. This was the daughter of Venus, +the cook, and her appointment of service was the kitchen. Full of fun, +and nimble as an eel in every joint, her various pranks and feats of +skill were perfectly amazing, and were received with boisterous applause +by the rest of the group. + +As she saw Tidy advancing, however, she ceased her evolutions, and, +turning to the others with a comic grimace, she bade them hold off, +while she held discourse with the new-comer. + +"Her comes yer white nigger," she said, in a loud whisper, "and I's +boun' to gaffer de las' news;" and putting on a demure face, she +accosted the neatly-appareled child. + +"Specs ye're a stranger in dese yer parts. What's yer name?" + +"Tidy;--what's yourn?" was the ready response. + +"Dey calls me France. Dey don't stop to place fandangles on to names +here. Specs dey'll call YOU Ti." + +"I doesn't care; I's willin'," replied Tidy, good-naturedly. + +"What's de matter wid yer? Been sick?" proceeded France, with a roguish +twinkle of the eye. "Specs you's had measles or 'sumption,--yer's pale +as deaf; and yer hair,--laws, sakes, it'll a'most stan' alone! de kind's +all done gone out of it." + +"Never had much," said Tidy, laughing. "It's most straight, see;" and +she pulled one of the short ringlets out with her fingers. "And I isn't +sick, neither; 'tis my 'plexion." + +"'Plexion!" repeated Frances, with a tone of derision; "'tis white folks +has 'plexion; niggers don't hab none. Don't grow white skins in dese yer +parts." + +"White's as good as black, I s'pose, a'n't it?" answered Tidy, diverted +by the droll manners of her new acquaintance. "I don't see no odds +nohow." + +"'Ta'n't 'spectable, dat's all. Brack's de fashion here on dis yer +plantation. 'Tis tough, b'ars whippin's and hard knocks. Whew! Hi! Ke! +Missus'll cut ye all up to slivers fust time." + +"Does missus whip?" + +"Reckon she does jest dat ting. Reckons you'll feel it right smart 'fore +you're much older. Hi! she whips like a driver,--cuts de skin all off +de knuckles in little less dan no time at all. Yer'll see; make yer curl +all up." + +It was not a very pleasant prospect for Tidy, to be sure; but, more +amused than frightened, she went on with her inquiries. + +"What does she whip ye for?" + +"Laws, sake, for noffin at all; jest when she takes a notion; jest for +ex'cise, like. Owes me one, now," said the girl. "I breaked de pitcher +dis mornin', and, ho, ho, ho! how missus flied! I runned and 'scaped +her, though." + +"She'll catch ye some time." + +"No, she don't, not for dat score. Specs I'll dodge till she's got +suffin' else to tink about. Dat's de way dis chile fix it. Shouldn't hab +no skin leff, ef I didn't. Laws, now, ye ought to seen toder day, when +I's done stept on missus' toe. Didn't do it a purpose, sartain true, ef +ye do laugh," said she, shaking her head at the tittering tribe at her +heels. "Dat are leetle Luce pushed, and missus jest had her hand up to +gib Luce an old-fashioned crack on the head wid dat big brack key of +hern. Hi! didn't she fly roun', and forgot all 'bout Luce, a tryin' to +hit dis nig--and dis nig scooted and runned, and when missus' hand +come down wid de big key, thar warn't no nigger's head at all thar--and +missus was gwine to lay it on so drefful hard, dat she falled ober +hersef right down into de kitchen, and by de time she picked hersef up, +bof de nigs war done gone. Ho, ho, ho! I tells ye she was mad enough ter +eat 'em. 'Pears as ef sparks comed right out of dem brack eyes." + +The girl's loud voice, as she grew animated in telling her exploits, and +the boisterous glee of her hearers, might have drawn the mistress with +whip in hand from the house, to inflict with double severity the evaded +punishment of the morning, but for the timely interference of Venus, +who, with her clean white apron and turbaned head, majestically emerged +from the kitchen, warning the young rebel and her associates to clear +the premises. + +"Along wid yer, and keep yer tongue tween yer teeth, chile, or you'll +cotch it." + +So Frances, drawing Tidy along with her, and followed by the whole +troop, turned into the lane that led down to the negro quarters, and as +they saunter along, I will tell you about her. + +She was a fair specimen of slave children, full of the merry humor, the +love of fun and frolic peculiar to her race, with not a little admixture +of art and cunning. She was wild, rough, and boisterous, one of the sort +always getting into disgrace. She couldn't step without stumbling, nor +hold anything in her hand without spilling. She never had on a whole +frock, except when it was new, and her bare feet were seldom without +a bandage. She considered herself one of the most unfortunate of +creatures, because she met with so many accidents, and had, in +consequence, to suffer so much punishment; and it was of no use to try +to do differently, she declared, for she "couldn't help it, nohow." + +I have seen just such children who were not slaves, haven't you? And I +think I understand the cause of their misfortunes. Shall I give you an +inkling of it? It is because they are so heedless and headlong in their +ways, racing and romping about with perfect recklessness. Don't you +think now that I am right, little reader, you who cried this very day, +because you were always getting into trouble, and getting scolded and +punished for it? You who are always tearing your frock and soiling your +nice white apron, spilling ink on your copy-book, and misplacing your +geography, forgetting your pencil and losing your sponge, and so getting +reproof upon reproof until you are heart-sick and discouraged? I know +what Jessie Smith's father told HER the other day. "You wouldn't meet +with so many mishaps, Jessie, if you didn't RUSH so." Jessie tried, +after that, to move round more gently and carefully, and I think she got +on better. + +Frances was just one of these "rushing" children, but she was +good-natured, and Tidy was quite fascinated with her. It was so new to +have an associate of her own age too; and so it came to pass that almost +immediately they were fast friends. Now, as they strolled along in the +starlight, under the great spreading pines which stood as sentinels +here and there along their path, Tidy drank in eagerly all her companion +said, and in a little while had gathered all the interesting points of +information concerning the place and the people. Frances told her how +hard and mean the master and mistress were, and how poorly the slaves +fared down at the quarters. Up at the house they made out very well, she +said; but not half so well as she and her mother did when they lived out +east on Mr. Blackstone's plantation. Then she described the busy summer +season, when hundreds of people came there to board and drink the water +of the springs. Mr. Lee had built two long rows of little brick houses, +she said, down by the springs, where the people lived while they were +here, and there was a great dining cabin with long tables and seats, +and a barbecue hall, where they had barbecues, and then danced all night +long, and had gay times. And there was plenty of money going at such +times, for the people had quantities of money and gave it to the slaves. + +The negro quarters consisted of six log cabins, which had once been +whitewashed, but now were extremely wretched in appearance, both without +and within. It is customary on the plantations of the South to have the +houses of the negroes a little removed, perhaps a quarter of a mile, +from the family mansion. Thus, with the exception of the house servants, +who must be within call, the slave portion of the family live by +themselves, and generally in a most uncivilized and miserable way. In +some cases their houses are quite neatly built and kept; but it was not +so on Mr. Lee's estate. + +In front of these old huts was a spring, the water bubbling up and +running through a dilapidated, moss-covered spout, into a tub half sunk +in the earth, which in the daytime served as a drinking trough for the +animals, and a bathing-pool for the babies. Brushwood and logs were +lying around in all directions, and here and there a fire was burning, +at which the negroes were cooking their supper. Dogs and a few stray +babies were roaming about, seeming lonely for want of the pigs and +chickens which kept company with them all day, but had now gone to rest. +Boys and girls of larger growth were rollicking and careering over the +place, dancing and singing and entertaining themselves and the whole +settlement with their jollities and noise. + +Is it surprising, we must stop to ask, that the colored people are a +degraded class, when we consider the way in which the children live from +their very infancy. No work for them to do, nothing to learn, nobody to +care for them,--they are just left to grow and fatten like swine, till +they are in condition to be sold or to be broken in to their tasks in +the field. Utterly neglected, they contract, of necessity, lazy and +vicious habits, and it is no wonder they have to be whipped and broken +in to work as animals to the yoke or harness; and no wonder that under +such treatment for successive generations, the race should become so +reduced in mental and moral ability, as to be thought by many incapable +of ever reclaiming a position among the enlightened nations of the +earth. Oh, what a weight of guilt have the people of our country +incurred in allowing four millions of those poor people to be so trodden +down in the very midst of us! + +When the children reached home again they found Mammy Grace's cabin +quite full of men and women, shouting, singing, and talking in a way +quite unintelligible to our little stranger. After she had dropped upon +her cot for the night, she lifted her head and ventured to ask what +those people had been about. + +"Don' ye know, chile? We's had a praisin'-meetin'. We has 'em ebery +week, one week it's here, and one week it's ober to General Doolittle's, +ober de hill yonder. Ef ye's a good chile, honey, ye shall go wid yer +old mammy some time, ye shall." + +"What do you do?" asked Tidy. + +"We praises, chile,--praises de Lord, and den we prays too." + +"What's that?" + +"Laws, chile, ye don't know noffin. Whar's ye been fotched up all yer +days? Why, when we wants any ting we can't git oursef, nohow, we ask de +Lord to gib it to us--dat's what it is." + +That first day and evening in Tidy's new home was a memorable day in her +experience. It seemed as if she had been lifted up two or three degrees +in existence, so much had she heard and learned. She had enough to +think about as she lay down to rest, for the first time away from Miss +Matilda's sheltering presence. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. PRAYER. + +As Tidy grew in stature she grew in favor also with those around her. +Spry but gentle in her movements, obedient, obliging, and apt to learn, +she secured the good-will of her master and mistress, and the visitors +that thronged to the place. If any little service was to be performed +which required more than usual care or expedition, she was the one to be +called upon to do it. It was no easy task to please a person so fretful +and impatient in spirit as Mrs. Lee, yet Tidy, by her promptness and +docility, succeeded admirably. Still, with all her well-doing she was +not able entirely to avoid her harshness and cruelty. + +One day, when she had been several months in Mrs. Lee's family, she was +set to find a ball of yarn which had become detached from her mistress's +knitting-work. Diligently she hunted for it every-where,--in Mammy +Grace's cabin, on the veranda, in the drawing-room, dining-room, and +kitchen, up-stairs, down-stairs, and in the lady's chamber, but no ball +was to be found. The mistress grew impatient, and the child searched +again. The mistress became unreasonable and threatened, and the child +really began to tremble for fear of undeserved chastisement. What could +she do? + +What do you think she did? I will tell you? + +Ever since that first night with Mammy Grace, when Tidy had asked her +what it was to pray, and had been told, "When we wants any ting we can't +git oursefs, nohow, we asks de Lord to gib it to us," these words +had been treasured in her memory; but as yet she had never had an +opportunity to put them to a practical use; for up to this time she +had not really wanted any thing. Her necessities were all supplied even +better than she had reason to expect; for in addition to the plain but +sufficient fare that was allowed her in the cabin, she was never a day +without luxuries from the table of the family. Fruits, tarts, and many +a choice bit of cake, found their way through the children's hands to +their little favorite, so that she had nothing to wish for in the eating +line. Her services with the children were so much in accordance with her +taste as to be almost pastime, and the old nurse was as kind and good as +a mother could be. Never until this day had she been brought into a +real strait; and it was in this emergency that she thought to put Mammy +Grace's suggestion to the test. She had attended the weekly prayer or +"praisin'-meetin's" as they were called, and observed that when the +men and women prayed, they seemed to talk in a familiar way with this +invisible Lord; and she determined to do the same. As she went out for +the third time from the presence of her mistress, downcast and unhappy, +she thought that if she only had such eyes as the Lord had, which Mammy +Grace repeatedly told her were in every place, considering every little +thing in the earth, she would know just where to go to find the missing +ball. At that thought something seemed to whisper, "Pray." + +She darted out of the door, ran across the yard, making her way as +speedily as possible to the only retired spot she knew of. This was +a deep gully at the back of the