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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11056 ***
+
+Transcriber's Note: This document is the text of Trial and Triumph. Any
+                    bracketed notations such as [?], and those inserting
+                    letters or other comments are from the original text.
+
+
+Transcriber's Note About the Author:
+Francis Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was born to free parents in
+Baltimore, Maryland. Orphaned at three, she was raised by her uncle, a
+teacher and radical advocate for civil rights. She attended the Academy
+for Negro Youth and was educated as a teacher. She became a professional
+lecturer, activist, suffragette, poet, essayist, novelist, and the author
+of the first published short story written by an African-American. Her
+work spanned more than sixty years.
+
+
+
+
+TRIAL AND TRIUMPH
+
+A Rediscovered Novel by
+
+Frances E.W. Harper
+
+Edited by Frances Smith Foster
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+
+"Oh, that child! She is the very torment of my life. I have been the
+mother of six children, and all of them put together, never gave me as
+much trouble as that girl. I don't know what will ever become of her."
+
+"What is the matter now, Aunt Susan? What has Annette been doing?"
+
+"Doing! She is always doing something; everlastingly getting herself
+into trouble with some of the neighbors. She is the most mischievous and
+hard-headed child I ever saw."
+
+"Well what has she been doing this morning which has so upset you?"
+
+"Why, I sent her to the grocery to have the oil can filled, and after
+she came back she had not been in the house five minutes before there
+came such an uproar from Mrs. Larkins', my next door neighbor, that I
+thought her house was on fire, but----"
+
+"Instead of that her tongue was on fire, and I know what that means."
+
+"Yes, that's just it, and I don't wonder. That little minx sitting up
+there in the corner looking so innocent, stopped to pour oil on her
+clean steps. Now you know yourself what an aggravating thing that must
+have been."
+
+"Yes, it must have been, especially as Mrs. Larkins is such a nice
+housekeeper and takes such pride in having everything neat and nice
+about her. How did you fix up matters with her."
+
+"I have not fixed them up at all. Mrs. Larkins only knows one cure for
+bad children, and that is beating them, and she always blames me for
+spoiling Annette, but I hardly know what to do with her. I've scolded
+and scolded till my tongue is tired, whipping don't seem to do her a bit
+of good, and I hate to put her out among strangers for fear that they
+will not treat her right, for after all she is very near to me. She is
+my poor, dead Lucy's child. Sometimes when I get so angry with her that
+I feel as though I could almost shake the life out of her, the thought
+of her dying mother comes back to me and it seems to me as if I could
+see her eyes looking so wistfully on the child and turning so trustingly
+to me and saying, 'Mother, when I am gone won't you take care of
+Annette, and try to keep her with you?' And then all the anger dies out
+of me. Poor child! I don't know what is going to become of her when my
+head is laid low. I'm afraid she is born for trouble. Nobody will ever
+put up with her as I do. She has such an unhappy disposition. She is not
+like any of my children ever were."
+
+"Yes. I've often noticed that she does seem different from other
+children. She never seems light-hearted and happy."
+
+"Yes, that is so. She reminds me so of poor Lucy before she was born.
+She even moans in her sleep like she used to do. It was a dark day when
+Frank Miller entered my home and Lucy became so taken up with him. It
+seemed to me as if my poor girl just worshiped him. I did not feel that
+he was all right, and I tried to warn my dear child of danger, but what
+could an old woman like me do against him with his handsome looks and
+oily tongue."
+
+"Yes," said her neighbor soothingly, "you have had a sad time, but
+still we cannot recall the dead past, and it is the living present with
+which we have to deal. Annette needs wise guidance, a firm hand and a
+loving heart to deal with her. To spoil her at home is only to prepare
+her for misery abroad."
+
+"I am afraid that I am not equal to the task."
+
+"If any man lack wisdom we are taught to ask it of One who giveth
+liberally to all men and upbraideth none. There would be so much less
+stumbling if we looked earnestly within for 'the light which lighteth
+every man that cometh into the world.'"
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Harcourt, Annette's grandmother, "there is one thing
+about Annette that I like. She is very attentive to her books. If you
+want to keep that child out of mischief just put a book in her hand; but
+then she has her living to get and she can't get it by nursing her hands
+and reading books. She has got to work like the rest of us."
+
+"But why not give her a good education? Doors are open to her which were
+closed against us. This is a day of light and knowledge. I don't know
+much myself, but I mean to give my girls a chance. I don't believe in
+saying, let my children do as I have done, when I think some of us have
+done poorly enough digging and delving from morning till night. I don't
+believe the good Lord ever sent anybody into his light and beautiful
+world to be nothing but a drudge, and I just think it is because some
+take it so easy that others, who will do, have to take it so hard."
+
+"It always makes my blood boil," said a maiden lady who was present, "to
+see a great hulk of a man shambling around complaining of hard times,
+and that he can't get work, when his wife is just working herself down
+to the grave to keep up the family." I asked Mrs. Johnson, who just
+lives in the wash tub and is the main stay of her family, what would her
+husband do if she were to die? and she said, 'get another wife.' Now, I
+just think she has spoiled that man and if she dies first, I hope that
+he will never find another woman to tread in her footsteps. He ought to
+have me to deal with. When he got through with me he would never want
+to laze around another woman."
+
+"I don't think he ever would," said Mrs. Harcourt, while a gleam of
+humor sparkled in her eye. Her neighbor was a maiden lady who always
+knew how to manage other people's husbands, but had never succeeded in
+getting one of her own, and not having any children herself understood
+perfectly well how to rate other people's.
+
+Just then a knock was heard at the door and Mr. Thomas, Annette's former
+school teacher, entered the room. After an exchange of courtesies he
+asked, "How does Annette come on with her new teacher?"
+
+"I have not heard any complaint," said Mrs. Harcourt. "At first Mrs.
+Joseph's girl did not want to sit with Annette, but she soon got over it
+when she saw how well the other girls treated Annette and how pleasant
+the teacher was to her. Mr. Scott, who has been so friendly to us, told
+us not to mind her; that her mother had been an ignorant servant girl,
+who had married a man with a little money; that she was still ignorant,
+loud and [dressy?] and liked to put on airs. The nearer the beggar the
+greater the prejudice."
+
+"I think it is true," said Mr. Thomas. "If you apply those words, not to
+condition, but human souls, for none but beggarly souls would despise a
+man because of circumstances over which he had no control; noble,
+large-hearted men and women are never scornful. Contempt and ridicule
+are the weapons of weak souls. I am glad however, that Annette is
+getting on so well. I hope that she will graduate at the head of her
+class, with high honors."
+
+"What's the use of giving her so much education? there are no openings
+for her here, and if she gets married she won't want it," and Mrs.
+Harcourt sighed as she finished her sentence.
+
+Mr. Thomas looked grave for a moment and then his face relaxed into a
+smile. "Well, really, Mrs. Harcourt, that is not very complimentary to
+us young men; do we have no need of intelligent and well educated
+wives? I think our race needs educated mothers for the home more than we
+do trained teachers for the school room. Not that I would ignore or
+speak lightly of the value of good colored teachers nor suggest as a
+race, that we can well afford to do without them; but to-day, if it were
+left to my decision, whether the education of the race should be placed
+in the hands of the school teacher or the mothers and there was no other
+alternative, I should, by all means, decide for the education of the
+race through its motherhood rather than through its teachers."
+
+"But we poor mothers had no chance. We could not teach our children."
+
+"I think you could teach some of them more than they wish to learn; but
+I must go now; at some other time we will talk on this subject."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+
+"Oh, Annette!" said Mrs. Harcourt, turning to her granddaughter after
+Mr. Thomas had left the door; "What makes you so naughty? Why did you
+pour that oil on Mrs. Larkin's steps; didn't you know it was wrong?"
+
+Annette stood silent looking like a guilty culprit.
+
+"Why don't you answer me; what makes you behave so bad?"
+
+"I don't know, grandma, I 'specs I did it for the devil. The preacher
+said the devil makes people do bad things."
+
+"The preacher didn't say any such thing; he said the devil tempts people
+to be bad, but you are not to mind every thing the devil tells you to
+do, if you do, you will get yourself into a lot of trouble."
+
+"Well, grandma, Mrs. Larkins is so mean and cross and she is always
+telling tales on me and I just did it for fun."
+
+"Well, that is very poor fun. You deserve a good whipping, and I've a
+great mind to give it to you now."
+
+"Why don't she let me alone; she is all the time trying to get you to
+beat me. She's a spiteful old thing anyhow. I don't like her, and I know
+she don't like me."
+
+"Hush Annette, you must not talk that way of any one so much older than
+yourself. When I was a child I wouldn't have talked that way about any
+old person. Don't let me hear you talk that way again. You will never
+rest till I give you a good whipping."
+
+"Yes ma'm," said Annette very demurely.
+
+"Oh, Annette!" said her grandmother with a sudden burst of feeling. "You
+do give me so much trouble. You give me more worry than all my six
+children put together; but there is always one scabby sheep in the flock
+and you will be that one. Now get ready for school and don't let me hear
+any more complaints about you; I am not going to let you worry me to
+death."
+
+Annette took up her bonnet and glided quietly out of the door, glad to
+receive instead of the threatened whipping a liberal amount of talk, and
+yet the words struck deeper than blows. Her own grandmother had
+prophesied evil things of her. She was to be the scabby sheep of the
+flock. The memory of the blows upon her body might have passed soon away
+after the pain and irritation of the infliction were over, but that
+inconsiderate prophecy struck deep into her heart and left its impress
+upon her unfolding life. Without intending it, Mrs. Harcourt had struck
+a blow at the child's self-respect; one of the things which she should
+have strengthened, even if it was "ready to die." Annette had entered
+life sadly handicapped. She was the deserted child of a selfish and
+unprincipled man and a young mother whose giddiness and lack of
+self-control had caused her to trail the robes of her womanhood in the
+dust. With such an ante-natal history how much she needed judicious, but
+tender, loving guidance. In that restless, sensitive and impulsive child
+was the germ of a useful woman with a warm, loving heart, ready to
+respond to human suffering, capable of being faithful in friendship and
+devoted in love. Before that young life with its sad inheritance seemed
+to lay a future of trial, and how much, humanly speaking, seemed to
+depend upon the right training of that life and the development within
+her of self-control, self-reliance and self-respect. There was no
+mother's heart for her to nestle upon in her hours of discouragement and
+perplexity; no father's strong, loving arms to shelter and defend her;
+no sister to brighten her life with joyous companionship, and no brother
+to champion her through the early and impossible period of ripening
+womanhood. Her grandmother was kind to her, but not very tender and
+loving. Her struggle to keep the wolf from the door had absorbed her
+life, and although she was neither hard nor old, yet she was not
+demonstrative in her affections, and to her a restless child was an
+enigma she did not know how to solve. If the child were hungry or cold
+she could understand physical wants, but for the hunger of the heart she
+had neither sympathy nor comprehension. Fortunately Annette had found a
+friend who understood her better than her grandmother, and who, looking
+beneath the perverseness of the child, saw in her rich possibilities,
+and would often speak encouragingly to her. Annette early developed a
+love for literature and poetry and would sometimes try to make rhymes
+and string verses together and really Mrs. Lasette thought that she had
+talent or even poetic genius and ardently wished that it might be
+cultivated and rightly directed; but it never entered the minds of her
+grandmother and aunts that in their humble home was a rarely gifted soul
+destined to make music which would set young hearts to thrilling with
+higher hopes and loftier aspirations.
+
+Mrs. Lasette had been her teacher before she married. After she became a
+wife and mother, instead of becoming entirely absorbed in a round of
+household cares and duties, the moment the crown of motherhood fell upon
+her, as she often said, she had poured a new interest into the welfare
+of her race.[1] With these feelings she soon became known as a friend
+and helper in the community in which she lived. Young girls learned to
+look to her for council and encouragement amid the different passages of
+their [lives?] sometimes with blushing cheeks they whispered in to her
+ears tender secrets they did not always bring to their near relatives,
+and young men about to choose their life work, often came to consult her
+and to all her heart was responsive. With this feeling of confidence in
+her judgment, Mr. Thomas had entered her home after leaving Mrs.