house, through which a tiny stream of +water crept, just moistening the roots of the wild cherry and alder +bushes which grew there in great abundance, and keeping the grass fresh +and green all the summer long. No one ever came to this spot excepting +now and then the laundress with a piece of linen to bleach, or the +children to play hide-and-seek of a moonlight evening. Here she fell +upon her knees, and lifting up her hands as she had seen others do, she +said,-- + +"Blessed Lord, I want to find missus' ball of yarn, and I can't. You +know whar 'tis. Show me, so I sha'n't get cracks over my head with the +big key. Hallelujah, amen." + +She didn't know, innocent child, what this "Hallelujah, amen," meant; +but she remembered that Uncle Simon always ended in that way, and +she supposed it had something important to do with the prayer. So she +uttered it with a feeling of great satisfaction, as though that capped +the climax of her duty, and put the seal of acceptance on her petition; +and then she got up and walked away, as sure as could be that the ball +would be forthcoming. I dare say she expected to see it rolling out +before her from some unthought-of corner as she went along. + +Do not laugh at the poor little slave girl, children, or ridicule the +idea of her taking such a small thing to the Lord. If you, and older +people too, were in the habit of carrying all your little troubles to +the throne of grace, I am sure you would find help that you little dream +of. If the Lord in his greatness regards the little sparrows, so that +not one of them shall fall to the ground without his notice, and if he +numbers the hairs of our heads, surely there is nothing that can give +us uneasiness of mind or sorrow of heart too small to commend to his +notice. I wish we might all follow Tidy's example, and I have no doubt +that our heavenly Father, who is quite willing to have his words and his +love tested, would answer us as he did her. + +She went directly to the house, carefully looking this way and that, +as if expecting, as I said, that the ball would suddenly appear before +her,--of course it did not,--and passing across the veranda, entered the +hall. A great, old-fashioned, eight-day clock, like the pendulum that +hung in the farmer's kitchen so long, and got tired of ticking, I +imagine, stood in one corner. Just at the foot of this, Tidy saw a white +string protruding. She forgot for the moment what she was hunting after, +and stooped to pick up the string. She pulled at it, but it seemed to +catch in something and slipped through her fingers. She pulled again, +when lo and behold! out came the ball of yarn. Didn't her eyes sparkle? +Didn't her hands twitch with excitement, as she picked it up and carried +it to her mistress? So much for praying, said she to herself; I shall +know what to do the next time I get into trouble. + +The next time the affair proved a more serious one. It was no less than +a search for Frances, who had again been guilty of some misdemeanor, and +had hidden herself away to escape punishment. On the second day of her +absence, Mrs. Lee called Tidy, and instructed her to search for the +girl, with the assurance that if she didn't find her, she herself should +get the whipping. It was no very pleasant prospect for Tidy, but she +set to her task earnestly. A half-day she spent going over the +premises,--the house, the out-buildings, the quarters, and the +pine-woods opposite; but the girl was not to be found. + +Afraid to come and report her want of success, for a while she was quite +in despair; until again she bethought herself of prayer, and out she ran +to the gully. There she cried,-- + +"Lord, I's very anxious to find France. I'll thank you to show me whar +she is, and make missus merciful, so she sha'n't lash neither one of +us. Oh, if I could only find France. Blessed Lord, you can help me find +her"---- + +She was pleading very earnestly when a voice suddenly interrupted her, +and there, at her side, stood the girl. + +"Who's dat ar you's conbersin wid 'bout me, little goose?" asked +Frances. + +"Oh, France," cried Tidy in delight, "whar was you? Missus set me +lookin' for yer, and she said she'd whip all the skin off me, if I +didn't find yer. Whar's you been?" + +"Laws, you nummy, ye don't specs now I's gwine to let all dis yer +plantation know dat secret. Ho, ho, ho! If I telled, I couldn't go dar +'gin no way. I's comed here for my dinner, caus specs dis chile can't +starve nohow. See, my mudder knows whar to put de bones for dis yer +chile," and pushing aside the bushes, she displayed an ample supply of +eatables, which she fell to devouring greedily. Tidy had to reason long +and stoutly with the refractory girl before she could persuade her to +return to the house; and when she accomplished her purpose, she was +probably not aware of the real motive that wrought in that dark, stupid +negro mind. It was not the fear of an increased punishment, if she +remained longer absent,--it was not the faint hope that Tidy held +up, that if she humbly asked her mistress's pardon, she might be +forgiven,--but the thought that if she did not at once return, Tidy must +suffer in her stead, was too much for her. She was, notwithstanding her +black skin and rude nature, too generous to allow that. + +So the two wended their way to the kitchen in great trepidation, and +Tidy, stepping round to the sitting-room, timidly informed her mistress +of the arrival, adding in most beseeching manner, "Please, Missus, don't +whip her, 'caus she's so sorry." + +"You mind your own business, little sauce-box, or you'll catch it too. +When I want your advice, I'll come for it," and seizing her whip which +she kept on a shelf close by, she proceeded to the kitchen. Miss Matilda +followed, determined to see that justice was done to one at least. + +The poor frightened girl fell on her knees. + +"Oh, Missus," she cried, "dear Missus, do 'scuse me. I'll neber do dat +ting over 'gin! I'll neber run away 'gin! I'll neber do noffin! Oh, +Missus, please don't, oh, dear,"--as notwithstanding the appeal, the +angry blow fell. Before another could descend, Miss Matilda laid her +hand upon her sister's arm. + +"Excuse the girl, Susan," she said, gently, "excuse her just this once, +and give her a trial. See if she won't do better." + +It was very hard, for it was contrary to her nature, for Mrs. Lee to +show mercy. However, she did yield, and after a very severe reprimand to +the culprit, and a very unreasonable, angry speech to Tidy, who, to +to [sic] her thinking, had become implicated in Frances' guilt, she +dismissed them both from her presence,--the one chuckling over her +fortunate escape, and the other querying in her mind, whether or no +this unhoped-for mercy was another answer to prayer. Miss Matilda made +a remark as they retired, which Tidy heard, whether it was designed for +her ear or not. + +"I always have designed to give that child her liberty when she is old +enough; and if any thing prevents my doing so, I hope she will take it +herself." + +Take her liberty! What did that mean? Tidy laid up the saying, and +pondered it in her heart. + +Does any one of our little readers ask why Miss Matilda did not free +the child then? Tidy's services paid her owner's board at her brother's +house, and she couldn't afford to give away her very subsistence; COULD +SHE? + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE FIRST LESSON. + +THE walk to school was a very delightful one, and as the trio trudged +over the road from day to day, chattering like magpies, laughing, +singing, shouting, and dancing in the exuberance of childish glee, +all seemed equally light-hearted and joyous. Even the little slave who +carried the books which she was unable to read, and the basket of +dinner of which she could not by right partake, with a keen eye for +the beautiful, and a sensitive heart to appreciate nature, could not +apparently have been more happy, if her condition had been reversed, and +she had been made the served instead of the servant. + +The way for half a mile lay through a dense pine-wood,--the tall trees +rising like stately pillars in some vast temple filled with balsamic +incense, and floored with a clean, elastic fabric, smooth as polished +marble, over which the little feet lightly and gayly tripped. In the +central depths where the sun's rays never penetrated, and the fallen +leaves lay so thickly on the ground, no flowers could grow, but on the +outer edges spring lavished her treasures. The trailing arbutus added +new fragrance to the perfumed air, frail anemones trembled in the +wind, and violets flourished in the shade. The blood-root lifted its +lily-white blossoms to the light, and the cream-tinted, fragile bells of +the uvularia nestled by its side. Passing the wood and its embroidered +flowery border, a brook ran across the road. The rippling waters were +almost hidden by the bushes which grew upon its banks, where the wild +honeysuckle and touch-me-not, laurels and eglantine, mingled their +beautiful blossoms, and wooed the bee and humming-bird to their +gay bowers. Over this stream a narrow bridge led directly to the +school-house; but the homeward side was so attractive, that the children +always tarried there until they saw the teacher on the step, or heard +the little bell tinkling from the door. Tidy remained with them till +the last minute, and there her bright face might invariably be seen when +school was dismissed in the afternoon. A large flat rock between the +woods and the flowery edges of Pine Run was the place of rendezvous. + +One summer's morning they were earlier than usual, and emerging from the +woods, warm and weary with their long walk, they threw themselves down +upon the rock over which in the early day, the shadows of the trees +refreshingly fell. Amelia turned her face toward the Run, and lulled by +the gentle murmuring of the water, and the humming of the insects, +was soon quietly asleep; Susie, with an apron full of burs, was making +furniture for the play-house which they were arranging in a cleft of +the rock; and Tidy, who carried the books, was busily turning over the +leaves and amusing herself with the pictures. + +"My sakes!" she exclaimed presently, "what a funny cretur! See that +great lump on his back!" and she pointed with her finger to the picture +of a camel. "Miss Susie! what IS that? Is it a lame horse?" + +"Why no, Tidy, that's a camel; 'tisn't a horse at all. I was reading +that very place yesterday,--let me see," and taking the book she read +very intelligently a brief account of the wonderful animal. + +"How queer!" said Tidy, deeply interested. "And is there something in +this book about all the pictures?" + +"Yes," answered Susie, "if you could only read now, you would know about +every one. See here, on the next page is an elephant; see his great +tusks and his monstrous long trunk," and the child read to her attentive +listener of another of the wonders of creation. + +[illustration omitted] + +"How I wish I could read,--why can't I?" asked Tidy; and the little +colored face was turned up full of animation. "I don't b'lieve but I +could learn as well as you." + +"Why of course you could," answered Amelia, who had risen quite +refreshed by her short nap. "I don't see why not. You can't go to school +you know, because mother wants you to work; but I could teach you just +as well as not." + +"Oh, could you? will you?--do begin!" cried the eager child. "Oh, Miss +Mely, if you only would, I'd do any thing for you." + +"Look here," said Amelia, seizing the book from her sister's hands, and +by virtue of superior age, constituting herself the teacher; "do you +see those lines?" and she pointed to the columns of letters on the first +page. + +"Yes," said the ready pupil, all attention. + +"Well, those are letters,--the alphabet, they call it. Every one of them +has got a name, and when you have learned to know them all perfectly, so +that you can call them all right wherever you see 'em, why, then you can +read any thing." + +"Any thing?" asked Tidy in amazement. + +"Yes, any thing,--all kinds of books and papers and the Bible and every +thing." + +"I can learn THEM, I's sure I can," said Tidy. "Le's begin now." + +"Well, you see that first one,--that's A. You see how it's made,--two +lines go right up to a point, and then a straight one across. Now say, +what is it?" + +"A." + +"Yes; and now the next one,--that's B. There's a straight line down and +two curves on the front. What's that?" + +"B." + +"Now you must remember those two,--I sha'n't tell you any more this +morning, and I shall make you do just as Miss Agnes used to make me. +Miss Agnes was our governess at home before we came here to school. She +made me take a newspaper,--see, here's a piece,--and prick the letters +on it with a pin. Now you take this piece of paper, and prick every A +and every B that you can find on it, and to-morrow I'll show you some +more." + +Just then the bell sounded from the schoolhouse, and Amelia and Susan +went to their duties, but not with half so glad a heart as Tidy set +herself to hers. Down she squatted on the rock, and did not leave +the place till her first task was successfully accomplished, and the +precious piece of perforated paper safely stowed away for Amelia's +inspection. + +Day after day this process was repeated, until all the letters great and +small had been learned; and now for the more difficult work of putting +them together. There seemed to be but one step between Tidy and perfect +happiness. If she could only have a hymn-book and know how to read it, +she would ask nothing more. She didn't care so much about the Bible. If +she had known, as you do, children, that it is God's word, no doubt she +would have been anxious to learn what it contained. But this truth she +had never heard, and therefore all her desires were centered in the +hymn-book, in which were stored so many of those precious and beautiful +hymns which she loved so much to hear Uncle Simon repeat and sing. Would +she ever be so happy as to be able to sing them from her own book? + + + +CHAPTER X. LONY'S PETITION. + +BUT, ah! this is a world of disappointment, and it almost always happens +that if we attain any real good, we have to toil for it. Tidy's path was +not to continue as smooth and pleasant as it had been. + +Mr. and Mrs. Lee, by some untoward accident, found out what was going +on, and at once expounded the law and the necessities of the case to +their children, forbidding them in the most peremptory manner, and on +penalty of the severest chastisement, ever to attempt again to give Tidy +or any other slave a lesson. What the punishment was with which they +were threatened she never knew, for the little girls never dared even to +speak upon the subject; but she knew it must be something very dreadful, +and though this was a most cruel blow to her expectations, she loved +them too well to bring them into the slightest danger on her own +account. So she never afterwards alluded to the subject. + +Her first impulse was to give up all for lost, and to sit down and +weep despairingly over her disappointment; but she was of too hopeful a +disposition to do so. + +"I knows the letters," said she to herself, "and I specs I can learn +myself. I can SCRAMBLE ALONG, some way." + +Scrambling indeed! I wonder if any of you, little folks, would be +willing to undertake it. + +In her trouble she did not forget the strong hold to which she had +learned to resort in trouble. She PRAYED about it every day, morning, +noon, and night. Indeed the words "Lord, help me learn to read," were +seldom out of her heart. Even when she did not dare to utter them with +her lips, they were mentally ejaculated. Hers was indeed an unceasing +prayer. + +"Come chile," said Mammy Grace, one evening in the cool, frosty autumn, +as Tidy was hovering over the embers, eating her corn-bread, "put on de +ole shawl, and we'll tote ober de hills to Massa Bertram's. De meetin's +dare dis yer night, and Si's gwine to go. Come, honey, 'tis chill dis +ebening, and de walk'll put the warmf right smart inter ye;" and they +started off at a quick pace, over the hills, through the woods, down +the lanes, and across little brooks, the pale, cold moonlight streaming +across their path, and the warm sunlight of divine peace and favor +enlivening their hearts as they went on, making nothing at all of a walk +of three miles to sing and pray in company with Christian friends. Would +WE take as much pains to attend a prayer-meeting? + +It was not the customary place of meeting, and the people for the most +part were strangers. One party had come by special invitation, to see a +new PIECE OF PROPERTY which had just arrived upon the place,--a piece of +property that thought, and felt, and moved, and walked, like a thing +of life; that loved and feared the Lord, and sung and prayed like any +Christian. What wonderful qualities slaveholders' chattels possess! + +The woman, whose name was Apollonia, familiarly called Lony, was a tall, +gaunt, square-built negress, with a skin so black and shining, and her +limbs so rigid, that she might almost have been mistaken for one +of those massive statues we sometimes see carved out of the solid +anthracite. A bright yellow turban on her head rose in shape like an +Egyptian pyramid, adding to her extraordinary hight, and strangely +contrasting with her black, thick, African features. Altogether her +appearance would have been formidable and repelling, but for a look +in her eye like the clear shining after rain, and a tranquil, peaceful +expression which had over-spread her hard visage. Tidy was overawed +and fascinated by the gigantic figure, and when, after a few minutes +of sacred silence, the new comer, who seemed accepted as the presiding +spirit of the occasion, commenced singing, she was more than usually +interested and attentive. The words were not familiar to the company, so +that none could join, and the deep monotone of the woman, at first +low, and by degrees becoming louder and more animated, made every word +distinct and impressive. + + "I was but a youth when first I was called on, + To think of my soul and the state I was in; + I saw myself standing from God a great distance, + And betwixt me and him was a mountain of Sin. + + "Old Satan declared that I had been converted, + Old Satan persuaded me I was too young; + And before my days ended that I would grow tired, + And I'd wish that I'd never so early begun." + +"But, praise de Lord," exclaimed the woman, stopping short in her hymn, +and rising suddenly to her feet, "I habn't growed tired yet, and I's +been walkin in de ways of goodness forty years and more. De Lord, he is +good,--I knows he is, for I's tried him and found him out, and I's neber +tired o' praisin him. Bress de Lord! He's new to me ebery mornin, and +fresh as de coolin waters ebery ebening. Praise de Lord! Hallelujah! +When I was a chile, I use to make massa's boys mad so's to hear 'em +swar. It pleased dis wicked cretur to hear de fierce swarrin'. One day I +went to de garden behind de house to git de water-melons for dinner, and +I heerd a voice. 'Pears 'twas like a leetle, soft voice, but I couldn't +see nobody nowhar dat spoke, and it said, 'Lony, Lony, don't yer make +dem boys swar no more, ef ye do, ye'll lose yer soul.' I looked all roun +and roun, for I was skeered a'most to deff, but I couldn't see nobody, +and den I know'd 'twas a voice from heaben, for I'd heerd o' sich, and +I says, 'No, Lord, no, I won't.' I didn't know den what de SOUL was, +or what a drefful ting 'twas to lose it; but I knowd it mus mean suffin +orful. So I began to consider all de time 'bout de soul. Byme-by a +Baptis' min'ster comed to de place, and massa and missus was converted. +Den dey let us hab meetin's and de clersh'-man he comed and talked to +us. I didn't comperhend much he said, 'caus I was young and foolish; but +he telled a good many times 'bout dat ef we want to save our souls we +mus be babtize and git under de Lord's table. Says I to my own sef, +'Specs now ef poor Lony could only find de table of de bressed Lord, +'twould all be well, and she'd be pertected foreber.' So I prayed and +prayed, and one night de good Lord comed hissef, and bringd his great, +splendid table, and all de fair angels dressed in white and gold and +settin roun it, and I got under, and I ate de crumbs dat fell down, and +den 'pears I begun to live. Oh, 'twas sich a peace dat came all ober +me, and I wanted to sing and shout all of de time. And dat's jess whar I +been eber sence, my friends, and I neber wants to come away till I dies; +and den de good Lord'll take me up to de great heabenly mansion, and +gib me de gold robes, and den I shall set up wid de rest and be like 'em +all. And I's willin to wait, 'caus I lubs de Lord and praises him ebery +day. He is de good Lord, and he lubs me and hearkens ebery time I speaks +to him; and I ha'n't 'bleeged to holler loud, nuther, for he's neber far +away, but he keeps close by dis poor soul so he can hear ebery word and +cry. And he'll hear all yer cries, my friends, when ye prays for yersef +or for yer chillen, or yer bredren and sisters. Le's pray, now." + +Then kneeling down, this representative of a despised and untutored +race, with a faith that triumphed gloriously over her abject +surroundings, poured forth her supplications, talking with the Lord as a +man talks with his friend, as it were face to face. + +"O bressed Lord, dat's in de heaben and de earf and ebery whar; you's +heerd all de tings dat we's asked for. And you knows all dat dese yer +poor chillen wants dat dey hasn't axed for; and if dere's any ob 'em +here, dat doesn't dare to speak out loud, and tell what dey does want, +you can hear it jess as well, ef it is way down deep buried up in de +heart; and oh, bressed Lord, do gib 'em de desires of de heart, 'less +it's suffin dat'll hurt 'em, and den Lord don't gib it to 'em at all." + +This was enough for our little Tidy. Her heart swelled, and the great +tears ran down her cheeks, as she thought instantly of the one dear, +cherished petition that she dared not utter, but which was uppermost in +her heart continually; and as the woman pleaded with the Lord to hear +and answer the desires of every soul present, she held that want of hers +up before Him as a cup to be filled, and the Lord verily did fill it +up to the brim. A quiet, restful feeling took the place of the burning, +eager anxiety she had hitherto felt, and from that moment she was sure, +yes, SURE that she would have her wish, and some day be able to read. +Nothing had ever encouraged and strengthened her so much as the earnest +words and prayers of this Christian woman. How thankful she always felt +that she had been brought to the prayer-meeting at Massa Bertram's that +night. + + + +CHAPTER XI. ROUGH PLACES. + +To obtain possession of the hymn-book she desired, was not so very +difficult in Tidy's estimation. The numerous visitors at the house, +pleased with her bright face, her gentle manners, and ready attentions, +often dropped a coin into her hand, and these little moneys were +carefully treasured for the accomplishment of her purpose. She +calculated that by Christmas-time she should have enough money to buy +it, and Uncle Simon she knew would procure it for her. Her greatest +anxiety now was to be ready to use it. + +But how could she make herself ready? How was she to learn without a +teacher or a book? + +There had been an old primer for some time tossing about the +play-room--its scarlet cover looking more gorgeous and tempting in +Tidy's eyes, as they fell upon it day after day, than any trinket or +gewgaw she could have seen; yet she dared not touch it. She was too +honest to appropriate it to herself without leave, and she was afraid +to allude to the forbidden lessons by asking Amelia or Susan for it. +Several times she tried to draw their attention to the neglected book, +and to give them some hint of her own longing for it,--but all to no +avail. One day, however, she had orders from the children to clear up +the room thoroughly. + +"Make every thing neat as a pin," said Amelia, "while we go down to +dinner, for we are going to have company this afternoon; and if it looks +right nice, I'll give you an orange." + +"What shall I do with dis yer book, then, Miss Mely?" hastily asked +Tidy, as she stooped to pick up the book, and felt herself trembling all +over that she had dared to put her fingers upon it. + +"That? Oh, that's no good; throw it away,--we never use it now,--or keep +it yourself, if you want to," said she, after a second thought. + +It was done. The book was quickly deposited in a safe place, and the +clearing up proceeded rapidly. The orange was a small consideration; for +had she not got a book, her heart's desire, and now she could learn to +read. + +She could learn all alone; she would be her own teacher. If she got into +a very narrow place she would get Uncle Simon to help her out. No one +else on the estate knew how to read, and he didn't know much, but no +doubt he could be of some assistance. Such was Tidy's inward plan. + +After this, the little girl might have been seen every evening stretched +at full length on the cabin floor, her head towards the fireplace, where +the choicest pine knots were kindled into a cheerful blaze, with her +spelling-book open before her. She was "clambering" up the rough way of +knowledge. + +Did she accomplish her purpose? To be sure she did. Little reader, did +you ever make up your mind to do any thing and fail? There's an old +proverb that says, "Where there's a will there's a way;" and this is +true. Resolution and energy, patience and perseverance, will achieve +nearly every thing you set about. Try it. Try it when you have hard +lessons to do, puzzling examples in arithmetic to solve, that long stint +in sewing to do, that distasteful music to practice, those bad habits to +conquer. Try it faithfully, and when you grow up, you'll be able to say, +from your own experience, "Where there's a will there's a way." + +You must not expect, however, that Tidy learned very rapidly or very +perfectly under such discouragements. Think how it would be with +yourself, if you only knew your letters. You might read quite easily +m-a-n, but how do you think you could find out that those letters +spelled man? + +Tidy advanced much more expeditiously after she had obtained possession +of her hymn-book. Some of the hymns were quite familiar to her from her +having heard them sung so often at the meetings, and she determined to +study these first; and you may well imagine how proud she felt,--not +sinfully, but innocently proud,--when she seated herself one afternoon +by Mammy Grace's side, and pulling her hymn-book out of her bosom, asked +if she might read a hymn. + +"Yes, chile, 'deed ye may, ef ye can. Specs 'twill do yer ole mammy's +heart good to hear ye read de books like de white folks." + +And the child opened the book, and in a clear, pleasant, happy voice she +read slowly, but correctly,-- + + "My God, the spring of all my joys, + The life of my delights, + The glory of my brightest days, + And comfort of my nights. + + "In darkest shades if he appear, + My dawning is begun; + He is my soul's sweet morning star, + And he my rising sun." + +"Look dar, chile," cried the old nurse, springing to her feet, "Massa +George's jess a'most out ob de door. Ef he SHOULD fall and break his +neck, what WOULD 'come of us. Dis yer chile 'd neber hab no more peace +all de days of her life. Yer reads raal pooty, honey; but ye mus'n't +neglect duty for de books, 'caus ef ye do, ye isn't worthy of de +prevelege." + +So Tidy had to forego her hymns till the children were put to bed. + +After this, in