+Harcourt's, educating himself for a teacher. He had spent several years
+in the acquisition of knowledge and was proving himself an acceptable
+and conscientious teacher, when the change came which deprived him of
+his school, by blending his pupils in the different ward schools of the
+city. Public opinion which moves slowly, had advanced far enough to
+admit the colored children into the different schools, irrespective of
+color, but it was not prepared, except in a few places to admit the
+colored teachers as instructors in the schools. "What are you going to
+do next?" inquired Mrs. Lasette of Mr. Thomas as he seated himself
+somewhat wearily by the fire. "I hardly know, I am all at sea, but I am
+going to be like the runaway slave who, when asked, 'Where is your
+pass?' raised his fist and said 'Dem is my passes,' and if 'I don't see
+an opening I will make one.'"
+
+"Why don't you go into the ministry? When Mr. Pugh failed in his
+examination he turned his attention to the ministry, and it is said that
+he is succeeding admirably."
+
+"Mrs. Lasette, I was brought up to respect the institutions of religion,
+and not to lay rash hands on sacred things, and while I believe that
+every man should preach Christ by an upright life, and chaste
+conversation, yet I think one of the surest ways to injure a Church, and
+to make the pulpit lose its power over the rising generation, is for men
+without a true calling, or requisite qualifications to enter the
+ministry because they have failed in some other avocation and find in
+preaching an open door to success."
+
+"But they often succeed."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Why by getting into good churches, increasing their congregations and
+paying off large church debts." "And is that necessarily success? We
+need in the Church men who can be more than financiers and who can
+attract large congregations. We need earnest thoughtful Christly men,
+who will be more anxious to create and develop moral earnestness than to
+excite transient emotions. Now there is Rev. Mr. Lamson who was educated
+in R. College. I have heard him preach to, as I thought, an honest, well
+meaning, but an ignorant congregation, and instead of lifting them to
+more rational forms of worship, he tried to imitate them and made a
+complete failure. He even tried to moan as they do in worship but it
+didn't come out natural."
+
+"Of course it did not. These dear old people whose moaning during
+service, seems even now so pitiful and weird, I think learned to mourn
+out in prayers, thoughts and feelings wrung from their agonizing hearts,
+which they did not dare express when they were forced to have their
+meetings under the surveillance of a white man."
+
+"It is because I consider the ministry the highest and most sacred
+calling, that I cannot, nay I dare not, rush into it unless I feel
+impelled by the strongest and holiest motives."
+
+"You are right and I think just such men as you ought to be in the
+ministry."
+
+"Are you calling me?" "I wish it were in my power." "I am glad that it
+is not, I think there are more in the ministry now than magnify their
+calling."
+
+"But Mr. Thomas[2] are you not looking on the dark side of the question?
+you must judge of the sun, not by its spots, but by its brightness."
+
+"Oh I did not mean to say that the ministry is crowded with unworthy
+men, who love the fleece more than the flock. I believe that there are
+in the ministry a large number who are the salt of the earth and whose
+life work bears witness to their fitness. But unfortunately there are
+men who seem so lacking in reverence for God, by their free handling of
+sacred things; now I think one of the great wants of our people is more
+reverence for God who is above us, and respect for the man who is beside
+us, and I do hope that our next minister will be a good man, of active
+brain, warm heart and Christly sympathies, who will be among us a
+living, moral, and spiritual force, and who will be willing to teach us
+on the Bible plan of 'line upon line, precept upon precept, here a
+little there a little.'"
+
+"I hope he will be; it is said that brother Lomax our new minister is an
+excellent young man."
+
+"Well I hope that we will not fail to receive him as an apostle and try
+to hold up his hands."
+
+"I hope so. I think that to be called of God to be an ambassador for
+Christ, to help him build the kingdom of righteousness, love and peace,
+amid the misery, sin and strife, is the highest and most blessed
+position that a man can hold, and because I esteem the calling so highly
+I would not rush into it unless I felt divinely commissioned."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+
+Mrs. Harcourt was a Southern woman by birth, who belonged to that class
+of colored people whose freedom consisted chiefly in not being the
+chattels of the dominant race--a class to whom little was given and from
+whom much was required. She was naturally bright and intelligent, but
+had come up in a day when the very book of the Christian's law was to
+her a sealed volume; but if she had not been educated through the aid of
+school books and blackboards, she had obtained that culture of manners
+and behavior which comes through contact with well-bred people, close
+observation and a sense of self-respect and self-reliance, and when
+deprived of her husband's help by an untimely death, she took up the
+burden of life bravely and always tried to keep up what she called "a
+stiff upper lip." Feeling the cramping of Southern life, she became
+restive under the privations and indignities which were heaped upon free
+persons of color, and at length she and her husband broke up their home
+and sold out at a pecuniary sacrifice to come North, where they could
+breathe free air and have educational privileges for their children. But
+while she was strong and healthy her husband, whose health was not very
+firm, soon succumbed to the change of climate and new modes of living
+and left Mrs. Harcourt a stranger and widow in a strange land with six
+children dependent on her for bread and shelter: but during her short
+sojourn in the North[3] she had enlisted the sympathy and respect of
+kind friends, who came to her relief and helped her to help herself, the
+very best assistance they could bestow upon her. Capable and efficient,
+she found no difficulty in getting work for herself and older children,
+who were able to add their quota to the support of the family by running
+errands, doing odd jobs for the neighbors and helping their mother
+between school hours. Nor did she lay all the household burdens on the
+shoulders of the girls and leave her boys to the mercy of the pavement;
+she tried to make her home happy and taught them all to have a share in
+adding to its sunshine. "It makes boys selfish," she would say, "to have
+their sisters do all the work and let the boys go scot-free. I don't
+believe there would be so many trifling men if the boys were trained to
+be more helpful at home and to feel more for their mothers and sisters."
+All this was very well for the peace and sunshine of that home, but as
+the children advanced in life the question came to her with painful
+emphasis----"What can I do for the future of my boys and girls?" She was
+not anxious to have them all professional men and school teachers and
+government clerks, but she wanted each one to have some trade or calling
+by which a respectable and comfortable living could be made; but first
+she consulted their tastes and inclinations. Her youngest boy was very
+fond of horses, but instead of keeping him in the city, where he was in
+danger of getting too intimate with horse jockeys and stable boys, she
+found a place for him with an excellent farmer, who, seeing the tastes
+of the boy, took great interest in teaching him how to raise stock and
+he became a skillful farmer. Her second son showed that he had some
+mechanical skill and ingenuity and she succeeded in getting him a
+situation with a first-class carpenter, and spared no pains to have him
+well instructed in all the branches of carpentry, and would often say to
+him, "John, don't do any sham work if you are going to be a carpenter;
+be thorough in every thing you do and try to be the best carpenter in
+A.P., and if you do your work better than others, you won't have to be
+all the time going around advertising yourself; somebody will find out
+what you can do and give you work." Her oldest son was passionately fond
+of books and she helped him through school till he was able to become a
+school teacher. But as the young man was high spirited and ambitious, he
+resolved that he would make his school teaching a stepping stone to a
+more congenial employment. He studied medicine and graduated with M.D.,
+but as it takes a young doctor some time to gain the confidence of an
+old community, he continued after his graduation to teach and obtained a
+certificate to practice medicine. Without being forced to look to his
+mother for assistance, while the confidence of his community was slowly
+growing, he depended on the school for his living and looked to the
+future for his success as a physician.
+
+For the girls, because they were colored, there were but few avenues
+open, but they all took in sewing and were excellent seamstresses,
+except Lucy, who had gone from home to teach school in a distant city as
+there were no openings of the kind for her at her own home.
+
+Mrs. Harcourt was very proud of her children and had unbounded
+confidence in them. She was high-spirited and self-respecting and it
+never seemed to enter her mind that any evil might befall the children
+that would bring sorrow and shame to her home; but nevertheless it came
+and Lucy, her youngest child, the pet and pride of the household
+returned home with a great sorrow tugging at her heart and a shadow on
+her misguided life. It was the old story of woman's weakness and folly
+and man's perfidy and desertion. Poor child, how wretched she was till
+"peace bound up her bleeding heart," and even then the arrow had pierced
+too deep for healing. Sorrow had wasted her strength and laid the
+foundation of disease and an early death. Religion brought balm to the
+wounded spirit, but no renewed vigor to the wasted frame and in a short
+time she fell a victim to consumption, leaving Annette to the care of
+her mother. It was so pitiful to see the sorrow on the dear old face as
+she would nestle the wronged and disinherited child to her heart and
+would say so mournfully, "Oh, I never, never expected this!"
+
+Although Annette had come into the family an unbidden and unwelcome
+guest, associated with the saddest experience of her grandmother's life,
+yet somehow the baby fingers had wound themselves around the tendrils of
+her heart and the child had found a shelter in the warm clasp of loving
+arms. To her, Annette was a new charge, an increased burden; but burden
+to be defended by her love and guarded by her care. All her other
+children had married and left her, and in her lowly home this young
+child with infantile sweetness, beguiled many a lonely hour. She loved
+Lucy and that was Lucy's child.
+
+  But where was he who sullied
+    Her once unspotted name;
+  Who lured her from life's brightness
+    To agony and shame?
+
+Did society, which closed its doors against Lucy and left her to
+struggle as best she might out of the depth into which she had fallen,
+pour any righteous wrath upon his guilty head? Did it demand that he
+should at least bring forth some fruit meet for repentance by at least
+helping Mrs. Harcourt to raise the unfortunate child? Not so. He left
+that poor old grandmother to struggle with her failing strength, not
+only to bear her own burden, but the one he had so wickedly imposed upon
+her. He had left A.P. before Lucy's death and gone to the Pacific coast
+where he became wealthy through liquor selling, speculation, gambling
+and other disreputable means, and returned with gold enough to hide a
+multitude of sins, and then fair women permitted and even courted his
+society. Mothers with marriageable daughters condoned his offences
+against morality and said, "oh, well, young men will sow their wild
+oats; it is no use to be too straight laced." But there were a few
+thoughtful mothers old fashioned enough to believe that the law of
+purity is as binding upon the man as the woman, and who, under no
+conditions, would invite him to associate with their daughters. Women
+who tried to teach their sons to be worthy of the love and esteem of
+good women by being as chaste in their conversation and as pure in their
+lives as their young daughters who sat at their side sheltered in their
+pleasant and peaceful homes. One of the first things that Frank Miller
+did after he returned to A.P. was to open a large and elegantly
+furnished saloon and restaurant. The license to keep such a place was
+very high, and men said that to pay it he resorted to very questionable
+means, that his place was a resort for gamblers, and that he employed a
+young man to guard the entrance of his saloon from any sudden invasion
+of the police by giving a signal without if he saw any of them
+approaching, and other things were whispered of his saloon which showed
+it to be a far more dangerous place for the tempted, unwary and
+inexperienced feet of the young men of A.P., than any low groggery in
+the whole city. Young men who would have scorned to enter the lowest
+dens of vice, felt at home in his gilded palace of sin. Beautiful
+pictures adorned the walls, light streamed into the room through finely
+stained glass windows, women, not as God had made them, but as sin had
+debased them, came there to spend the evening in the mazy dance, or to
+sit with partners in sin and feast at luxurious tables. Politicians came
+there to concoct their plans for coming campaigns, to fix their slates
+and to devise means for grasping with eager hands the spoils of
+government. Young men anxious for places in the gift of the government
+found that winking at Frank Miller's vices and conforming to the
+demoralizing customs of his place were passports to political favors,
+and lacking moral stamina, hushed their consciences and became partakers
+of his sins.[4] Men talked in private of his vices, and drank his
+liquors and smoked his cigars in public. His place was a snare to their
+souls. "The dead were there but they knew it not." He built a beautiful
+home and furnished it magnificently, and some said that the woman who
+married him would do well, as if it were possible for any woman to marry
+well who linked her destinies to a wicked, selfish and base man, whose
+business was a constant menace to the peace, the purity and progress of
+society. I believe it was Milton who said that the purity of a man
+should be more splendid than the purity of a woman, basing his idea upon
+the declaration, "The head of the woman is the man, and the head of the
+man is Jesus Christ." Surely if man occupies this high rank in the
+creation of God he should ever be the true friend and helper of woman
+and not, as he too often proves, her falsest friend and basest enemy.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+
+"Annette," said Mrs. Harcourt one morning early, "I want you to stir
+your stumps to-day; I am going to have company this evening and I want
+you to help me to get everything in apple pie order."
+
+"Who is coming, grandma?"
+
+"Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Lasette."