the long winter evenings, in Mammy Grace's snug cabin, +what harvests of enjoyment were gathered from that precious book. Uncle +Simon was the favored guest on such occasions, and always "bringed his +welcome wid hissef," he said, in the shape of pitch-pine fagots, the +richest to be found, by the light of which they read and sung the songs +of Zion, which they dearly loved; the pious old slave in the mean +time commending, congratulating, and encouraging Tidy in her wonderful +intellectual achievements. + + + +CHAPTER XII. A GREAT UNDERTAKING. + +PERSONS of will and energy generally have some distinct object before +them which they are striving to reach,--something of importance to +be gained or done. As fast as one thing is attained, another plan +is projected; and so they go on, mounting up from one achievement to +another all through life. And this enterprising spirit begins to be +developed at a very early age in children. + +Tidy was one of these active little beings, full of business, never +unhappy for want of something to do; and besides the ordinary and more +trivial occupations of the outer life, her spirit or inner life had ever +a dear, cherished object before it, which engrossed her thoughts, +taxed her capabilities, and raised her above the degraded level of her +companions in servitude. + +Now that she had attained one grand point in learning to read, she +ventured on another and far more difficult enterprise. What do you think +it was? Why, nothing more or less than to GET HER LIBERTY. + +She had heard Miss Matilda say in the kitchen, "If I don't give the +child her liberty, I hope she will take it." This was her warrant. She +perceived, by Miss Matilda's words and manner, in the first place, that +liberty was desirable, and, in the second, that she COULD take it. But, +ignorant child as she was, she little knew the difficulties that stood +in the way. + +She had now lived several years in Mr. Lee's family, and had grown wiser +in many respects. She began to realize more fully what it was to be a +slave, and what her probable prospects were, if she did not escape. She +learned that there was a place, not a great way from her Virginian home, +where people did not hold her race in bondage; where she could go and +come as she pleased, choose her own employers and occupation, be paid +for her labor, provide for herself, and perhaps some day have a home of +her own, with husband and children whom she could hold and enjoy. Do you +think it strange that such a condition seemed attractive, and that she +was willing to make great efforts and run fearful risks to reach it? + +She kept her intentions profoundly secret. Even Mammy Grace and Uncle +Simon, her best friends, were not in her confidence. But she prayed +about it constantly, and sought information from every possible source +with regard to this free land,--where it was, and how it could be +reached,--and at last formed her plan, which she determined to carry out +during the coming summer. + +She knew she must have money, if she was going to travel, and for a +long time she had been carefully saving up all she could command. She +constantly endeavored to make herself useful in various ways in order to +get it. The summer-time was her money harvest; and this season she was +delighted to find visitors thronging to the Springs in greater numbers +than she had ever seen before. She knew if there was plenty of company, +there would be plenty of business, and consequently a plenty of money; +for the class of people who came there were for the most part wealthy, +and were quite willing to pay for the attentions they received. The +little brick houses in which they lodged were under the care of the +slave girls. Each one had two of these cabins, as they were called, in +charge, and were required to keep them in order, to wait upon the ladies +and children, and serve them at the table. Tidy was unwearied in her +efforts to please. She answered promptly to every call, and kept her +rooms in the neatest manner; and for her pains she received many a +bright coin, which was providently stored away in a little bag, and +concealed beneath her mattress. Perhaps these conscientious people would +not have bestowed money so freely on their favorite young maid, if they +had known the purpose to which it was to be applied. For they say that +slavery is a Christian institution, a sort of missionary enterprise, +which has been divinely appointed for the good of the colored race; and +of course to get away from it is to run away from God and the privileges +and blessings he is so kind as to give. + +Tidy, however, thought differently, as the slaves generally do; and as +she had made up her mind that she should gain greater advantages in +a state of freedom, she determined to persevere in her attempt. Her +accumulations finally became so large, that she thought she might +venture to start on her journey. + +She knew, too, that she must have clothes quite different from those she +usually wore. And how was she to get these? Ah, she had had an eye for a +long while to this. She and Amelia were not only of the same age, but +of the same size. Tidy had grown in the last two years very rapidly, and +had now reached a womanly hight and figure. She had watched the growth +of Amelia with the keenest interest. So far, it had corresponded with +her own so exactly that she could easily wear the clothes made for +her young mistress. In fact, Amelia often dressed Tidy up in her own +garments that she might get a better idea of how they looked upon +herself. This season, Amelia, for the first time, had a traveling suit +complete, for she was going a journey with her father; and when it +was finished, she was so pleased that she sent for Tidy at once to +participate in her joy, and insisted that she should immediately put it +on, that she might see how it fitted, and if every thing about it was as +it should be. The dress was a dark green merino, made with a very long +pelerine cape, which was the very pink of the fashion, and was the +especial admiration of all the children. Tidy arrayed herself in these, +and, putting the little jaunty cap of the same color on her head, stood +before the glass and surveyed herself with as perfect satisfaction as +the owner of the becoming costume herself experienced. Indeed she +could hardly keep her eye from telling tales of the joy within, as she +inwardly said, "There's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, and may +be, Miss Amelia, I shall go traveling in this before you do." She felt +that nothing could have been provided more suitable or timely than this +charming suit. + +Are you shocked, little reader, that Tidy, the good, exemplary, +conscientious Tidy, should have thought of appropriating Amelia's +wardrobe to herself? I must stop a moment here to explain to you the +slaves' code of morals. They are so ignorant that we must not expect +them to have so high or correct a standard of conduct as we have, or to +be able to make such nice distinctions in questions of right and wrong. + +Ever since Mammy Grace had made to her young pupil the first imperfect +revelation of God's character and government, declaring that he would +punish with eternal fire those who should lie, swear, or steal, +the child had held these sins in the greatest abhorrence, and was +scrupulously careful to avoid them. She would not have taken from the +baby-house a trinket, or an article of food from the kitchen, without +leave, on any account. At the same time, she had learned the slave +theory that as they are never paid for their labor, they have a right +to any thing which their labor has purchased, OF WHICH THEY HAVE NEED. +Consequently if a slave is not provided with food sufficient for his +wants, he supplies himself. The pigs and chickens, vegetables and +fruits, or any thing else which he can handily obtain, he helps himself +to, as though they were his own, and never burdens his conscience +with the sin of stealing. A slave, who had obtained his freedom, once +remarked in a public meeting, that when he was a boy, he was OBLIGED +to steal, or TAKE food, as he called it, in order to live, because so +little was provided for him. "But now," said he, while his face shone +with a consciousness of honesty and honor, "I wouldn't take a cent's +worth from any man; no, not for my right hand." + +So, you see, that this principle of appropriating what the labor of her +own hands had earned, when necessity demanded it, was that upon which +Tidy was to act. She never needed to steal food, nor even luxuries, for +she always had enough; nor money, because, for her limited wants, she +always had enough of that. But now, when she was going a journey, and +wanted to look especially nice, she felt very glad to have the dress +prepared so fitting for the occasion; and she did not feel a single +misgiving of conscience about taking it when she got ready to use it. +Whether this was just right or not, I shall leave an open question for +you to decide in your own minds. It will bear thought and discussion, +and will be quite a profitable subject for you to consider. + +When the preparations were all made, Mammy Grace and old Simon were let +into the secret. Whether they said any thing by way of discussion I do +not know--at any rate, it did not alter Tidy's determination. I think, +however, that she found her two aged friends very useful in aiding her +last movements; and when the eventful moment arrived, and Tidy, attired +in Miss Amelia's garments, with a traveling-bag in her hand, containing +her hymn-book, her money, and a few needed articles, stood at the foot +of the walk that led into the public road, Mammy Grace stood with her in +the starlight of the early summer's morning, and bade her God-speed. + +"Ye looks like a lady for all de world, honey; I 'clare dese yer old +eyes neber would a thought 'twas you, in dis yer fine dress--hi, hi, hi! +Specs nobody'll tink ye's run away. De old nuss hates to part wid her +chile; but ef ye must go, ye must, and de bressed Lord go wid ye, and +keep ye safe." + +Then giving her a most affectionate hug, she put a paper of eatables in +her hand, and helped her to mount the horse before Uncle Simon, who was +already in the saddle. Where or how the old man procured the horse and +equipments, HE knew--but nobody else did. + +The animal was a fast trotter, and brought them speedily five miles to +the village, where Tidy was to take the stage-coach to Baltimore. It +was before railroads and steam-engines were much talked of in Virginia. +Alighting in the outskirts of the town, Simon lifted the young girl to +the ground, and hastily commending her to "de bressed Lord of heaben and +earf," he bade her good-by, and went back to his bondage and toil. They +never saw each other again. + +The day was fine, and riding a novel occupation for Tidy, but so full +was her trembling heart of anxiety and fear that she could not enjoy it. +She was afraid to look out of the window lest she might be recognized by +some one; and she dared not look at the two pleasant-faced gentlemen who +were in the coach with her, lest they might question her, and find out +her true condition. So she cuddled back as closely as possible in the +corner, and when they kindly offered her cakes and fruit, she just +ventured to say, "No, thank you." Her own food, which the dear old nurse +had taken so much pains to put up for her, lay untouched in her lap, for +her heart was so absorbed she could not eat. + +Night brought her to the hotel in Baltimore. The great city, the large +building, and busy servants running hither and thither quite bewildered +her, and she had to watch herself very closely lest she should betray +herself. The waiters looked at her rather suspiciously; but she behaved +with all propriety, called for her room and supper, paid for what she +had, and in the morning was ready to take her seat in the northern +stage, and no one ventured to molest or question her. How her heart +leaped when she found herself safely on her way to Philadelphia. One +day more, and she would be in a free city. What she should do when she +arrived there, how she was to support herself in future, did not trouble +her. That she might stand on free soil, and lift up her eyes to the +stars that shone on her liberated body was all she thought of; and +to-night this was to be. With every step of the plodding horses, she +grew bolder and more assured, and her faith and hope and joyousness +rose. But, alas! there was a lion in the way of which she had not +dreamed. + +"Your pass!" shouted a grim-looking man, as she stepped, bag in hand, +with gentle dignity on the boat that was to take her across the stream +which divided slave territory from our free States. "Where's your pass? +Don't stand there staring at me," said the official, as the frightened +girl looked up as if for an explanation. + +A pass! She had never once thought of that! No one had mentioned her +need of it. What was she to do? She looked confounded and terrified. + +"No pass?" inquired the man, sternly. "'Tis easy enough to see what +YOU are, then. A runaway!" said he, turning to a man at his right hand, +"make her fast." + +Frightened and trembling, Tidy tried to run, but it was of no use; a +strong hand seized her slender arm, and held her securely. Then her +sight seemed to fail her, she grew dizzy, and fell fainting on the deck. +A crowd gathered about her. They remarked her light skin and delicate +features, her ladylike form and neat dress. Could she be a slave? they +asked. Would such a child as she appeared to be attempt to gain her +liberty? They dashed water on her head, and, as her consciousness +returned, she saw the faces of those two pleasant Scotch gentlemen, +who had rode with her the day before all the way from Virginia, looking +kindly and pitifully upon her. + +"If you had only told us," they said, "we could have helped you." + +But there was no friend or helper in that terrible hour, and poor Tidy, +weeping and almost heart-broken, was carried back to Baltimore, and +thrown into the SLAVE-JAIL. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. A LONG JOURNEY. + +IF I pronounce this disastrous event in Tidy's life another link in +the chain of loving-kindness by which God was leading her to himself, +perhaps you will wonder. But, my dear children, adversities are designed +for this very purpose, and are all directed in infinite love and wisdom +for our good. Tidy had prayed that she might be free, and the Lord +heard, and meant to answer her prayer. He meant not only to give her the +liberty she sought, but, more than that, to make her soul free in Christ +Jesus; but there were some things she needed to learn first. She was +not prepared yet to use her personal liberty rightly, nor did she at all +appreciate or desire that other and better freedom. Therefore the Lord +disappointed her at this time, and turned the course of her life, as it +were, upside down, that by painful experiences and narrow straits she +might learn what an all-sufficient Friend he could be to her; that she +might learn too the sinfulness of her own heart, and his free grace and +mercy for her pardon and salvation. + +God "leads the blind in the way they know not." Tidy knew nothing of +the method by which he was guiding her, and when she found her hopes +crushed, and herself crouching, forlorn and friendless, weary and +half-famished, in a prison, she gave up all for lost. She felt indeed +cast off and forsaken. For hours she sat and cried despairingly, the +pretty dress crumpled and stained with tears, and the hat which had been +so much admired trampled under foot. Shame, grief, and fear of what was +to come drove her almost to distraction. + +At the end of three days, Mr. Lee, acting as her master, who had been +apprised of her arrest, arrived at the prison. But what a wretched +object had he come to see! He could scarcely believe that the miserable, +dejected being before him was the once bright, beautiful Tidy,--such a +change had her disappointment and sorrow wrought. He really pitied +her, if a slaveholder ever can pity a slave, and yet he reproached her +severely. He told her she was a fool to run away; that niggers never +knew when they were well off; that if she had had a thimble-full of +sense she might have known she couldn't make her escape. He said they +had just been offered a thousand dollars for her,--which was then +considered an enormous price,--by a gentleman in Virginia, and they had +been on the point of selling her. + +"I's Miss Matilda's," fiercely cried the poor girl at this, "and SHE +wouldn't a sold me; she said she never would." + +"Yes, she would, Miss," replied Mr. Lee; "we don't let her throw +away such a valuable piece of property for nothing, I can tell you. A +thousand dollars in the bank isn't a small thing. It wouldn't find feet +to walk off with very soon, that we know." + +"Miss Matilda TOLD me to take my liberty," said Tidy, disconsolately. + +"Miss Matilda is a fool, like you. But we shall look out she don't cheat +herself in such a fashion. Now you can have your choice, little one; +you can go home with me, and take a good flogging for an example to the +rest, and stay with us till another buyer comes up,--for Mr. Nicholson +won't take such an uncertain piece of goods as you have showed yourself +to be,--or you can go South. There's a trader here ready to take you +right off. I'll give you till tomorrow morning to make up your mind." + +"I'll go South," said the poor girl, the next morning. "I can't bear +ever to see Miss Tilda again." And she settled herself down to her fate. +She knew her life of bondage would be hard there, and she would not +have much chance of getting her freedom. But it was better than the +mortification of going back. + +So she was sold to Mr. Pervis, the slave-trader. Mr. Pervis made about +fifty purchases in Baltimore and the vicinity, and then organizing his +gang he started for the South. Oh, what a different journey from that +which Tidy had intended when she left home. A thousand miles South, into +the very heart of slavery's dominions, with a company of coarse, stupid, +filthy, wretched creatures, such as she never would have willingly +associated with at home, so much more delicately had she been +reared. Many of these were field-hands sold to go to the cotton +plantations,--sold for "rascality." + +Do you know what that means? You think it is ugliness. But no; it is +a DISEASE. It is a droll sort of malady, to which a learned Louisiana +doctor has given a singular name, which I can't spell, and which you +wouldn't know how to pronounce; but the symptoms I can describe. Where +a slave is attacked with this disease, he acts in a very stupid and +careless manner, and does a great deal of mischief, breaking, abusing, +and wasting every thing he can lay his hands on. He tears his clothes, +throws away food, cuts up plants in the field, breaks his tools, hurts +the horses and cattle, and does a vast amount of injury, and in such +a way that it seems as if it was all done on purpose. He will neither +work, nor eat the food offered him; quarrels with the other slaves and +fights with the drivers, and altogether acts in such an ugly way that +the overseer says he is "rascally." If it was really ugliness, he would +be whipped; but, of course, whipping won't cure disease; so the masters +consider it incurable, and sell the slave to go South to work in the +rice-swamps and cotton-fields. They, perhaps, think a change of +climate will do more for the patient than any other means. The Southern +physicians don't have much success, to tell the truth, in curing this +difficulty, for they don't seem to understand it. If they would only +consult with some of their profession at the North, I have no doubt they +would get some valuable suggestions on the subject. I really believe +that the liberty-cure, practised by some judicious money-pathic +physician, would effectually cure this "rascality." I wish I could see +it tried. + +Tidy found herself, therefore, in very undesirable company on this +expedition to Georgia, and made up her mind very shortly that there +would not be much enjoyment in it. She did not have to drag wearily +along on foot all the way; for Mr. Lee was considerate enough to suggest +to Mr. Pervis, that, as she had been brought up as a house-servant, and +not accustomed to very hard work, she would not be able to walk much, +and if she was not allowed to ride, there would be no Tidy left by the +time they got to their journey's end, and the thousand dollars which had +just been paid for her would have been thrown away. So Mr. Pervis gave +her a permanent place in one of the wagons, and the other women were +taken up by turns, whenever the poor creatures could step no longer. +The men dragged along, handcuffed in pairs, and their low, brutal, and +profane conversation was dreadful to Tidy. Oh, how often she wished she +had staid contentedly with Mammy Grace, and not tried to run away. And +yet her hope was not utterly gone, for she often caught herself saying, +with closed teeth, "Give me a chance, and I'll try it again." Freedom +looked too attractive to be entirely relinquished. + +The gang halted at night, put up their tents, lighted fires and cooked +their mean repast. Then they stretched themselves on the bare ground to +sleep. In the morning, after the wretched breakfast was eaten, the tents +were struck, the wagons loaded again, and they started for another day's +travel,--and so on till the long, wearisome march was over. It took them +many weeks before they arrived at their destination. + +There Tidy was soon resold, the trader making two hundred dollars by +the bargain, and she became the property of Mr. Turner, who took her to +Natchez, on the Mississippi River, where she became waiting-maid to Mrs. +Turner, his wife. + +The poor girl was never the same in appearance after she left her +Virginia home. A deep pall seemed to have been thrown over her spirit, +and her hopes and happiness lay buried beneath it. Her disposition had +lost its buoyancy, and her face wore a sad, pensive look. She tried +to do her duty here as before, and her skill and neatness made her a +favorite. But there was no one here to care for her and love her as +Mammy Grace had done; and she missed the children sadly. Her hymn-book +was neglected; for when she opened it such a flood of recollections came +over her that the tears blinded her eyes and she could not see a word, +and she never now heard a prayer. She was again in an irreligious +family, and among an ungodly set of servants, and her faith, hope, and +love began to grow dim. A dull, heavy manner, and a careless, reckless +state of mind was growing upon her. + +It required deeper sorrow than she had yet experienced to wake her up +from this sluggish, unhappy condition. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. CRUELTY. + +SHE was standing one beautiful evening at the front gate of the house, +leaning on the rail, and gazing listlessly up the street. She was +thinking, perhaps, of that starry night when first she had heard of the +name of God, or that other, when her faith had been so wonderfully built +up in listening to the striking experiences and prayer of the memorable +Lony. Perhaps she had wandered farther back to the time, when, under old +Rosa's protection, she had fed the chickens and watered the flowers at +Rosevale with childish content. Whatever it was, the tears would come, +and several times she raised her hand and dashed them away. Then she +turned her head and gazed the other way. + +A large hotel stood nearly opposite the house, and across the narrow +street she watched the mingling, busy crowd of black and white, young +and old, coming and going, each intent on his own interests, each +holding in his heart the secret of his own history. Who are they all? +thought Tidy, what business are they all about? I wonder if they are all +happy? not one of them knows or cares for poor, unhappy me,--when lo! +there suddenly loomed up before her a familiar face. She watched it +eagerly as it moved up and down in the throng, for she felt that she had +seen it before. But it was some minutes before she could tell exactly +where. At last it all came to her. It was Arthur Carroll, the son of the +man who had owned her when a baby. She had often seen and played with +him in her visits to her mother. Many years had passed since she last +beheld him, and he had grown to be a young gentleman; but she was sure +it was he. He stepped out of the hotel and came towards the house. +She uttered a little, quick cry, "Why, Mass Arthur!" He turned and +recognized her, and at once stopped to inquire into her condition and +circumstances. + +It was almost like a visit to old Virginia to see young Carroll; and as +cold water to a thirsty soul was the news he brought her from that far +country. Tidy drank in eagerly every word he could tell her of the +Lees, and others whom she knew, and they were enjoying an animated +conversation when Tidy's master passed that way. He saw his slave +engaged in familiar talk with a stranger, and remembering the remark +of the trader of whom he had bought her, that she had tried "the +running-away game" once, and must be watched lest she should repeat the +attempt, without waiting to inquire into the circumstances of the case, +he resolved to administer a proper chastisement. Coming up behind, he +struck her a violent blow on the side of the head that sent the frail +girl reeling to the ground. + +For a few minutes Tidy lay stunned upon the earth. When she came to +herself, her head was smarting with pain and her heart burned like fire +with indignation, and in a perfect frenzy of distress and mortification +she rushed out of the gate and flew down the street. Up and down, +through the streets and lanes of the city, she ran for hours, not +knowing or caring whither she went, until finally, exhausted and +bewildered, she dropped down upon the ground. Some one raised the +panting girl and took her to the guard-house. There she lay until +morning before she could give any distinct thought to what she had done, +and what course she was now to pursue. + +When she began to think clearly, she felt that she had acted very +unwisely. For a slave to resist punishment, if it is ever so undeserved, +or to attempt to escape it by running away, is only to provoke severer +chastisement. That she well knew, and that there was nothing to be done +now, but to walk back to her master's house and meet a fate she could +not avoid. She only hoped that, when she acknowledged her fault, and +frankly told her master that she did it under a wild and bewildering +excitement, he would pardon her and let it pass. + +She dragged her weary steps back to her master's house, fainting with +fatigue and hunger, and presented herself before her mistress. + +"I's right sorry I runned so," she said, "but I was kind o' scared like, +and didn't know jest what I did. I knows I's no business to run away +when massa cuffed me." + +Her mistress made no reply but an angry look; but nothing was said by +any one about what had happened, and Tidy felt that trouble was brewing. +What it would be she could not tell, but her heart was heavy within her. +Nothing occurred that day, but the next morning she was told to tie up +her clothes and be ready to go up the river at ten o'clock. She +knew what going up the river meant. Mr. Turner owned a large cotton +plantation about twenty miles from Natchez, and the severest punishment +dreaded by his servants in the city was to be sent there. + +Tom, the coachman, accompanied Tidy, bearing in his pocket a note to the +overseer of the plantation. Would you take a peep into it