+
+"Mrs. Lasette!" Annette's eyes brightened. "I hope she will come; she is
+just as sweet as a peach and I do love her ever so much; and who else?"
+
+"Brother Lomax, the minister who preached last Sunday and gave us such a
+good sermon."
+
+"Is he coming, too?" Annette opened her eyes with pleased surprise. "Oh,
+I hope he will come, he's so nice."
+
+"What do you know about him?"
+
+"Why, grandmother, I understood everything that he said, and I felt that
+I wanted to be good just like he told us, and I went and asked aunt
+'Liza how people got religion. She had been to camp-meeting and seen
+people getting religion, and I wanted her to tell me all about it for I
+wanted to get it too."
+
+"What did she tell you?"
+
+"She told me that people went down to the mourner's bench and prayed and
+then they would get up and shout and say they had religion, and that was
+all she knew about it."
+
+"You went to the wrong one when you went to your aunt 'Liza. And what
+did you do after she told you?"
+
+"Why, I went down in the garden and prayed and I got up and shouted, but
+I didn't get any religion. I guess I didn't try right."
+
+"I guess you didn't if I judge by your actions. When you get older you
+will know more about it."
+
+"But, grandma, Aunt 'Liza is older than I am, why don't she know?"
+
+"Because she don't try; she's got her head too full of dress and dancing
+and nonsense."
+
+Grandmother Harcourt did not have very much faith in what she called
+children's religion, and here was a human soul crying out in the
+darkness; but she did not understand the cry, nor look for the
+"perfecting of praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings," not
+discerning the emotions of that young spirit, she let the opportunity
+slip for rightly impressing that young soul. She depended too much on
+the church and too little on the training of the home. For while the
+church can teach and the school instruct, the home is the place to train
+innocent and impressible childhood for useful citizenship on earth and a
+hope of holy companionship in heaven; and every Christian should strive
+to have "her one of the provinces of God's kingdom," where she can plant
+her strongest batteries against the ramparts of folly, sin and vice.
+
+"Who else is coming, grandma?"
+
+"Why, of course I must invite Mrs. Larkins; it would never do to leave
+her out."
+
+Annette shrugged her shoulders, a scowl came over her face and she said:
+
+"I hope she won't come."
+
+"I expect she will and when she comes I want you to behave yourself and
+don't roll up your eyes at her and giggle at her and make ugly speeches.
+She told me that you made mouths at her yesterday, and that when Mr.
+Ross was whipping his horse you said you knew some one whom you wished
+was getting that beating, and she said that she just believed you meant
+her. How was that, Annette? If I were like you I would be all the time
+keeping this neighborhood in hot water."
+
+Annette looked rather crestfallen and said, "I did make mouths at her
+house as I came by, but I didn't know that she saw me."
+
+"Yes she did, and you had better mind how you cut your cards with her."
+
+Annette finding the conversation was taking a rather disagreeable turn
+suddenly remembered that she had something to do in the yard and ceased
+to prolong the dialogue. If the truth must be confessed, Annette was not
+a very earnest candidate for saintship, and annoying her next door
+neighbor was one of her favorite amusements.
+
+Grandma Harcourt lived in a secluded court, which was shut in on every
+side but one from the main streets, and her environments were not of the
+most pleasant and congenial kind. The neighbors, generally speaking,
+belonged to neither the best nor worst class of colored people. The
+court was too fully enclosed to be a thoroughfare of travel, but it was
+a place in which women could sit at their doors and talk to one another
+from each side of the court. Women who had no scruples about drinking as
+much beer, and sometimes stronger drinks, as they could absorb, and some
+of the men said that the women drank more than men, and under the
+besotting influence of beer and even stronger drinks, a fearful amount
+of gossiping, news-carrying and tattling went on, which often resulted
+in quarrels and contentions, which, while it never resulted in blood,
+sadly lowered the tone of social life. It was the arena of wordy strife
+in which angry tongues were the only weapons of warfare, and poor little
+Annette was fast learning their modes of battle. But there was one thing
+against which grandmother Harcourt set her face like flint, and that was
+sending children to saloons for beer, and once she flamed out with
+righteous indignation when one of her neighbors, in her absence, sent
+Annette to a saloon to buy her some beer. She told her in emphatic terms
+she must never do so again, that she wanted her girl to grow up a
+respectable woman, and that she ought to be ashamed of herself, not only
+to be guzzling beer like a toper, but to send anybody's child to a
+saloon to come in contact with the kind of men who frequented such
+places, and that any women who sent their children to such places were
+training their boys to be drunkards and their girls to be
+street-walkers. "I am poor," she said, "but I mean to keep my credit up
+and if you and I live in this neighborhood a hundred years you must
+never do that thing again."
+
+Her neighbor looked dazed and tried to stammer out an apology, but she
+never sent Annette to a beer saloon again, and in course of time she
+became a good temperance woman herself, influenced by the faithfulness
+of grandmother Harcourt.
+
+The court in which Mrs. Harcourt lived was not a very desirable place,
+but, on account of her color, eligible houses could not always be
+obtained, and however decent, quiet or respectable she might appear on
+applying for a house, she was often met with the rebuff, "We don't rent
+to colored people," and men who virtually assigned her race the lowest
+place and humblest positions could talk so glibly of the degradation of
+the Negro while by their Christless and inhuman prejudice they were
+helping add to their low social condition. In the midst of her
+unfavorable environments Mrs. Harcourt kept her home neat and tidy; sent
+Annette to school constantly and tried to keep her out of mischief, but
+there was moral contagion in the social atmosphere of Tennis Court and
+Annette too often succumbed to its influence; but Annette was young and
+liked the company of young girls and it seemed cruel to confine the
+child's whole life to the home and schoolhouse and give her no chance to
+be merry and playful with girls of her own age. So now and then
+grandmother Harcourt would let her spend a little time with some of the
+neighbors' girls but from the questions that Annette often asked her
+grandmother and the conversations she sometimes repeated Mrs. Harcourt
+feared that she was learning things which should only be taught by
+faithful mothers in hours of sacred and tender confidence, and she
+determined, even if it gave offence to her neighbors, that she would
+choose among her own friends, companions for her granddaughter and not
+leave all her social future to chance. In this she was heartily aided by
+Mrs. Lasette, who made it a point to hold in that neighborhood, mothers'
+meetings and try to teach mothers, who in the dark days of slavery had
+no bolts nor bars strong enough to keep out the invader from scattering
+their children like leaves in wintry weather, how to build up light and
+happy homes under the new dispensation of freedom. To her it was a
+labor of love and she found her reward in the peace and love which
+flowed into the soul and the improved condition of society. In lowly
+homes where she visited, her presence was a benediction and an
+inspiration. Women careless in their household and slatternly in their
+dress grew more careful in the keeping of their homes and the
+arrangement of their attire. Women of the better class of their own
+race, coming among them awakened their self-respect. Prejudice and pride
+of race had separated them from their white neighbors and the more
+cultured of their race had shrunk from them in their ignorance, poverty
+and low social condition and they were left, in a great measure, to
+themselves--ostracised by the whites on the one side and socially
+isolated from the more cultured of their race on the other hand. The law
+took little or no cognizance of them unless they were presented at its
+bar as criminals; but if they were neither criminals nor paupers they
+might fester in their vices and perpetuate their social condition. Who
+understood or cared to minister to their deepest needs or greatest
+wants? It was just here where the tender, thoughtful love of a
+warm-hearted and intelligent woman was needed. To her it was a labor of
+love, but it was not all fair sailing. She sometimes met with coldness
+and distrust where she had expected kindness and confidence; lack of
+sympathy where she had hoped to find ready and willing cooperation; but
+she knew that if her life was in harmony with God and Christly sympathy
+with man; for such a life there was no such word as fail.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+
+By dint of energy and perseverance grandmother Harcourt had succeeded in
+getting everything in order when her guests began to arrive. She had
+just put the finishing touches upon her well-spread table and was
+reviewing it with an expression of pleasure and satisfaction. And now
+while the guests are quietly taking their seats let me introduce you to
+them.
+
+Mr. Thomas came bringing with him the young minister, Rev. Mr. Lomax,
+whose sermon had so interested and edified Mrs. Harcourt the previous
+Sunday. Mrs. Lasette, looking bright and happy, came with her daughter,
+and Mrs. Larkins entered arrayed in her best attire, looking starched
+and prim, as if she had made it the great business of her life to take
+care of her dignity and to think about herself. Mrs. Larkins,[5] though
+for years a member of church, had not learned that it was unchristian to
+be narrow and selfish. She was strict in her attendance at church and
+gave freely to its support; but somehow with all her attention to the
+forms of religion, one missed its warm and vivifying influence from her
+life, and in the loving clasp of a helping hand, in the tender beam of a
+sympathizing glance, weary-hearted mothers and wives never came to her
+with their heartaches and confided to her their troubles. Little
+children either shrank from her or grew quiet in her presence. What was
+missing from her life was the magnetism of love. She had become so
+absorbed in herself that she forgot everybody else and thought more of
+her rights than her duties. The difference between Mrs. Lasette and Mrs.
+Larkins was this, that in passing through life one scattered sunshine
+and the other cast shadows over her path. Mrs. Lasette was a fine
+conversationalist. She regarded speech as one of heaven's best gifts,
+and thought that conversation should be made one of the finest arts, and
+used to subserve the highest and best purposes of life, and always
+regretted when it was permitted to degenerate into gossip and
+backbiting. Harsh judgment she always tried to modify, often saying in
+doubtful cases, "Had we not better suspend our judgments? Truly we do
+not like people to think the worst of us and it is not fulfilling the
+law of love to think the worst of them. Do you not know that if we wish
+to dwell in his tabernacle we are not to entertain a reproach against
+our neighbor, nor to back-bite with our lips and I do not think there is
+a sin which more easily besets society than this." "Speech," she would
+say, "is a gift so replete with rich and joyous possibilities," and she
+always tried to raise the tone of conversation at home and abroad. Of
+her it might be emphatically said, "She opened her mouth with wisdom and
+in her lips was the law of kindness."
+
+The young minister, Rev. Mr. Lomax, was an earnest, devout and gifted
+young man. Born in the midst of poverty, with the shadows of slavery
+encircling his early life, he had pushed his way upward in the world,
+"toiling while others slept." His father was dead. While living he had
+done what he could to improve the condition of his family, and had, it
+was thought, overworked himself in the struggle to educate and support
+his children. He was a kind and indulgent father and when his son had
+made excellent progress in his studies, he gave him two presents so dear
+to his boyish heart--a gun and a watch. But the hour came when the
+loving hands were closed over the quiet breast, and the widowed wife
+found herself unable to provide the respectable funeral she desired to
+give him. Thomas then came bravely and tenderly to her relief. He sold
+his watch and gun to defray the funeral expenses of his father. He was a
+good son to his aged mother, and became the staff of her declining
+years. With an earnest purpose in his soul, and feeling that knowledge
+is power, he applied himself with diligence to his studies, passed
+through college, and feeling within his soul a commission to teach and
+help others to develop within themselves the love of nature, he entered
+the ministry, bringing into it an enthusiasm for humanity and love of
+Christ, which lit up his life and made him a moral and spiritual force
+in the community. He had several advantageous offers to labor in other
+parts of the country, but for the sake of being true to the heavenly
+vision, which showed him the needs of his people and his adaptation to
+their wants, he chose, not the most lucrative, but the most needed work
+which was offered him with
+
+  A joy to find in every station,
+  Something still to do or bear.
+
+He had seen many things in the life of the people with whom he was
+identified which gave him intense pain, but instead of constantly
+censuring and finding fault with their inconsistencies of conscience, he
+strove to live so blamelessly before them that he would show them by
+example a more excellent way and "criticise by creation." To him
+religion was a reasonable service and he wished it to influence their
+conduct as well as sway their emotions. Believing that right thinking is
+connected with right living, he taught them to be conservative without
+being bigoted, and liberal without being morally indifferent and
+careless in their modes of thought. He wanted them to be able to give a
+reason for the faith that was in them and that faith to be rooted and
+grounded in love. He was young, hopeful, and enthusiastic and life was
+opening before him full of hope and promise.
+
+"It has been a beautiful day," said Mrs. Lasette, seating herself beside
+Mrs. Larkins,[6] who always waited to be approached and was ever ready
+to think that some one was slighting her or ignoring her presence.