before she, +whom it most concerned, learned its contents? It ran thus,-- + +"NATCHEZ, Wednesday, A. M. + +"DIOSSY,-- + +"Give this wench a hundred lashes with the long whip this afternoon. +Wash her down well, and when she is fit to work, put her into the cotton +field. + +"ABRAM TURNER." + +Oh, let us weep, dear children, for the poor girl, who, for no crime +at all, not even a misdeed, was made to bare her tender skin to such +shameless cruelty. No friend was there to help her, to plead for her, to +deliver her from the relentless, violent hand of the wicked oppressor. +She was left all alone to her terrible suffering. Can we wonder that she +felt that even the Lord had forgotten her? + +That night there was scarcely an inch of flesh from her neck to her feet +that was not torn, raw, and bleeding. The salt brine, which is used to +heal the wounds, although when first applied it seems to aggravate +the torture, was poured pitilessly over her, and writhing with agony, +fainting, and almost dead, she was borne to a wretched hut, and laid +on a hard pallet. Three weeks she lay there, sick and helpless; but she +cried unto the Lord in her distress, and he heard her, and prepared to +deliver her, though the time of her deliverance was not yet fully come. +She had been brought low, but her eyes were not yet opened to her true +needs, and she had not yet learned the prayer God would have her offer, +"Be merciful to me, a SINNER." + +Children, when you pray, do not be discouraged, if God does not answer +you INSTANTLY. His way is not as our way; and though he hears us, and +means to answer us, he may see that we are not yet ready to receive and +appreciate the blessing we seek. Besides, there is no TIME with God as +we count time. WE reckon by days and weeks, by months and years, but +with him all is "one, eternal NOW;" and he goes steadily on, executing +his purposes of love and mercy, without regard to those points and +measures of time which seem so important to us. We must remember, too, +that it takes longer to do some things than others. A praying woman +whose faith was greatly tried, once asked her minister what this verse +meant,--Luke xviii. 8: "I tell you that he will avenge them SPEEDILY." +He replied, "If you make a loaf of bread in ten minutes, you think you +have done your work speedily. Supposing a steam-engine is to be built. +The pattern must be drafted, the iron brought, the parts cast, fitted, +polished, tried,--it will take months to complete it, and then you may +consider it SPEEDILY executed. So, when we ask God to do something for +us, he may see a good deal of preparation to be necessary,--obstacles +are to be removed, stepping-stones to be laid,--in the words of the +Bible, the rough places are to be made plain, and the crooked ways +straight, before the way of the Lord is prepared, and he can come +directly with the thing we have asked." + +It was thus with Tidy. She kept praying all the time to be free, but the +Lord, who meant to give her a larger and better freedom than she +asked, led her through such rough and crooked paths that she was quite +discouraged, and nearly gave up all for lost. + +This was her painful condition when she was driven, for the first time +in her life, with a gang of men and women to work in the cotton-field. + + + +CHAPTER XV. COTTON. + +LET us look into a cotton-field; we will take this one of a hundred +acres. The cotton is planted in rows, and requires incessant tillage to +secure a good crop. The weeds and long grass grow so rankly in this warm +climate that great watchfulness and care are required to keep them down. +If there should be much rain during the season, they will spread so +rapidly as perhaps quite to outgrow and ruin the crop. + +Two gangs of laborers work in the field. The plough-gang go first +through the rows, turning up the soil, and are followed by the hoe-gang, +who break out the weeds, and lay the soil carefully around the roots of +the young plants. This operation has to be repeated again and again; and +so important is it to have it done seasonably that the workers are urged +on, early and late, until the field is in a flourishing condition. Hot +or cold, wet or dry, day and night, sometimes, the poor creatures have +to toil through this busy season. Then there is a little intermission of +the severe labor until the picking time, when again they are obliged to +work incessantly. + +Most of the hoers are women and boys, some of whom do the whole allotted +task; others only a quarter, half, or three quarters, according to their +ability. When the children are first put into the field, they are only +put to quarter tasks, and some of the women are unable to do more. The +bell is rung for them at early dawn, when they rise, prepare and eat +their breakfast, and move down to the field. Clad in coarse, filthy, and +scanty clothing, they drag sullenly along, and use their implements of +labor with a slow, reluctant motion, that says very plainly, "This +work is not for ME. My toil will do ME no good." Oh, how would freedom, +kindness, and good wages spur up those unwilling toilers! How would +the bright faces, the cheerful words and songs of independent, +self-interested, intelligent laborers, make those fields to rejoice, +almost imparting vigor and growth to the cotton itself! But, alas! it is +a sad place, a valley of sighs and groans and tears and blood, a realm +of hate and malice, of imprecation and wrath, and every fierce and +wicked passion. + +A "water-toter" follows each gang with a pail and calabash; and the +negro-driver stands among them with a long whip in his hand, which he +snaps over their heads continually, and lets the lash fall, with more or +less severity, on one and another, shouting and yelling meanwhile in +a furious and brutal manner, as a boisterous teamster would do to his +unruly oxen. + +If the season is wet, the danger to the crop being greater, there is +more necessity for constant toil, and the poor slaves are whipped, +pushed, and driven to the very utmost, and allowed no time to rest. +It is no matter if the old are over-worked, or the young too hardly +pressed, or the feeble women faint under their burdens. So that a good +crop is produced, and the planter can enjoy his luxuries, it is no +consideration that tools are worn out, mules are destroyed, or the +slaves die; more can be bought for next year, and the slaveholder says +it pays to force a crop, though it be at the expense of life among the +hands. + +At noon, the dinner is brought to each gang in a cart. The hoers stop +work only long enough to eat their poor fare standing,--and poor fare +indeed it is. The corn that is made into bread is so filled with husks +and ground so poorly that it is scarcely better than the fodder given to +the cattle; and the bacon, if they have any, is badly cured and cooked. +But they must eat that or starve; there is no chance of getting any +thing better. The ploughmen take their dinners in the sheds where the +mules are allowed to rest; and since two hours is usually given these +animals, for rest and foddering, they, of course, must take the same. + +At sunset they leave off work, and, tired and hungry, they have to +prepare their own supper; and after hastily eating it, at nine o'clock +the bell is rung for them to go to bed. Sundays they are not usually +required to work, and some planters give their slaves a portion of +Saturday, in the more leisure season; and this intermission of field +labor is all the opportunity they have to wash and mend their clothes, +or for any enjoyment. What a sorry life! sixteen hours out of the +twenty-four, with a hoe in the hand, or a heavy cotton sack or basket +tied about the neck, toiling on under the curses and lash of the driver +and the overseer. + +Tidy dreaded it. Brought up as she had been, accustomed to comparatively +neat clothing, good food, cheerful associates, and light work, how could +she live here? She felt that she could not long endure it. Her strength +would fail, her task be unfinished, then she must be punished, and +before long, through hard fare, unwearied toil, and ill usage, she felt +that she should die. But there was no help. Once she had ventured to +send an entreaty to her master to take her back to house service. But he +was hardhearted and unrelenting, and declared with an oath that made her +ears tingle that she should never leave the cotton-field till she died, +and there was no power in heaven or earth that could make him change +his determination. So she hopelessly plodded on, day after day, scorched +beneath the hot sun, and drenched with the pouring rain, weak, faint, +and thirsty, trembling before the coarse shouts, and shrinking from the +tormenting lash of the pitiless driver, sure that her fate was sealed. + +[illustration omitted] + +Was there no eye to pity, and no arm to rescue? Yes, the unseen God, +whose name is love, was leading her still. Through all the dark, rough +places of her life, his kind, invisible hand was laying link to link in +that wondrous chain which was finally to bring her safe and happy into +his own bosom. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. RESCUE. + +THE slaves on Mr. Turner's plantation had no SABBATH. To be sure, they +were not driven to the field on Sunday, because it was considered an +economic provision to let man and beast rest one day out of the seven. +But they had no church to attend, and never had any meetings among +themselves. Indeed there were no pious ones among them. The men took the +day for sport; the women washed and ironed, sewed and cooked, and did +various necessary chores for themselves and children, for which they +were allowed no other opportunity; and spent the rest of the day in rude +singing, dancing, and boisterous merriment. + +Tidy could not live as the rest did. She could not forget the +instructions and habits of the past. She preferred to sit up later on +Saturday evening to do the work which others did on Sunday, and when +that day came, she never entered into their coarse gayety and mirth. She +had no heart for it, and did not care though she was reviled and scoffed +at for her particular, pious ways. + +One Sunday afternoon, weary with the noise and rioting at the quarters, +homesick and sad, she wandered away from her hovel, and strolling down +the path which led to the cotton-field, she kept on through bush and +brake and wood until she reached the bank of the river. Here, where the +great Mississippi, the Father of Waters, seemed to have broken his way +through tangled and interminable forests, she stood and looked out upon +the broad stream. It lay like a vast mirror reflecting the sunlight, +its surface only now and then disturbed by a passing boat or prowling +king-fisher. Up and down the bank, with folded arms and pensive +countenance, the toil-worn, weary girl walked, her soul in unison with +the solitude and silence of the place. Recollections of the past, which +continually haunted her, but which she had of late striven with all her +might to banish from her mind, now rushed like a mighty tide over +her. She could not help thinking of the pleasant Sabbath days in old +Virginia, when she and Mammy Grace were always permitted to go to +church; and of those sunset hours, when, seated in the door of the neat +cabin, she had joined with the old nurse and Uncle Simon in singing +those beautiful hymns they loved so well. How long it was since she +had tried to sing one! Before she was aware, she was humming, in a low +voice, the once familiar words:-- + + "Oh, when shall I see Jesus, + And reign with him above? + And from that flowing fountain + Drink everlasting love?" + +Then, suddenly jumping over all the intervening verses, as if she, a +poor shipwrecked soul, were springing to the cable suddenly thrown out +before her, she burst out in a loud strain,-- + + "Whene'er you meet with trouble + And trials on your way, + Oh, cast your care on Jesus, + And don't forget to pray." + +With what unction Uncle Simon used to pour forth that verse. It was to +him the grand cure-all, the panacea for every heart-trouble; and over +and over again he would sing it, always winding up in his own peculiar +fashion with a quick, jerked-out "Hallelujah! Amen." + +His image rose vividly before Tidy at that moment, and, as the tears +began to roll down her cheeks, she clasped her hands over her face, and +cried, "Oh, I has forgot that. I has forgot to pray." Then, falling on +her knees, she poured forth such an earnest prayer as had never before, +perhaps, been heard in that vast solitude. Her heart was relieved by +this outpouring of her griefs to God, and she wondered that she had +allowed herself, notwithstanding her sufferings and discouragements, to +neglect such a privilege. It is so sometimes; grief is so overwhelming +that it seems to shut us away from God; but we can never find comfort +or relief until we have pierced through the clouds, and got near to his +loving ear and heart again. Tidy found this true. "And now," she said +to herself, "I WILL keep on praying until he hears me, and comes to help +me,--I am determined I will." + +But perhaps, thought she, I haven't prayed the right prayer; perhaps +there's something about me that's wrong; and she cried with a loud +voice, that was echoed back again from those forest depths, "O Lord, +tell me just how to pray, that I mayn't make no mistake." + +No sooner had she uttered this petition than she thought she heard a +voice, and these were its words: "Say, 'O Lord, pluck me out of the +fiery brands, and take my feet out of the miry pit, and make me stand +on the everlasting rock; and, O Lord, save my soul.'" Tidy had heard a +great many of her people tell about dreams and visions and voices, but +she had never before had any such experiences. But this came to her with +a reality she could not doubt or resist. It seemed