+
+"It has been a fine day, but I think it will rain soon; I judge by my
+corn."
+
+"Oh! I think the weather is just perfect. The sun set gloriously this
+evening and the sky was the brightest blue."
+
+"I think the day was what I call a weather breeder. Whenever you see
+such days this time of year, you may look out for falling weather. I
+[expect?] that it will snow soon."
+
+"How that child grows," said Mrs. Larkins, as Annette entered the room.
+
+"Ill weeds grow apace; she has nothing else to do. That girl is going
+to give her grandmother a great deal of trouble."
+
+"Oh! I do not think so."
+
+"Well, I do, and I told her grandmother so one day, but she did not
+thank me for it."
+
+"No, I suppose not."
+
+"I didn't do it for thanks; I did it just to give her a piece of my mind
+about that girl. She is the most mischievous and worrisome child I ever
+saw. The partition between our houses is very thin and many a time when
+I want to finish my morning sleep or take an afternoon nap, if Mrs.
+Harcourt is not at home, Annette will sing and recite at the top of her
+voice and run up and down the stairs as if a regiment of soldiers were
+after her."
+
+"Annette is quite young, full of life and brimful of mischief, and girls
+of that age I have heard likened to persimmons before they are ripe; if
+you attempt to eat them they will pucker your mouth, but if you wait
+till the first frost touches them they are delicious. Have patience with
+the child, act kindly towards her, she may be slow in developing womanly
+sense, but I think that Annette has within her the making of a fine
+woman."
+
+"Do you know what Annette wants?"
+
+"Yes, I know what she wants; but what do you think she wants?"
+
+"She wants kissing."
+
+"I'd kiss her with a switch if she were mine."
+
+"I do not think it wise to whip a child of her age."
+
+"I'd whip her if she were as big as a house."
+
+"I do not find it necessary with my Laura; it is sufficient to deter her
+from doing anything if she knows that I do not approve of it. I have
+tried to establish perfect confidence between us. I do not think my
+daughter keeps a secret from me. I think many young persons go astray
+because their parents have failed to strengthen their characters and to
+forewarn and forearm them against the temptations and dangers that
+surround their paths. How goes the battle?" said Mrs. Lasette, turning
+to Mr. Thomas.
+
+"I am still at sea, and the tide has not yet turned in my favor. Of
+course, I feel the change; it has taken my life out of its accustomed
+channel, but I am optimist enough to hope that even this change will
+result in greater good to the greatest number. I think one of our great
+wants is the diversification of our industries, and I do not believe it
+would be wise for the parents to relax their endeavors to give their
+children the best education in their power. We cannot tell what a race
+can do till it utters and expresses itself, and I know that there is an
+amount of brain among us which can and should be utilized in other
+directions than teaching school or seeking for clerkships. Mr. Clarkson
+had a very intelligent daughter whom he wished to fit for some other
+employment than that of a school teacher. He had her trained for a
+physician. She went to B., studied faithfully, graduated at the head of
+her class and received the highest medal for her attainments, thus
+proving herself a living argument of the capability in her race. Her
+friend, Miss Young, had artistic talent, and learned wood carving. She
+developed exquisite taste and has become a fine artist in that branch of
+industry. A female school teacher's work in the public schools is apt to
+be limited to her single life, but a woman who becomes proficient in a
+useful trade or business, builds up for herself a wall of defense
+against the invasions of want and privation whether she is married or
+single. I think that every woman, and man too, should be prepared for
+the reverses of fortune by being taught how to do some one thing
+thoroughly so as to be able to be a worker in the world's service, and
+not a pensioner upon its bounty. And for this end it does not become us
+as a race to despise any honest labor which lifts us above pauperism and
+dependence. I am pleased to see our people having industrial fairs. I
+believe in giving due honor to all honest labor, in covering idleness
+with shame, and crowning labor with respect."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+
+For awhile Mrs. Harcourt was busy in preparing the supper, to which they
+all did ample justice. In her white apron, faultless neck handkerchief
+and nicely fitting, but plain dress, Mrs. Harcourt looked the
+impersonation of contented happiness. Sorrow had left deep furrows upon
+her kindly face, but for awhile the shadows seemed to have been lifted
+from her life and she was the pleasant hostess, forgetting her own
+sorrows in contributing to the enjoyment of others. Supper being over,
+her guests resumed their conversation.
+
+"You do not look upon the mixing of the schools as being necessarily
+disadvantageous to our people," said the minister.
+
+"That," said Mr. Thomas, "is just in accordance to the way we adapt
+ourselves to the change. If we are to remain in this country as a
+component part of the nation, I cannot fail to regard with interest any
+step which tends toward our unification with all the other branches of
+the human race in this Western Hemisphere."
+
+"Although," said Mrs. Lasette, "I have been educating my daughter and
+have felt very sorry when I have witnessed the disappointment of parents
+who have fitted their children for teachers and have seen door after
+door closed against them, I cannot help regarding the mixing of the
+schools as at least one step in a right direction."
+
+"But Mrs. Lasette," said the minister, "as we are educated by other
+means than school books and blackboards, such as the stimulus of hope,
+the incentives of self-respect and the consensus of public opinion, will
+it not add to the depression of the race if our children are made to
+feel that, however well educated they may be or exemplary as pupils, the
+color of their skin must debar them from entering avenues which are
+freely opened to the young girls of every other nationality."
+
+Mr. Thomas replied, "In considering this question, which is so much
+broader than a mere local question, I have tried to look beyond the life
+of the individual to the life of the race, and I find that it is through
+obstacles overcome, suffering endured and the tests of trial that
+strength is obtained, courage manifested and character developed. We are
+now passing through a crucial period in our race history and what we so
+much need is moral earnestness, strength of character and purpose to
+guide us through the rocks and shoals on which so many life barques have
+been stranded and wrecked."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Lasette, "I believe that we are capable of being more
+than light-hearted children of the tropics and I want our young people
+to gain more persistence in their characters, perseverance in their
+efforts and that esprit de corps, which shall animate us with higher,
+nobler and holier purpose in the future than we have ever known in the
+past; and while I am sorry for the parents who, for their children's
+sake, have fought against the entailed ignorance of the ages with such
+humble weapons as the washboard, flat iron and scrubbing brush, and who
+have gathered the crumbs from the humblest departments of labor, still I
+feel with Mr. Thomas that the mixing of the schools is a stride in the
+march of the nation, only we must learn how to keep step in the progress
+of the centuries."
+
+"I do not think that I fully comprehend you," Mr. Lomax replied.
+
+"Let me explain. I live in the 19th Ward. In that Ward are not a half
+dozen colored children. When my husband bought the land we were more
+than a mile from the business part of the city, but we were poor and the
+land was very cheap and my husband said that paying rent was like
+putting money in a sinking fund; so he resolved, even if it put us to a
+little disadvantage, that he would buy the tract of land where we now
+live. Before he did so, he called together a number of his
+acquaintances, pointed out to them the tract of land and told them how
+they might join with him in planting a small hamlet for themselves; but
+except the few colored neighbors we now have, no one else would join
+with us. Some said it was too far from their work, others that they did
+not wish to live among many colored people, and some suspected my
+husband of trying either to take the advantage of them, or of
+agrandising himself at their expense, and I have now dear friends who
+might have been living comfortably in their own homes, who, to-day, are
+crowded in tenement houses or renting in narrow alleys and little
+streets."
+
+"That's true," said Mrs. Larkins, "I am one of them. I wanted my husband
+to take up with your husband's offer, but he was one of those men who
+knew it all and he never seemed to think it possible that any colored
+man could see any clearer than he did. I knew your husband's head was
+level and I tried to persuade Mr. Larkins to take up with his offer, but
+he would not hear to it; said he knew his own business best, and shut me
+up by telling me that he was not going to let any woman rule over him;
+and here I am to-day, Larkins gone and his poor old widow scuffing night
+and day to keep soul and body together; but there are some men you
+couldn't beat anything into their heads, not if you took a sledge
+hammer. Poor fellow, he is gone now and I ought not to say anything agin
+him, but if he had minded me, I would have had a home over my head and
+some land under my feet; but it is no use to grieve over spilled milk.
+When he was living if I said, yes, he was always sure to say, no. One
+day I said to him when he was opposing me, the way we live is like the
+old saying, 'Pull Dick and pull devil,' and what do you think he said?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure, what was it?"
+
+"Why, he just looked at me and smiled and said, 'I am Dick.' Of course
+he meant that I was the other fellow."
+
+"But," said Mrs. Lasette, "this is a digression from our subject. What
+I meant to say is this, that in our Ward is an excellent school house
+with a half score of well equipped and efficient teachers. The former
+colored school house was a dingy looking building about a mile and a
+half away with only one young school teacher, who had, it is true,
+passed a creditable examination. Now, when my daughter saw that the
+children of all other nationalities, it mattered not how low and
+debasing might be their environments, could enter the school for which
+her father paid taxes, and that she was forced either to stay at home or
+to go through all weathers to an ungraded school, in a poorly ventilated
+and unevenly heated room, would not such public inequality burn into her
+soul the idea of race-inferiority? And this is why I look upon the mixed
+school as a right step in the right direction."
+
+"Taking this view of the matter I see the pertinence of your position on
+this subject. Do you know," continued Mr. Lomax,[7] his face lighting up
+with a fine enthusiasm, "that I am full of hope for the future of our
+people?"
+
+"That's more than I am," said Mrs. Larkins very coldly. "When you have
+summered and wintered them as I have, you will change your tune."
+
+"Oh, I hope not," he replied with an accent of distress in his voice.
+"You may think me a dreamer and enthusiast, but with all our faults I
+firmly believe that the Negro belongs to one of the best branches of the
+human race, and that he has a high and holy mission in the great drama
+of life. I do not think our God is a purposeless Being, but his ways are
+not as our ways are, and his thoughts are not our thoughts, and I dare
+not say 'Had I his wisdom or he my love,' the condition of humanity
+would be better. I prefer thinking that in the crucible of pain and
+apparent disaster, that we are held by the hand of a loving Father who
+is doing for us all, the best he can to fit us for companionship with
+him in the eternities, and with John G. Whittier, I feel:
+
+  Amid the maddening maze of things
+    When tossed by storm and flood,
+  To one fixed stake my spirit clings
+    I know that God is good.
+
+"I once questioned and doubted, but now I have learned to love and trust
+in 'Him whom the heavens must receive till the time of the restitution
+of all things.' By this trust I do not mean a lazy leaning on Providence
+to do for us what we have ability to do for ourselves. I think that our
+people need more to be taught how to live than to be constantly warned
+to get ready to die. As Brother Thomas said, we are now passing through
+a crucial period of our history and what we need is life--more abundant
+life in every fibre of our souls; life which will manifest itself in
+moral earnestness, vigor of purpose, strength of character and spiritual
+progression."
+
+"I do hope," said Mr. Thomas, "that as you are among us, you will impart
+some of your earnestness and enthusiasm to our young people."
+
+"As I am a new comer here, and it is said that the people of A.P., are
+very sensitive to criticism, though very critical themselves and rather
+set and conservative in their ways, I hope that I shall have the benefit
+of your experience in aiding me to do all I can to help the people among
+whom my lot is cast."
+
+"You are perfectly welcome to any aid I can give you. Just now some of
+us are interested in getting our people out of these wretched alleys and
+crowded tenement houses into the larger, freer air of the country. We
+want our young men to help us fight the battle against poverty,
+ignorance, degradation, and the cold, proud scorn of society. Before our
+public lands are all appropriated, I want our young men and women to get
+homesteads, and to be willing to endure privations in order to place our
+means of subsistence on a less precarious basis. The land is a basis of
+power, and like Anteus in the myth, we will never have our full measure
+of material strength till we touch the earth as owners of the soil. And
+when we get the land we must have patience and perseverance enough to
+hold it."
+
+"In one of our Western States is a city which suggests the idea of
+Aladdin's wonderful lamp. Where that city now stands was once the
+homestead of a colored man who came from Virginia and obtained it under
+the homestead law. That man has since been working as a servant for a
+man who lives on 80 acres of his former section, and who has plotted the
+rest for the city of C."
+
+"How did he lose it?"
+
+"When he came from the South the country was new and female labor in
+great demand. His wife could earn $1.50 a day, and instead of moving on
+his land, he remained about forty miles away, till he had forfeited his
+claim, and it fell into the hands of the present proprietor. Since then
+our foresight has been developing and some months since in travelling in
+that same State, I met a woman whose husband had taken up a piece of
+land and was bringing it under cultivation. She and her children
+remained in town where they could all get work, and transmit him help
+and in a few years, I expect, they will be comfortably situated in a
+home owned by their united efforts."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+
+What next? was the question Mr. Thomas was revolving in his mind, when a
+knock was heard at his door, and he saw standing on the threshold, one
+of his former pupils.
+
+"Well, Charley, how does the world use you? Everything going on
+swimmingly?"
+
+"Oh, no indeed. I have lost my situation."
+
+"How is that? You were getting on so well. Mr. Hazleton seemed to be
+perfectly satisfied with you, and I thought that you were quite a
+favorite in the establishment. How was it that you lost your place?"
+
+"I lost it through the meanness of Mr. Mahler."
+
+"Mr. Mahler, our Superintendent of public schools?"
+
+"Yes, it was through him that I lost my situation."
+
+"Why, what could you have done to offend him?"
+
+"Nothing at all; I never had an unpleasant word with him in my life."
+
+"Do explain yourself. I cannot see why he should have used any influence
+to deprive you of your situation."
+
+"He had it in his power to do me a mean, low-life trick, and he did it,
+and I hope to see the day when I will be even with him," said the lad,
+with a flashing eye, while an angry flush mantled his cheek.
+
+"Do any of the family deal at Mr. Hazleton's store? Perhaps you gave
+some of them offence through neglect or thoughtlessness in dealing with
+them."
+
+"It was nothing of the kind. Mr. Mahler knew me and my mother. He knew
+her because she taught under him, and of course saw me often enough to
+know that I was her son, and so last week when he saw me in the store, I
+noticed that he looked very closely at me, and that in a few moments
+after he was in conversation with Mr. Hazleton. He asked him, 'if he
+employed a nigger for a cashier?' He replied, 'Of course not.' 'Well,'
+he said, 'you have one now.' After that they came down to the desk where
+I was casting up my accounts and Mr. Mahler asked, 'Is Mrs. Cooper your
+mother?' I answered, 'yes sir.' Of course I would not deny my mother.
+'Isn't your name Charley?'[8] and again I answered, yes; I could have
+resorted to concealment, but I would not lie for a piece of bread, and
+yet for mother's sake I sorely needed the place.
+
+"What did Mr. Hazleton say?"
+
+"Nothing, only I thought he looked at me a little embarrassed, just as
+any half-decent man might when he was about to do a mean and cruel
+thing. But that afternoon I lost my place. Mr. Hazleton said to me when
+the store was about to close, that he had no further use for me. Not
+discouraged, I found another place; but I believe that my evil genius
+found me out and that through him I was again ousted from that situation
+and now I am at my wits end."
+
+"But, Charley, were you not sailing under false colors?"
+
+"I do not think so, Mr. Thompson. I saw in the window an advertisement,
+'A boy wanted.' They did not say what color the boy must be and I
+applied for the situation and did my work as faithfully as I knew how.
+Mr. Hazleton seemed to be perfectly satisfied with my work and as he did
+not seek to know the antecedents of my family I did not see fit to
+thrust them gratuitously upon him. You know the hard struggle my poor
+mother has had to get along, how the saloon has cursed and darkened our
+home and I was glad to get anything to do by which I could honestly earn
+a dollar and help her keep the wolf from the door, and I tried to do my
+level best, but it made no difference; as soon as it was known that I
+had Negro blood in my veins door after door was closed against me; not
+that I was not honest, industrious, obliging and steady, but simply
+because of the blood in my veins."
+
+"I admit," said Mr. Thomas, trying to repress his indignation and speak
+calmly, "that it was a hard thing to be treated so for a cause over
+which you had not the least control, but, Charley, you must try to pick
+up courage."
+
+"Oh, it seems to me that my courage has all oozed out. I think that I
+will go away; maybe I can find work somewhere else. Had I been a convict
+from a prison there are Christian women here who would have been glad to
+have reached me out a helping hand and hailed my return to a life of
+honest industry as a blessed crowning of their labors of love; while I,
+who am neither a pauper nor felon, am turned from place after place
+because I belong to a race on whom Christendom bestowed the curse of
+slavery and under whose shadow has flourished Christless and inhuman
+caste prejudice. So I think that I had better go and start life afresh."
+
+"No, Charley, don't go away. I know you could pass as a white man; but,
+Charley, don't you know that to do so you must separate from your
+kindred and virtually ignore your mother? A mother, who, for your sake,
+would, I believe, take blood from every vein and strength from every
+nerve if it were necessary. If you pass into the white basis your mother
+can never be a guest in your home without betraying your origin; you
+cannot visit her openly and crown her with the respect she so well
+deserves without divulging the secret of your birth; and Charley, by
+doing so I do not think it possible that however rich or strong or
+influential you may be as a white man, that you can be as noble and as
+true a man as you will be if you stand in your lot without compromise or
+concealment, and feel that the feebler your mother's race is the closer
+you will cling to it. Charley, you have lately joined the church; your
+mission in the world is not to seek to be rich and strong, but because
+there is so much sin and misery in the world by it is to clasp the hand
+of Christ through faith and try to make the world better by your
+influence and gladder and brighter by your presence."
+
+"Mr. Thomas I try to be, and I hope I am a Christian, but if these
+prejudices are consistent with Christianity then I must confess that I
+do not understand it, and if it is I do not want it. Are these people
+Christians who open the doors of charitable institutions to sinners who
+are white and close them against the same class who are black? I do not
+call such people good patriots, let alone clear-sighted Christians. Why,
+they act as if God had done wrong in making a man black, and that they
+have never forgiven him and had become reconciled to the workmanship of
+his hands."
+
+"Charley, you are excited just now, and I think that you are making the
+same mistake that better educated men than you have done. You are
+putting Christianity and its abuses together. I do think, notwithstanding
+all its perversions, and all the rubbish which has gathered around its
+simplicity and beauty, that Christianity is the world's best religion.
+I know that Christ has been wounded in what should have been the house
+of his friends; that the banner of his religion which is broad enough
+to float over the wide world with all its sin and misery, has been
+drenched with the blood of persecution, trampled in the mire of slavery
+and stained by the dust of caste proscription; but I believe that men
+are beginning more fully to comprehend the claims of the gospel of
+Jesus Christ. I am not afraid of what men call infidelity. I hold the
+faith which I profess, to be too true, too sacred and precious to be
+disturbed by every wave of wind and doubt. Amid all the religious
+upheavals of the Nineteenth Century, I believe God is at the helm, that
+there are petrifactions of creed and dogma that are to [be] broken up,
+not by mere intellectual speculations, but by the greater solvent of
+the constraining love of Christ, and it is for this that I am praying,
+longing and waiting. Let schoolmen dispute and contend, the faith for
+which I most ardently long and earnestly contend, is a faith which works
+by love and purifies the soul."
+
+"Mr. Thomas, I believe that there is something real about your religion,
+but some of these white Christians do puzzle me awfully. Oh, I think
+that I will go. I am sick and tired of the place. Everything seems to be
+against me."
+
+"No, Charley; stay for your mother's sake. I know a noble and generous
+man who is brave enough to face a vitiated public opinion, and rich
+enough to afford himself the luxury of a good conscience. I shall tell
+him your story and try to interest him in your behalf. Will you stay?"
+
+"I certainly will if he will give me any chance to get my living and
+help my mother."
+
+"It has been said that everything has two handles, and if you take it by
+the wrong handle it will be too hard to hold."
+
+"I should like to know which is the right handle to this prejudice
+against color."
+
+"I do not think that there is prejudice against color in this country."
+
+"No prejudice against color!" said Charley Cooper,[9] opening his eyes
+with sudden wonder. "What was it that dogged my steps and shut door
+after door against me? Wasn't that prejudice against color?"
+
+"Whose color, Charley? Surely not yours, for you are whiter than several
+of Mr. Hazleton's clerks. Do you see in your case it was not prejudice
+against color?"
+
+"What was it, then?"
+
+"It was the information that you were connected by blood with a once
+enslaved and despised people on whom society had placed its ban, and to
+whom slavery and a low social condition had given a heritage of scorn,
+and as soon as he found out that you were connected with that race, he
+had neither the manliness nor the moral courage to say, the boy is
+capable and efficient. I see no cause why he should be dismissed for the
+crimes of his white ancestors. I heard an eminent speaker once say that
+some people would sing, 'I can smile at Satan's rage, and face a
+frowning world,' when they hadn't courage enough to face their next door
+neighbor on a moral question."
+
+"I think that must be the case with Mr. Hazleton."
+
+"I once used to despise such men. I have since learned to pity them."
+
+"I don't see what you find to pity in Mr. Hazleton, unless it is his
+meanness."
+
+"Well, I pity him for that. I think there never was slave more cowed
+under the whip of his master than he is under the lash of public
+opinion. The Negro was not the only one whom slavery subdued to the
+pliancy of submission. Men fettered the slave and cramped their own
+souls, denied him knowledge and then darkened their own spiritual
+insight, and the Negro, poor and despised as he was, laid his hands upon
+American civilization and has helped to mould its character. It is God's
+law. As ye sow, so shall ye reap, and men cannot sow avarice and
+oppression without reaping the harvest of retribution. It is a dangerous
+thing to gather
+
+  The flowers of sin that blossom
+    Around the borders of hell."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+
+"I never want to go to that school again," said Annette entering Mrs.
+Lasette's sitting room, throwing down her books on the table and looking
+as if she were ready to burst into tears.
+
+"What is the matter now, my dear child? You seem to be all out of
+sorts."
+
+"I've had a fuss with that Mary Joseph."
+
+"Mary Joseph, the saloon-keeper's daughter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How did it happen?"
+
+"Yesterday in changing seats, the teacher put us together according to
+the first letter in our last names. You know that I, comes next to J;
+but there wasn't a girl in the room whose name begins with I, and so as
+J comes next, she put Mary Joseph and myself together."
+
+"Ireland and Africa, and they were not ready for annexation?"
+
+"No, and never will be, I hope."
+
+"Never is a long day, Annette, but go on with your story."
+
+"Well, after the teacher put her in the seat next to me she began to
+wriggle and squirm and I asked her if anything was biting her, because
+if there was, I did not want it to get on me."
+
+"Oh, Annette, what a girl you are; why did you notice her? What did she
+say?"
+
+"She said if there was, it must have got there since the teacher put
+her on that seat, and it must have come from me."
+
+"Well, Mary Joseph knows how to scratch as well as you do."
+
+"Yes, she is a real scratch cat."
+
+"And what are you, my dear; a pattern saint?"
+
+"No," said Annette, as the ruefulness of her face relaxed into a smile,
+"but that isn't all; when I went to eat my lunch, she said she wasn't
+used to eating with niggers. Then I asked her if her mother didn't eat
+with the pigs in the old country, and she said that she would rather eat
+with them than to eat with me, and then she called me a nigger and I
+called her a poor white mick."
+
+"Oh, Annette, I am so sorry; I am afraid that trouble may come out of
+this fuss, and then it is so wrong and unlady-like for you to be
+quarrelling that way. Do you know how old you are?"
+
+"I am almost fourteen years old."
+
+"Where was the teacher all this time? Did she know anything about it?"
+
+"No; she was out of the room part of the time, but I don't think she
+likes colored people, because last week when Joe Smith was cutting up in
+school, she made him get up and sit alongside of me to punish him."
+
+"She should not have done so, but I don't suppose she thought for one
+moment how it looked."
+
+"I don't know, but when I told grandma about it, Mrs. Larkins was in the
+room, and she said if she had done a child of hers so, she would have
+gone there and sauced her head off; but grandma said that she would not
+notice it; that the easiest way is the best."
+
+"I think that your grandmother was right; but what did Joe say?"
+
+He said that the teacher didn't spite him; that he would as lieve sit by
+me as any girl in school, and that he liked girls."
+
+"A little scamp."
+
+"He says he likes girls because they are so jolly."
+
+"But tell me all about Mary Joseph."
+
+"Well, a mean old thing, she went and told her horrid old father, and
+just as I was coming along he took hold of my arm and said he had heard
+that I had called his daughter, Miss Mary Joseph, a poor white mick and
+that if I did it again he would give me a good thrashing, and that for
+two pins he would do it then."