like a voice from +heaven, and she remarked that great stress was laid upon the last +words, "O Lord, SAVE MY SOUL." Hitherto she had only sought temporal +deliverance. She had never been fully awakened to her condition as a +sinner, and had, therefore, never asked for the salvation of her soul. +Now it was strongly impressed upon her mind that there was something +more to be delivered from than the horrors of the cotton-field. She +was a sinner, was not in favor with God, and if she should die in her +present condition, she would go down to those everlasting burnings which +she had always feared. All this was conveyed to her mind by a sudden +impression, in much shorter time than I can relate it; and at once she +accepted it, and earnestly resolved that she would offer that twofold +prayer every day and hour, till the Lord should be pleased to come for +her help. + +Perhaps some of my readers would like to ask if I believe she really +heard a voice. No, I do not. I think it was the Holy Spirit of God that +brought to her mind some of the Scripture expressions she had formerly +heard, and applied them to her heart with power. This is the peculiar +work of the Holy Spirit. When Christ was bidding farewell to his +disciples, he told them he should send the Comforter, which is the Holy +Ghost, who should teach them all things, and BRING ALL THINGS TO THEIR +REMEMBRANCE. I think that God, in his tender love and pity for Tidy, +sent the Holy Ghost to bring to her remembrance those things which had +long been buried in her heart; and at that tranquil hour, in that still, +lonely spot, when her spirit was tender with sorrow, she was just in the +condition to receive his influences, and give attention to the thoughts +he had stirred up within her. And coming to her perception quickly, +like a flash of light, as truth often does, it seemed to her excited +imagination like an audible voice, and the words had all the effect upon +her of a direct revelation from heaven. + +This striking experience refreshed the poor girl, and nerved her anew +for her toils and trials. She felt hope again dawning within her; and +though she could see no way, she had faith to believe that the Lord +would appear for her rescue. She prayed the new prayer constantly. It +was her first thought in the morning, and her last at night, and during +every moment of the livelong day was in her heart or on her lips. + +One forenoon, as she was drawing her weary length along with the +accustomed gang, picking the ripe, bursting cotton-bolls, a messenger +arrived to say that she was wanted by the master. She almost fainted at +the summons. What could he want her for? Surely it was not for good. Was +he going to inflict cruelty again as unmerited as it had before been? +She threw off her cotton-sack from her neck, to obey the summons; +but she trembled so that she could scarcely walk. Her knees smote one +against another, her heart throbbed, and her tongue cleaved to the +roof of her mouth in her excitement and fright. As she drew near to the +house, she perceived her master with haughty strides walking up and down +the veranda, his hands behind him and his head thrown back, his whole +appearance bearing witness to the proud, imperious spirit within. A +gentleman of milder aspect was seated on a chair, intently eying Tidy as +she approached, and she heard him say,-- + +"Can you recommend her, Turner? Do you really think she is capable of +filling the place?" + +"Capable!" said the master. "Take off that bag, and dress her, and +you'll see. TOO smart, that's her fault. YOU'LL see." + +"I like her looks; I'll try her," was the reply; and this was all the +intimation Tidy had that she had been transferred to another master. Her +heart leaped within her at what she heard; but when peremptorily told to +get ready to follow Mr. Meesham, she hesitated. What for, do you think? +Her first impulse was to throw herself at her master's feet, and ask +what had induced him to sell her. But she dared not. He cast upon her +a glance of such spurning contempt that she cringed before him. But she +made up her mind that God only could have moved that stern, proud man to +change a purpose which he had declared to be inflexible. She was right. +God, who controls all hearts, and can turn them withersoever he pleases, +in answer to prayer, had moved that stubborn heart. + +Thus the first part of Tidy's new prayer was answered. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. TRUE LIBERTY. + +THE new home of Mr. Meesham was in Mobile. The master was an unmarried +man, who wanted a capable superintendent for his domestic concerns, a +neat, lady-like servant to wait upon his table, a trustworthy keeper +of his keys, a leader and director of his household slaves. All this +he found in Tidy, and when she was promoted to the head of the +establishment, dressed in becoming apparel, with plenty of food at her +command, pleasant, easy work to do, and leisure enough for rest and +enjoyment, perhaps you think she was happy. + +Ah, she was still a slave, and every day she was painfully reminded of +it. She could not exercise her own judgment, nor act according to her +own sense of right. She must walk in the way her master pointed out, and +do his bidding. Whatever comforts she could pick up as she went along, +she was welcome to; but she must have no choice or will of her own. + +Perhaps you think her gratitude to God for his great deliverance would +make her happy. So it did for a time, and then she forgot her deliverer, +and the still greater blessing she needed to ask of him. How many there +are just like her, who cry to God for help in adversity, and forget him +when the help comes. How many who promise God, when they are in trouble +and danger, that if they are spared they will serve him, and, when the +danger is past, entirely forget their vows. + +Thus it was with Tidy. She had been brought out of the cotton-field, and +the misery that curtained it all round, into circumstances of plenty and +comparative ease; and, rejoicing that the first part of her prayer was +answered, she forgot all about the second and most important petition, +"O Lord, save my soul." + +But God was too faithful to forget it. He allowed her to go on in her +own course a few years longer, and then he laid his hand upon her again. +He prostrated her upon a bed of sickness, and brought her to look death +in the face. Then the Holy Spirit began to deal powerfully with her. She +realized that she was a great sinner. It seemed that she was standing on +the brink of a horrible precipice, and her sins, like so many tormenting +spirits, were ready to cast her headlong into the abyss of destruction. +Whither could she flee for safety? + +She found a Bible and tried to read; but it had been so long since she +had looked into a book that she had almost forgotten what she once knew. +It was impossible for her to read right on as we do; she could only pick +out here and there a word and a sentence. One day she opened the book +and her eye fell on the word "Come." She knew that word very well. +It made her think right away of the hymn, "Come, ye sinners, poor and +needy." She thought she would read on just there, and see what it said; +and imperfectly, and after long endeavors, she made out this verse, +"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins +be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like +crimson, they shall be as wool." Then she glanced at a verse above, +"Wash ye, make you clean: put away the evil of your doings from before +mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well." + +These verses conveyed to her dark, unin-structed mind two very clear +ideas. One was that she was to forsake every thing that appeared to +her like sin, and to do right in future; and the other, that she was +permitted to reason with the Lord about the sins she had committed; both +which she at once resolved to do. + +Her prayer now was changed. Before she had begged, entreated the Lord +to forgive her sins; now she brought arguments. "Am I not a poor slave, +Lord," she cried, "that never has known nothing at all. I never heard no +preaching, I never had nobody to tell me how to be saved. I have done a +good many wicked things, but I didn't know they were wicked then; and +I have left undone many things, but I didn't know I ought to be so +particular to do them. And, Lord, out of your own goodness and kindness +won't you forgive this poor child. You are so full of love, pity me, +pity me, O Lord, and save my poor soul. I will try to be good. I will +try to do right. I'll never, never dance no more. I'll try to bear all +the hard knocks I get, and I won't be hard on them that's beneath me, +and I will pray, and try to read the Bible, and I'll talk to the rest of +the people; only, Lord, forgive my sins, and take this load off that's +breaking my heart, and make me feel safe and happy, so I won't be afraid +when I die." + +Thus the sick girl prayed with clasped hands upon her bed of pain; but +still her mind was dark. There was no one to tell her of the way of +salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Had she never heard of Jesus? +She had heard his name, had sung it in her hymns; but she imagined it +to be another name for the Lord, and had never heard of the glorious +salvation that blessed Name imparts. + +One night, while in this state of distress and perplexity, Tidy dreamed +a dream. She thought she saw the Lord, seated on a majestic throne, with +thousands and ten thousands of shining angels about him, and she was +brought a guilty criminal before him. Convicted of sin, and not knowing +what else to do, she again commenced pleading in her own behalf, using +every argument she could think of to move the Lord to mercy. There was +no answer, but the great Judge to whom she appealed seemed turned aside +in earnest conversation with one who stood at his right hand, wearing +the human form, but more fair and beautiful than any person she had ever +seen. Then the Lord turned again and looked upon her,--and such a look, +of pity, of love, of forgiveness and reconciliation! A sweet peace +distilled upon her soul, and joy, such as she had never felt, sprang up +in her bosom. "I am forgiven, I am accepted!" she cried, "but not for +any thing I have said. This stranger has undertaken my case. He has +interceded for me. I know not what plea he has used, but it has been +successful, and my soul is saved." In this exultation of joy she awoke. + +Yes, her soul WAS free. The plan of salvation had been dimly revealed +to the weeping sinner in the visions of the night. What strange ways the +Lord sometimes takes to reveal his love to his creatures! But his way +is not as our way, and he has ALL means at his control. Every soul will +have an individual history to tell of the revelation of God's mercy to +it. + +Thus the second part of Tidy's long-offered prayer was answered. From +this time she rejoiced in the Lord, and gloried in her unknown Saviour. +Her prayers were changed to praises, and she forgot that she was a slave +in the happiness of her new-found soul-liberty. + + +She kept her Bible at hand, and every now and then picked out some +precious verse; but the long, sweet story of Calvary, hidden between its +covers, she had not yet read. And her voice found delightful employment +in singing the hymns of the olden time, which came to her now with a +meaning they had never had before. The Lord sent her health of body, and +as she returned to her duties, she tried in all things to be faithful +and worthy. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. CROWNING MERCIES. + +THE Lord had not yet exhausted his love towards Tidy, but was designing +still greater mercies for her. He was going to deliver her from the +thralldom of oppression, and to send her to be further instructed in his +truth, and to bear testimony to his loving-kindness in another home. + +The master's heart was moved to set her free; and, embarked in a small +vessel, with a New England captain, Tidy found herself at twenty years +of age sailing away from the land of cruel bondage, to a home where she +should know the blessings of freedom. Her emancipation papers were put +into the hands of the captain, and money to provide for her comfort, +with the assurance that while her master lived she should never want. + +At first she was sick and almost broken-hearted at the change in her +condition. Much as she longed for freedom, she had formed new ties in +her Mobile home, which it was hard for her affectionate nature to break. +She was old enough now to look forward to some of the difficulties to be +encountered in a land of strangers, seeking employment in unaccustomed +ways. But she went to her Bible as usual in her trouble, and the words +which the Angel of the Covenant addressed to Jacob, when, exiled from +his father's house, he made the stones of Bethel his pillow, came right +home refreshingly to her,--"I am with thee, and will keep thee in +all places whither thou goest." The soreness at her heart was at once +healed, and she cried out, in deep emotion, "Enough, Lord! Now I have +got something to hold on by, and I will never let it go. When I get into +trouble, I shall come and say, Lord, you remember what you said to me on +board ship, and I know you will keep your promise." + +Thus fortified for her new life, Tidy arrived at New York. The sun was +just setting as she planted her foot on the soil of freedom; and as +his slanting rays fell upon her, she thought of her toiling, suffering +sisters, driven at this hour from labor to misery, and her heart +sickened at the thought. "O God," she cried, "hasten the day when ALL +shall be free." + +Tidy's first experience in this wilderness of delights, where was so +much to be seen, learned, and enjoyed, was a striking one, and proved +how the goodness of God followed