+
+"What next?"
+
+"I guess I felt like Mrs. Larkins does when she says her Guinea gets up.
+My Guinea was up but I was afraid to show it. Oh, but I do hate these
+Irish. I don't like them for anything. Grandmother says that an Irishman
+is only a negro turned wrong side out, and I told her so yesterday
+morning when she was fussing with me."
+
+"Say, rather, when we were fussing together; I don't think the fault was
+all on her side."
+
+"But, Mrs. Lasette, she had no business calling me a nigger."
+
+"Of course not; but would you have liked it [any] better if she had
+called you a negro?"
+
+"No; I don't want her to call me anything of the kind, neither negro nor
+nigger. She shan't even call me black."
+
+"But, Annette, are you not black?"
+
+"I don't care if I am, she shan't call me so."
+
+"But suppose you were to say to Miss Joseph, 'How white your face is,'
+do you suppose she would get angry because you said that she looked
+white?"
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"But suppose you met her hurrying to school, and you said to her, how
+red and rosy you look this morning, would that make her angry?"
+
+"I don't suppose that it would."
+
+"But suppose she would say to you, 'Annette, how black your face is this
+morning,' how would you feel?"
+
+"I should feel like slapping her."
+
+"Why so; do you think because Miss Joseph----"
+
+"Don't call her Miss, she is so mean and hateful."
+
+"But that don't hinder her from being Miss Joseph; If she is rude and
+coarse, that is no reason why I should not have good manners."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Lasette you are too sweet for anything. I wish I was like
+you."
+
+"Never mind my sweetness; that is not to the point. Will you listen to
+me, my dear?"
+
+"Of course I will. I could listen to you all night."
+
+"Well, if it were not for signs there's no mistaking I should think you
+had a lot of Irish blood in your veins, and had kissed the blarney
+stone."
+
+"No I haven't and if I had I would try to let----"
+
+"Hush, my child; how you do rattle on. Do you think because Miss Joseph
+is white that she is any better than you are."
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"But don't you think that she can see and hear a little better than you
+can?"
+
+"Why, no; what makes you ask such a funny question?"
+
+"Never mind, just answer me a few more questions. Don't you think if you
+and she had got to fighting that she would have whipped you because she
+is white?"
+
+"Why, of course not. Didn't she try to get the ruler out of my hand and
+didn't because I was stronger."
+
+"But don't you think she is smarter than you are and gets her lessons
+better."
+
+"Now you are shouting."
+
+"Why, Annette, where in the world did you get that slang?"
+
+"Why, Mrs. Lasette, I hear the boys saying it in the street, and the
+girls in Tennis Court all say it, too. Is there any harm in it?"
+
+"It is slang, my child, and a young lady should never use slang. Don't
+use it in private and you will not be apt to use it in public. However
+humble or poor a person may be, there is no use in being coarse and
+unrefined."
+
+"But what harm is there in it?"
+
+"I don't say that there is any, but I don't think it nice for young
+ladies to pick up all sorts of phrases in the street and bring them into
+the home. The words may be innocent in themselves, but they may not have
+the best associations, and it is safer not to use them. But let us
+return to Miss Joseph. You do not think that she can see or hear any
+better than you can, learn her lessons any quicker than you can, and
+when it comes to a trial of strength that she is stronger than you are,
+now let me ask you one more question. Who made Miss Joseph?"
+
+"Why, the Lord, of course."
+
+"And who made you?"
+
+"He made me, too."
+
+"Are you sure that you did not make yourself?"
+
+"Why, of course not," said Annette with an accent of wonder in her
+voice.
+
+"Does God ever make any mistakes?"
+
+"Why, no!"
+
+"Then if any one calls you black, why should you get angry? You say it
+would not make Miss Joseph angry to say she looked white, or red and
+rosy."
+
+"I don't know; I know I don't like it and it makes me mad."
+
+"Now, let me explain the reason why it makes you angry to be called
+black. Suppose I were to burn my hand in that stove, what would I have
+on my hand?"
+
+"A sore place."
+
+"If it were your hand, what would you do?"
+
+"I would put something on it, wrap it up to keep from getting cold into
+it and try to get it well as soon as I could."
+
+"Well, that would be a very sensible way of dealing with it. In this
+country, Annette, color has been made a sore place; it has been
+associated with slavery, poverty and ignorance. You cannot change your
+color, but you can try to change the association connected with our
+complexions. Did slavery force a man to be servile and submissive? Learn
+to hold up your head and respect yourself. Don't notice Mary Joseph's
+taunts; if she says things to tease you don't you let her see that she
+has succeeded. Learn to act as if you realized that you were born into
+this world the child of the Ruler of the universe, that this is his
+world and that you have as much right in it as she has. I think it was
+Gilbert Haven, a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a man for
+whose tombstone I do not think America has any marble too white or any
+laurel too green, who saw on his travels a statue of Cleopatra, which
+suggested to him this thought, 'I am black, but comely, the sun has
+looked down upon me, but I will make you who despise me feel that I am
+your superior,' and, Annette, I want you to be so noble, true and pure
+that if everybody should hate you, that no one could despise you. No,
+Annette, if Miss Joseph ever attempts to quarrel with you don't put
+yourself on the same level by quarreling with her. I knew her parents
+when they were very poor; when a half dozen of them slept in one room.
+He has made money by selling liquor; he is now doing business in one of
+the most valuable pieces of property I see in East L street. He has been
+a curse, and his saloon a nuisance in that street. He has gone up in
+property and even political influence, but oh, how many poor souls have
+gone down, slain by strong drink and debauchery."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+
+True to his word, Mr. Thomas applied to Mr. Hastings, the merchant, of
+whom he had spoken to his young friend. He went to his counting-room and
+asked for a private interview, which was readily granted. They had
+kindred intellectual and literary tastes and this established between
+them a free masonry of mind which took no account of racial differences.
+
+"I have a favor to ask," said Mr. Thomas, "can you spare me a few
+moments?"
+
+"I am at your service," Mr. Hasting replied, "what can I do for you?"
+
+"I have," he said, "a young friend who is honest and industrious and
+competent to fill the place of clerk or cashier in your store. He has
+been a cashier for Hazleton & Co., and while there gave entire
+satisfaction."
+
+"Why did he leave?"
+
+"I cannot say, because he was guilty of a skin not colored like your
+own, but because a report was brought to Mr. Hazleton that he had Negro
+blood in his veins."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"He summarily dismissed him."
+
+"What a shame!"
+
+"Yes, it was a shame, but this pride of caste dwarfs men's moral
+perception so that it prepares them to do a number of contemptible
+things which, under other circumstances, they would scorn to do."
+
+"Yes, it is so, and I am sorry to see it."
+
+"There are men, Mr. Hastings, who would grow hotly indignant if you
+would say that they are not gentlemen who would treat a Negro in a
+manner which would not be recognized as fair, even by ruffians of the
+ring, for, I believe, it is their code of honor not to strike a man when
+he is down; but with respect to the colored man, it seems to be a
+settled policy with some not only to push him down, but to strike him
+when he is down. But I must go; I came to ask a favor and it is not
+right to trespass on your time."
+
+"No; sit still. I have a little leisure I can give you. My fall trade
+has not opened yet and I am not busy. I see and deplore these things of
+which you complain, but what can be done to help it?"
+
+"Mr. Hastings, you see them, and I feel them, and I fear that I am
+growing morbid over them, and not only myself, but other educated men
+of my race, and that, I think, is a thing to be deprecated. Between the
+white people and the colored people of this country there is a unanimity
+of interest and I know that our interests and duties all lie in one
+direction. Can men corrupt and intimidate voters in the South without a
+reflex influence being felt in the North? Is not the depression of labor
+in the South a matter of interest to the North? You may protect yourself
+from what you call the pauper of Europe, but you will not be equally
+able to defend yourself from the depressed laborer of the new South, and
+as an American citizen, I dread any turn of the screw which will lower
+the rate of wages here; and I like to feel as an American citizen that
+whatever concerns the nation concerns me. But I feel that this prejudice
+against my race compresses my soul, narrows my political horizon and
+makes me feel that I am an alien in the land of my birth. It meets me in
+the church, it confronts me in business and I feel its influence in
+almost every avenue of my life."
+
+"I wish, Mr. Thomas, that some of the men who are writing and talking
+about the Negro problem would only come in contact with the thoughtful
+men of your race. I think it would greatly modify their views."
+
+"Yes, you know us as your servants. The law takes cognizance of our
+crimes. Your charitable institutions of our poverty, but what do any of
+you know of our best and most thoughtful men and women? When we write
+how many of you ever read our books and papers or give yourselves any
+trouble to come near us as friends and help us? Even some of your
+professed Christians are trying to set us apart as if we were social
+lepers."
+
+"You draw a dark picture. I confess that I feel pained at the condition
+of affairs in the South, but what can we do in the South?"
+
+"Set the South a better example. But I am hindering you in your
+business."
+
+"Not at all. I want to see things from the same standpoint that you do."
+
+"Put yourself then in my place. You start both North and South from the
+premise that we are an inferior race and as such you have treated us.
+Has not the consensus of public opinion said for ages, 'No valor redeems
+our race, no social advancement nor individual development wipes off the
+ban which clings to us'; that our place is on the lowest round of the
+social ladder; that at least, in part of the country we are too low for
+the equal administrations of religion and the same dispensations of
+charity and a fair chance in the race of life?"
+
+"You bring a heavy verdict against us. I hardly think that it can be
+sustained. Whatever our motives may have been, we have been able to
+effect in a few years a wonderful change in the condition of the Negro.
+He has freedom and enfranchisement and with these two great rights he
+must work out his social redemption and political solution. If his means
+of education have been limited, a better day is dawning upon him. Doors
+once closed against him in the South are now freely opened to him, and I
+do not think that there ever was a people who freed their slaves who
+have given as much for their education as we have, and my only hope is
+that the moral life of the race will keep pace with its intellectual
+growth. You tell me to put myself in your place. I think if I were a
+colored young man that I would develop every faculty and use every power
+which God had given me for the improvement and development of my race.
+And who among us would be so blind and foolish as to attempt to keep
+down an enlightened people who were determined to rise in the scale of
+character and condition? No, Mr. Thomas, while you blame us for our
+transgressions and shortcomings, do not fail to do all you can to rouse
+up all the latent energies of your young men to do their part worthily
+as American citizens and to add their quota to the strength and progress
+of the nation."
+
+"I am conscious of the truth and pertinence of your remarks, but bear
+with me just a few moments while I give an illustration of what I mean."
+
+"Speak on, I am all attention. The subject you bring before me is of
+too vital importance to be constantly ignored."
+
+"I have a friend who is presiding elder in the A.M.E. Church and his
+wife, I think, is capable of being a social and intellectual accession
+in any neighborhood in which they might live. He rented a house in the
+city of L. and being of a fair complexion I suppose the lessee rented to
+him without having a suspicion of his race connection. When it was
+ascertained that he and his family were colored, he was ordered to
+leave, and this man, holding among the ministers of that city the
+position of ambassador for Christ, was ordered out of the house on
+account of the complexion of his family. Was there not a screw loose in
+the religious sentiment of that city which made such an act possible? A
+friend of mine who does mission work in your city, some time since,
+found a young woman in the slums and applied at the door of a midnight
+mission for fallen women, and asked if colored girls could be received,
+and was curtly answered, 'no.' For her in that mission there was no room.
+The love of Christ constrained no hand to strive to rescue her from the
+depths of degradation. The poor thing went from bad to worse till at
+last, wrecked and blighted, she went down to an early grave the victim
+of strong drink. That same lady found on her mission a white girl;
+seeing a human soul adrift, regardless of color, she went, in company
+with some others, to that same mission with the poor castaway; to her
+the door was opened without delay and ready admittance granted. But I
+might go on reciting such instances until you would be weary of hearing
+and I of relating them; but I appeal to you as a patriot and Christian,
+is it not fearfully unwise to keep alive in freedom the old animosities
+of slavery? To-day the Negro shares citizenship with you. He is not
+arraying himself against your social order; his hands are not dripping
+with dynamite, nor is he waving in your face the crimson banners of
+anarchy, but he is increasing in numbers and growing in intelligence,
+and is it not madness and folly to subject him to social and public
+inequalities, which are calculated to form and keep alive a hatred of
+race as a reaction against pride of caste?"
+
+"Mr. Thomas, you have given me a new view of the matter. To tell you the
+truth, we have so long looked upon the colored man as a pliable and
+submissive being that we have never learned to look at any hatred on his
+part as an element of danger, and yet I should be sorry to know that by
+our Southern supineness we were thoughtlessly helping create a black
+Ireland in our Gulf States, that in case the fires of anarchy should
+ever sweep through our land, that a discontented and disaffected people
+in our midst might be as so much fuel to fire."
+
+"But really I have been forgetting my errand. Have you any opening in
+your store for my young friend?"
+
+"I have only one vacancy, and that is the place of a utility man."
+
+"What are the duties of that position?"
+
+"Almost anything that comes to hand; tying up bundles, looking after the
+mails, scattering advertisements. A factotum whose work lies here, there
+and everywhere."
+
+"I am confident that he will accept the situation and render you
+faithful service."
+
+"Well, then send him around tomorrow and if there is anything in him I
+may be able to do better by him when the fall trade opens."
+
+And so Charley Cooper was fortunate enough in his hour of perplexity to
+find a helping hand to tide him over a difficult passage in his life.
+Gratefully and faithfully did he serve Mr. Hastings, who never regretted
+the hour when he gave the struggling boy such timely assistance. The
+discipline of the life through which he was passing as the main stay of
+his mother, matured his mind and imparted to it a thoughtfulness past
+his years. Instead of wasting his time in idle and pernicious pleasure,
+he learned how to use his surplus dollar and how to spend his leisure
+hours, and this knowledge told upon his life and character. He was not
+very popular in society. Young men with cigars in their mouths and the
+perfume of liquor on their breaths, shrugged their shoulders and called
+him a milksop because he preferred the church and Sunday school to the
+liquor saloon and gambling dens. The society of P. was cut up and
+divided into little sets and coteries; there was an amount of
+intelligence among them, but it ran in narrow grooves and scarcely
+one[10] intellect seemed to tower above the other, and if it did, no
+people knew better how to ignore a rising mind than the society people
+of A.P. If the literary aspirant did not happen to be of their set. As
+to talent, many of them were pleasant and brilliant conversationalists,
+but in the world of letters scarcely any of them were known or
+recognized outside of their set. They had leisure, a little money and
+some ability, but they lacked the perseverance and self-denial
+necessary to enable them to add to the great resources of natural
+thought. They had narrowed their minds to the dimensions of their set
+and were unprepared to take expansive[11] views of life and duty. They
+took life as a holiday and the lack of noble purposes and high and holy
+aims left its impress upon their souls and deprived them of that joy and
+strength which should have crowned their existence and given to their
+lives its "highest excellence and beauty."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+
+
+Two years have elapsed since we left Annette recounting her school
+grievances to Mrs. Lasette. She has begun to feel the social contempt
+which society has heaped upon the colored people, but she has determined
+not to succumb to it. There is force in the character of that fiery,
+impetuous and impulsive girl, and her school experience is bringing it
+out. She has been bending all her mental energies to compete for the
+highest prize at the commencement of her school, from which she expects
+to graduate in a few weeks. The treatment of the saloon-keeper's
+daughter, and that of other girls of her ilk, has stung her into
+strength. She feels that however despised her people may be, that a
+monopoly of brains has not been given to the white race. Mr. Thomas has
+encouraged her efforts, and taught her to believe that not only is her
+own honor at stake as a student, but that as a representative of her
+branch of the human race, she is on the eve of winning, or losing, not
+only for herself, but for others. This view of the matter increases her
+determination and rouses up all the latent energies of her nature, and
+she labors day and night to be a living argument of the capability in
+her race. For other girls who will graduate in that school, there will
+be open doors, and unclosed avenues, while she knows that the color of
+her skin will bar against her the doors of workshops, factories and
+school rooms, and yet Mr. Thomas, knowing all the discouragements around
+her path, has done what he could to keep her interest in her studies
+from flagging. He knows that she has fine abilities, but that they must
+be disciplined by trial and endeavor before her life can be rounded by
+success and triumph. He has seen several of her early attempts at
+versification; pleased and even delighted with them, he has shown them
+to a few of his most intellectual friends. Eager and earnest for the
+elevation of the colored people, he has been pained at the coldness with
+which they have been received.
+
+"I do not call that poetry," said one of the most intelligent women of
+A.P.
+
+"Neither do I see anything remarkable about her," said another.
+
+"I did not," said Mr. Thomas, "bring you the effusions of an
+acknowledged poet, but I think that the girl has fine ability, which
+needs encouragement and recognition."
+
+But his friends could not see it; they were very charry of their
+admiration, lest their judgment should be found at fault, and then it
+was so much easier to criticise than it was to heartily admire; and they
+knew it seemed safer to show their superior intelligence by dwelling on
+the defects, which would necessarily have an amount of crudeness in them
+than to look beneath the defects for the suggestions of beauty, strength
+and grace which Mr. Thomas saw in these unripe, but promising effusions.
+It seemed perfectly absurd with the surroundings of Tennis Court to
+expect anything grand or beautiful [to] develop in its midst; but with
+Annette, poetry was a passion born in her soul, and it was as natural
+for her to speak in tropes and figures as it was for others to talk in
+plain, common prose. Mr. Thomas called her "our inveterate poet," and
+encouraged her, but the literary aspirants took scarcely any interest in
+the girl whom they left to struggle on as best she might. In her own
+home she was doomed to meet with lack of encouragement and appreciation
+from her relatives and grandmother's friends. One day her aunt, Eliza
+Hanson, was spending the day with her mother, and Annette showed her
+some of her verses and said to her, "that is one of my best pieces."
+
+"Oh, you have a number of best pieces," said her aunt, carelessly. "Can
+you cook a beefsteak?"
+
+"I suppose I could if I tried."
+
+"Well, you had better try than to be trying to string verses together.
+You seem to think that there must be something very great about you. I
+know where you want to get. You want to get among the upper tens, but
+you haven't got style enough about you for that."
+
+"That's just what I tell her," said her grandmother. "She's got too many
+airs for a girl in her condition. She talks about writing a book, and
+she is always trying to make up what she calls poetry. I expect that she
+will go crazy some of these days. She is all the time talking to
+herself, and I just think it is a sin for her to be so much taken up
+with her poetry."
+
+"You had better put her to work; had she not better go out to service?"
+
+"No, I am going to let her graduate first."
+
+"What's the use of it? When she's through, if she wants to teach, she
+will have to go away."
+
+"Yes, I know that, but Mrs. Lasette has persuaded me to let Annette
+graduate, and I have promised that I would do so, and besides I think to
+take Annette from school just now would almost break her heart."
+
+"Well, mother, that is just like you; you will work yourself almost to
+death to keep Annette in school, and when she is through what good will
+it do her?"
+
+"Maybe something will turn up that you don't see just now. When a good
+thing turns up if a person ain't ready for it they can't take hold of
+it."
+
+"Well, I hope a good husband will turn up for my Alice."
+
+"But maybe the good husband won't turn up for Annette."
+
+"That is well said, for they tell me that Annette is not very popular,
+and that some of the girls are all the time making fun of her."
+
+"Well, they had better make fun of themselves and their own bad manners.
+Annette is poor and has no father to stand by her, and I cannot
+entertain like some of their parents can, but Annette, with all her
+faults, is as good as any of them. Talk about the prejudice of the white
+people, I think there is just as much prejudice among some colored as
+there is among them, only we do not get the same chance to show it; we
+are most too mixed up and dependent on one another for that." Just then
+Mrs. Lasette entered the room and Mrs. Hanson, addressing her, said, "We
+were just discussing Annette's prospects. Mother wants to keep Annette
+at school till she graduates, but I think she knows enough now to teach
+a country school and it is no use for mother to be working as she does
+to keep Annette in school for the sake of letting her graduate. There
+are lots of girls in A.P. better off than she who have never graduated,
+and I don't see that mother can afford to keep Annette at school any
+longer."
+
+"But, Eliza, Annette is company for me and she does help about the
+house."
+
+"I don't think much of her help; always when I come home she has a book
+stuck under her nose."
+
+"Annette," said Mrs. Lasette, "is a favorite of mine; I have always a
+warm place in my heart for her, and I really want to see the child do
+well. In my judgment I do not think it advisable to take her from school
+before she graduates. If Annette were indifferent about her lessons and
+showed no aptitude for improvement I should say as she does not
+appreciate education enough to study diligently and has not aspiration
+enough to keep up with her class, find out what she is best fitted for
+and let her be instructed in that calling for which she is best
+adapted."
+
+"I think," said Mrs. Hanson, "you all do wrong in puffing up Annette
+with the idea that she is something extra. You think, Mrs. Lasette, that
+there is something wonderful about Annette, but I can't see it, and I
+hear a lot of people say she hasn't got good sense."
+
+"They do not understand the child."
+
+"They all say that she is very odd and queer and often goes out into the
+street as if she never saw a looking glass. Why, Mrs. Miller's daughter
+just laughed till she was tired at the way Annette was dressed when she
+went to call on an acquaintance of hers. Why, Annette just makes herself
+a perfect laughing stock."
+
+"Well, I think Mary Miller might have found better employment than
+laughing at her company."
+
+"Now, let me tell you, Mary Miller don't take her for company, and that
+very evening Annette was at my house, just next door, and when Mary
+Miller went to church she never asked her to go along with her, although
+she belongs to the same church."
+
+"I am sorry to say it," said grandmother Harcourt, "but your Alice
+hardly ever comes to see Annette, and never asks her to go anywhere with
+her, but may be in the long run Annette will come out better than some
+who now look down upon her. It is a long road that has no turn and
+Annette is like a singed cat; she is better than she looks."
+
+"I think," said Mrs. Lasette, "while Annette is very bright and
+intelligent as a pupil, she has been rather slow in developing in some
+other directions. She lacks tact, is straightforward to bluntness and
+has not any style about her and little or no idea of company manners,
+but she is never coarse nor rude. I never knew her to read a book whose
+author I would blush to name, and I never heard her engage in any
+conversation I would shrink to hear repeated. I don't think there is a
+girl of purer lips in A.P. than Annette, and I do not think your set, as
+you call it, has such a monopoly of either virtue or intelligence that
+you can afford to ridicule and depress any young soul who does not
+happen to come up to your social standard. Where dress and style are
+passports Annette may be excluded, but where brain and character count
+Annette will gain admittance. I fear," said Mrs. Lasette, rising to go,
+"that many a young girl has gone down in the very depths who might have
+been saved if motherly women, when they saw them unloved and lonely, had
+reached out to them a helping hand and encouraged them to live useful
+and good lives. We cry am I my sister's keeper? [I?] will not wipe the
+blood off our hands if through pride and selfishness we have stabbed by
+our neglect souls we should have helped by our kindness. I always feel
+for young girls who are lonely and neglected in large cities and are in
+danger of being ensnared by pretended sympathies and false friendship,
+and, to-day, no girl is more welcome at any social gathering than
+Annette."
+
+"Mrs. Lasette," said Mrs. Hanson, "you are rich and you can do as you
+choose in A.P. You can set the fashion."
+
+"No; I am not rich, but I hope that I will always be able to lend a
+hand to any lonely girl who is neglected, slighted and forgotten while
+she is trying to do right, who comes within my reach while I live in
+A.P. Good morning."
+
+"Annette," said Mrs. Hanson,[12] "has a champion who will stand by her."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Harcourt,[13] "Anna is true as steel; the kind of woman
+you can tie to. When my great trouble came, she was good as gold, and
+when my poor heart was almost breaking, she always had a kind word for
+me. I wish we had ten thousand like her."
+
+"Well, mother, I must go, but if Annette does graduate don't let her go
+on the stage looking like a fright. General H's daughter has a beautiful
+new silk dress and a lovely hat which she got just a few weeks before
+her mother's death; as she has gone in black she wants to sell it, and
+if you say so, and will pay for it on installments, I can get if for
+Annette, and I think with a little alteration it would be splendid for
+her graduation dress."
+
+"No; Eliza, I can't afford it."
+
+"Why, mother, Annette will need something nice for the occasion, and it
+will not cost any more than what you intend to pay for her dress and
+hat. Why not take them?"