her all the days of her life. It was +Saturday evening when she landed. The family with whom the captain +placed her were pious people, and were glad enough of the opportunity on +the morrow of taking an emancipated slave, who had never been inside +a church, to the house of God. It was a humble, un-pretending edifice +where the colored people worshiped, but to her it was spacious and +splendid. How neat and orderly every thing appeared. Men, women, and +children, in their Sunday attire, walked quietly through the streets, +and reverently seated themselves in the place of worship. The minister +ascended the pulpit, and the singers took their places in the choir. It +was communion Sunday, and the table within the altar was spread for the +holy feast. All these strange and incomprehensible proceedings filled +the mind of Tidy with solemnity and awe. + +The services began. The prayer and reading of the Scripture seemed to +feed her hungry soul as with the bread of life. Then the congregation +arose and sang,-- + + "Alas, and did my Saviour bleed? + And did my Sovereign die? + Would he devote his sacred head + For such a worm as I? + Oh, the Lamb, the loving Lamb, + The Lamb on Calvary; + + The Lamb that was slain, + That liveth again, + To intercede for me." + +All through the hymn she was actually trembling with excitement. Her +whole being was thrilled, her eyes overflowed with tears, and she +could scarcely hold herself up, as verse after verse, with the swelling +chorus, convinced her that they sang the praises of Him whom she had +seen in her dream, who stood between her and an offended God, and whom, +though she knew him not, she loved and cherished in her inmost soul. Oh, +if she could know more about him! + +Her wish was to be gratified. As Paul said to the people of Athens, +"Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you," so might +the preacher of righteousness have said to this eager listener. He took +for his text these words: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was +bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; +and with his stripes we are healed." Then followed the whole story of +the cross,--the reasons why it was necessary for Jesus to give his life +a ransom for many; the divine love that prompted the sacrifice; the +all-sufficiency of the atonement; and the completeness of Christ's +salvation. He spoke of Jesus as the one accepted Intercessor, Advocate, +and Surety above, and urged his hearers to yield themselves with faith +and love to this faithful and merciful Saviour. + +Tidy sat with her eyes fixed on the speaker, her mouth open with +amazement, and her hands clasped tightly over her heart, as if to quiet +its feverish throbs; and when he had finished, and one and another in +the congregation added an earnest "Amen," "Hallelujah," and "Praise the +Lord," she could keep still no longer. "'TIS HE," she cried, raising her +hands, "'TIS HE; But I never heard his name before." + +The closing hymn fell with sweet acceptance upon her ear, and calmed, in +some measure, the tumultuous rapture of her spirit:-- + + "Earth has engrossed my love too long! + 'Tis time I lift mine eyes + Upward, dear Father, to thy throne, + And to my native skies. + + "There the blest Man, my Saviour sits; + The God! how bright he shines! + And scatters infinite delights + On all the happy minds. + + *'Seraphs, with elevated strains, + Circle the throne around; + And move and charm the starry plains, + With an immortal sound. + + "Jesus, the Lord, their harps employs; + Jesus, my love, they sing! + Jesus, the life of all our joys, + Sounds sweet from every string. + + "Now let me mount and join their song, + And be an angel too; + My heart, my hand, my ear, my tongue, + Here's joyful work for you. + + "There ye that love my Saviour sit, + There I would fain have place, + Among your thrones, or at your feet, + So I might see his face." + +Is there any thing, dear children, that can penetrate the whole being +with such rapturous joy as the love of Christ? If you have never felt +it, learn to know him that you may experience those "infinite delights" +which he only can pour in upon the soul. + +And now we must take leave of Tidy. She lives still, a hearty, humble, +trusting Christian. She has been led to her true rest in God, and in +him she is secure and happy; "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; having +nothing, and yet possessing all things." + +"I have every thing I want," she says, as she sits beside me, "for God +is my Father, and his children, you know, Missus, inherits the earth." + +"How happens it, then, that you are so poor?" I ask. + +"My Father gives me every thing he sees best for me," is her beautiful +reply. "It wouldn't be good for me to have a great many things. When I +need any thing, I ask him, and he always gives it to me. I AM PERFECTLY +SATISFIED." + + +Dear children, upon this little story-tree two golden apples of +instruction hang, which I want you to pluck and enjoy. One is, that if +God so loved a humble slave-child, and took such pains to bring her to +himself, it is our privilege to feel the same sympathy and love for this +poor despised race. And this love will draw us two ways: first, towards +God, admiring and praising his infinite goodness and compassion; and, +secondly, towards these prostrate, down-trodden people, to do all we +can, in God's name, and for his dear sake, for their elevation and +instruction. Remember, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these +little ones, a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple,"--that +is, through this feeling of love, of Christian kindness, "he shall in no +wise lose his reward." + +The other,--if God so loved this humble slave-child, he has the same +love towards every one of you. Will you not yield yourselves to his +control, and let his various loving-kindnesses draw you too to himself? + + + +OLD DINAH JOHNSON. + +ONE day little Henry Wallace came to his mother's side, as she was +sitting at her work, and, after standing thoughtfully a few moments, he +looked up in her face and said: + +"Ma, how many heavens are there?" + +"Only one, my child," replied his mother, looking up from her work with +surprise at such a question. "What made you ask me that?" + +"Isn't there but one?" inquired Henry, with a little sort of trouble in +his voice. "Then, will Dinah Johnson go to the same heaven we do?" + +"Certainly, my dear; for heaven is one glorious temple, and God is the +light of it; and into it will be gathered all those who love the Lord +Jesus Christ, to dwell in his presence, in fullness of joy, for ever. +But Henry, my darling, why did you ask such a question? Don't you want +poor old Dinah to go to the same heaven that we do?" + +"Oh, yes, mamma, I love Dinah, and I want her to go to our heaven; +but last Sunday papa told me that the angels were every one fair and +beautiful, and Jacob Sanders says Dinah is a homely old darkey. Now, how +can she change, mamma?" + +Henry's mother saw at once where the difficulty lay in her little boy's +mind; so, putting aside her work, she took the child up on her knee, and +explained the matter to him. + +"Henry," said she, "I am sorry to hear that Jacob Sanders calls Dinah a +darkey; for those who are so unfortunate as to have a black skin don't +like to be called that or any other bad name. They have trouble enough +without that, and I hope you will never, never do it. They like best to +be called colored persons, and we should always try to please them. We +should pity them, and try to relieve their sorrows, and not increase +them. Don't you think so?" + +"Yes, ma, and I do love Dinah, and I don't care if she isn't white, like +you." + +"Neither does God, our heavenly Father, care, Henry, about the color of +the skin. The Bible says, 'God is no respecter of persons; but in every +nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with +him.' God looks at the soul more than at the body. Nothing colors THE +SOUL but sin. That stains and blackens it all over, and only the blood +of Jesus Christ can wash it pure and white again. But every soul that +has been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb will be welcomed +into heaven, with songs of great rejoicing; and all will dwell together +in peace and purity, and love and great happiness for ever. + +"Poor old Dinah is one of God's dear children. She loves the dear +Saviour very much, and tries in every way to please and honor him; and +she is looking forward with great pleasure to the time when she shall +drop that infirm, old, black body, and be clothed with light as an +angel. I shall be glad for her,--sha'n't you, darling?" + +"Yes, indeed, mamma,--so glad;" and the little boy's mind was henceforth +at rest on that point. + +But I must tell my readers who old Dinah Johnson was. Once she was a +slave; but when she had become so old that her busy head and hands and +feet could do no more service for her master, he had set her free. Of +course, she was glad to be free,--to feel that she could go where she +liked, and do as she pleased, and keep all the money she could earn for +herself. Precious little it was, though, for her sight was growing dim, +and her hands and feet were all distorted with rheumatism; and what with +pains and poverty and old age, her strength was fast wasting. But she +was happy, really happy. + +If you could have looked upon her, though, you wouldn't have supposed +she had any thing to be happy about. With a skin black as night, hair +gray and scanty, her face was as homely as homely could be, and her +limbs were weak and tottering. The old, unpainted house she lived in +shook and creaked with every blast of the wintry wind, and the snow +drifted in at every crack and crevice. Her furniture was very poor, +and her food mean. But it is not what we see outside that makes people +happy. Oh, no; happiness springs from the inside. The fountain is in the +heart, from which the streams of joy and gladness flow. + +With all her homeliness and poverty, old Dinah was a jewel in the sight +of the Lord. He had graven her upon the palm of his hand, and written +her name in the book of life; and she was treasured as a precious child +in his loving heart. The name of the Lord was precious to her, also; +they were bound together in a covenant of love. Of course, she was +happy. + +Her heavenly Friend never forgot her. He sent many a one to bring her +work and money and fuel and clothes. She was never without her bread and +water,--you know the Lord has told his children that their "BREAD and +WATER shall be SURE,"--and almost always she had a little tea and sugar +in the cupboard. At Thanksgiving time, many a good basket-full of +pies and chickens found their way to her humble door; and when she had +received them, she would raise her hands and eyes to heaven, and thank +the Lord for his goodness, and ask for a blessing upon the kind hearts +that sent the gifts. She did not always know who they were, but she was +sure she should see them and love them in heaven. + +The only thing that seemed to trouble old Dinah was that she couldn't +help others; that she couldn't do any thing for her Lord and Saviour. +"I am so black and ugly," she would say, "and so old and lame and poor, +that I a'n't fit to speak to any body; but I'll pray, I'll pray." +She managed to hobble to church; and there, from her high seat in the +gallery,--poor colored people must always have the highest seats in +the house of God,--she could look all around the congregation. She took +especial notice of the young men and women that came into church; and +what do you think she did? Why, she would select this one and that one +to pray for, that they might be converted. She would find out their +names, and something about them; and then she would ask God, a great +many times every day, that he would send his Holy Spirit to them, and +give them new hearts. They didn't know any thing about her, of course, +nor what she was doing. By and by, she would hear the glad news that +they had come to Christ. Then she would choose others. These were +converted, too; and by and by there was a great revival in the church, +and many sinners were saved. After a time, there came a large crowd to +join the church, and number themselves among the Lord's people; and poor +old Dinah saw twelve young men, and several young women stand up in the +aisle that day, and give themselves publicly to God, whom she had picked +out and prayed for in this way. Oh, she was so happy, then! Her old +eyes overflowed with tears of joy, and she couldn't stop thanking and +praising God. + +Now this was the good old creature that Henry Wallace thought might have +to go to another heaven, because her skin was black. Do YOU think God +would need to make another heaven for her? No, indeed. But I'll tell +you, dear children, what I think. If there is a place in heaven higher +and nearer God than another, that's the place where poor old Dinah will +be found at last. I think that those who love God most, whether they are +black or white, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, refined or rude, will +stand the nearest to him in heaven. I am sure there was such warm love +between her and the Saviour, that he will not want her to be far away +from him in that bright world. He will call her up close to his side, +and look upon her with sweet, affectionate smiles all the time. And +many a one will wonder, perhaps, who that can be, so favored, so +distinguished. They will never imagine it to be the glorified body of a +poor, old, black slave, from such a wretched home,--will they? + +If there are TWO heavens, I would like to be admitted to hers,--wouldn't +you? + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Step by Step, by The American Tract Society + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1052 *** |