+
+"Because Annette is not able to wear them. Suppose she had that one fine
+dress and hat, would she not want more to match with them? I don't want
+her to learn to dress in a style that she cannot honestly afford. I
+think this love of dress is the ruination of many a young girl. I think
+this straining after fine things when you are not able to get them, is
+perfectly ridiculous. I believe in cutting your coat according to your
+cloth. I saw Mrs. Hempstead's daughter last Sunday dressed up in a
+handsome light silk, and a beautiful spring hat, and if she or her
+mother would get sick to-morrow, they would, I suppose, soon be objects
+of public charity or dependent on her widowed sister, who is too proud
+to see her go to the poor house; and this is just the trouble with a lot
+of people; they not only have their own burdens to bear but somebody
+else's. You may call me an old fogy, but I would rather live cheap and
+dress plain than shirk my burdens because I had wasted when they had
+saved. You and John Hanson are both young and have got your health and
+strength, and instead of buying sealskins, and velvets and furbelows,
+you had better be laying up for a rainy day. You have no more need for a
+sealskin cloak than a cat has for a catechism. Now you do as you please,
+I have had my say."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI
+
+
+It has been quite a length of time since we left Mr. Thomas and his
+young friend facing an uncertain future. Since then he has not only been
+successful in building up a good business for himself, but in opening
+the gates to others. His success has not inflated him with pride.
+Neither has he become self-abashed and isolated from others less
+fortunate, who need his counsel and sympathy. Generous and noble in his
+character, he was conservative enough to cling to the good of the past
+and radical enough to give hospitality to every new idea which was
+calculated to benefit and make life noble and better. Mr. Thomas, in
+laying the foundation of his education, was thoughtful enough to enter
+a manual labor school, where he had the double advantage of getting
+an education and learning a trade, through which he was enabled to
+rely on himself without asking aid from any one, which in itself was
+an education in manliness, self-respect and self-reliance, that he
+could not have obtained had he been the protege of the wealthiest
+philanthropist in the land. As he had fine mechanical skill and
+ingenuity, he became an excellent carpenter. But it is one thing to have
+a trade and another thing to have an opportunity to exercise that trade.
+It was a time when a number of colored churches were being erected. To
+build large and even magnificent churches seemed to be a ruling passion
+with the colored people. Their homes might be very humble, their walls
+bare of pictured grace, but by united efforts they could erect large and
+handsome churches in which they had a common possession and it was one
+of the grand satisfactions of freedom that they were enabled to build
+their own churches and carry on their own business without being
+interfered with, and overlooked by a class of white ecclesiastics whose
+presence was a reminder of their implied inferiority. The church of
+which Mr. Thomas was a member was about to erect a costly edifice. The
+trustees would probably have willingly put the work in the hands of a
+colored man, had there been a sufficient number to have done the work,
+but they did not seem to remember that white prejudice had barred the
+Northern workshops against the colored man, that slavery, by degrading
+and monopolizing labor had been the means of educating colored men in
+the South to be good mechanics, and that a little pains and search on
+their part might have brought to light colored carpenters in the South
+who would have done the work as efficiently as those whom they employed,
+but as the trustees were not very farsighted men, they did the most
+available thing that came to hand; they employed a white man. Mr.
+Thomas' pastor applied to the master builder for a place for his
+parishioner.
+
+"Can you give employment to one of my members, on our church?" Rev.
+Mr. Lomax asked the master builder.
+
+"I would willingly do so, but I can not."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because my men would all rise up against it. Now, for my part, I have
+no prejudice against your parishioner, but my men will not work with a
+colored man. I would let them all go if I could get enough colored men
+to suit me just as well, but such is the condition of the labor market,
+that a man must either submit to a number of unpalatable things or run
+the risk of a strike and being boycotted. I think some of these men who
+want so much liberty for themselves have very little idea of it for
+other people."
+
+After this conversation the minister told Mr. Thomas the result of his
+interview with the master builder, and said,
+
+"I am very sorry; but it is as it is, and it can't be any better."
+
+"Do you mean by that that things are always going to remain as they
+are?"
+
+"I do not see any quick way out of it. This prejudice is the outgrowth
+of ages; it did not come in a day, nor do I expect that it will vanish
+in an hour."
+
+"Nor do I; but I do not think the best way for a people to mend their
+pastures is to sit down and bewail their fate."
+
+"No; we must be up and going for ourselves. White people will----"
+
+"White people," exclaimed Mr. Thomas somewhat impatiently. "Is there not
+a great deal of bosh in the estimate some of us have formed of white
+people. We share a common human feeling, from which the same cause
+produces the same effect. Why am I today a social Pariah, begging for
+work, and refused situation after situation? My father is a wealthy
+Southerner; he has several other sons who are inheritors of his name and
+heirs of his wealth. They are educated, cultured and occupy high social
+positions. Had I not as good a right to be well born as any of them? And
+yet, through my father's crime, I was doomed to the status of a slave
+with its heritage of ignorance, poverty and social debasement. Talk of
+the heathenism of Africa, of hostile tribes warring upon each other and
+selling the conquered foes into the hands of white men, but how much
+higher in the scale of moral progression was the white man who doomed
+his own child, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, to a life of
+slavery? The heathen could plead in his defence the fortunes of war, and
+the hostility of an opposing tribe, but the white man who enslaved his
+child warred upon his hapless offspring and wrote chattel upon his
+condition when his hand was too feeble to hurl aside the accursed hand
+and recognize no other ownership but God. I once felt bitterly on this
+subject, and although it is impossible for my father to make full
+reparation for the personal wrong inflicted on me, I owe him no grudge.
+Hating is poor employment for any rational being, but I am not prepared
+to glorify him at the expense of my mother's race. She was faithful to
+me when he deserted me to a life of ignorance and poverty, and although
+three-fourths of the blood in my veins belongs to my father's face, I
+feel a kinship with my mother's people that I do not with his, and I
+will defend that race from the aspersions of the meanest Negro hater in
+the land. Heathenism and civilization live side by side on American
+soil, but all the heathenism is not on the side of the Negro. Look at
+slavery and kukluxism with their meanness and crimes, mormonism with its
+vile abominations, lynch law with its burnings and hangings, our
+national policy in regard to the Indians and Chinese."
+
+"I do not think," said the minister, "that there is another civilized
+country in the world where men are lynched for real or supposed crimes
+outside of America."
+
+"The Negro need not bow his head like a bulrush in the presence of a
+race whose records are as stained by crime and dishonor as theirs. Let
+others decry the Negro, and say hard things about him, I am not prepared
+to join in the chorus of depreciation."
+
+After parting with the minister, Mr. Thomas resolved, if pluck and
+energy were of any avail, that he would leave no stone unturned in
+seeking employment. He searched the papers carefully for advertisements,
+walked from one workshop to the other looking for work, and was
+eventually met with a refusal which meant, no negro need apply. At last
+one day when he had tried almost every workshop in the place, he entered
+the establishment of Wm. C. Nell, an Englishman who had not been long
+enough in America to be fully saturated by its Christless and inhuman
+prejudices. He was willing to give Mr. Thomas work, and put tools in his
+hands, and while watching how deftly he handled them, he did not notice
+the indignant scowls on the faces of his workmen, and their murmurs of
+disapprobation as they uttered their dissatisfaction one to the other.
+At length they took off their aprons, laid down their tools and asked to
+be discharged from work.
+
+"Why, what does this mean?" asked the astounded Englishman.
+
+"It means that we will not work with a nigger."
+
+"Why, I don't understand? what is the matter with him?"
+
+"Why, there's nothing the matter, only he's a nigger, and we never put
+niggers on an equality with us, and we never will."
+
+"But I am a stranger in this country, and I don't understand you."
+
+"Well, he's a nigger, and we don't want niggers for nothing; would you
+have your daughter marry a nigger?"
+
+"Oh, go back to your work; I never thought of such a thing. I think the
+Negro must be an unfortunate man, and I do not wish my daughter to marry
+any unfortunate man, but if you do not want to work with him I will put
+him by himself; there is room enough on the premises; will that suit you
+any better?"
+
+"No; we won't work for a man who employs a nigger."
+
+The builder bit his lip; he had come to America hearing that it was a
+land of liberty but he had found an undreamed of tyranny which had
+entered his workshop and controlled his choice of workmen, and as much
+as he deprecated the injustice, it was the dictum of a vitiated public
+opinion that his field of occupation should be closed against the Negro,
+and he felt that he was forced, either to give up his business or submit
+to the decree.
+
+Mr. Thomas then thought, "my money is vanishing, school rooms and
+workshops are closed against me. I will not beg, and I can not resort to
+any questionable means for bread. I will now take any position or do any
+work by which I can make an honest living." Just as he was looking
+gloomily at the future an old school mate laid his hand upon his
+shoulder and said, "how do you do, old fellow? I have not seen you for a
+week of Sundays. What are you driving at now?"
+
+"Oh, nothing in particular. I am looking for work."
+
+"Well, now this is just the ticket. I have just returned from the
+Pacific coast and while I was there I did splendidly; everything I
+touched turned to gold, and now I have a good job on hand if you are not
+too squeamish to take it. I have just set up a tiptop restaurant and
+saloon, and I have some of the best merchants of the city as my
+customers, and I want a first rate clerk. You were always good at
+figures and if you will accept the place come with me right away. Since
+high license went into operation, I am making money hand over fist. It
+is just like the big fish eating up the little fish. I am doing a
+rushing business and I want you to do my clerking."
+
+The first thought which rushed into Mr. Thomas' mind was, "Is thy
+servant a dog that he should do this thing?" but he restrained his
+indignation and said,
+
+"No, Frank, I cannot accept your offer; I am a temperance man and a
+prohibitionist, and I would rather have my hands clean than to have them
+foul."
+
+"You are a greater milksop than I gave you credit for. Here you are
+hunting work, and find door after door closed against you, not because
+you are not but because you are colored, and here am I offering you easy
+employment and good wages and you refuse them."
+
+"Frank," said Mr. Thomas, "I am a poor man, but I would rather rise up
+early, and sit up late and eat the bread of carelessness, than to roll
+in wealth by keeping a liquor saloon, and I am determined that no
+drunkard shall ever charge me with having helped drag him down to
+misery, shame and death. No drunkard's wife shall ever lay the wreck of
+her home at my door."
+
+"My business," said Frank Miller, "is a legitimate one; there is money
+in it, and I am after that. If people will drink too much and make fools
+of themselves I can't help it; it is none of my business, and if I don't
+sell to them other people will. I don't think much of a man who does not
+know how to govern himself, but it is no use arguing with you when you
+are once set in your ways; good morning."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+
+It was a gala day in Tennis Court. Annette had passed a highly
+successful examination, and was to graduate from the normal school, and
+as a matter of course, her neighbors wanted to hear Annette "speak her
+piece" as they called the commencement theme, and also to see how she
+was going to behave before all "them people." They were, generally
+speaking, too unaspiring to feel envious toward any one of their race
+who excelled them intellectually, and so there was little or no jealousy
+of Annette in Tennis Court; in fact some of her neighbors felt a kind of
+pride in the thought that Tennis Court would turn out a girl who could
+stand on the same platform and graduate alongside of some of their
+employers' daughters. If they could not stand there themselves they were
+proud that one of their race could.
+
+"I feel," said one, "like the boy when some one threatened to slap off
+his face who said 'you can slap off my face, but I have a big brother
+and you can't slap off his face;'" and strange as it may appear, Annette
+received more encouragement from a class of honest-hearted but ignorant
+and well meaning people who knew her, than she did from some of the most
+cultured and intelligent people of A.P. Nor was it very strange; they
+were living too near the poverty, ignorance and social debasement of the
+past to have developed much race pride, and a glowing enthusiasm in its
+progress and development. Although they were of African descent, they
+were Americans whose thoughts were too much Americanized to be wholly
+free from imbibing the social atmosphere with which they were in
+constant contact in their sphere of enjoyments. The literature they read
+was mostly from the hands of white men who would paint them in any
+colors which suited their prejudices or predilections. The religious
+ideas they had embraced came at first thought from the same sources,
+though they may have undergone modifications in passing through their
+channels of thought, and it must be a remarkable man or woman who thinks
+an age ahead of the generation in which his or her lot is cast, and who
+plans and works for the future on the basis of that clearer vision. Nor
+is it to be wondered at, if under the circumstances, some of the more
+cultured of A.P. thought it absurd to look for anything remarkable to
+come out of the black Nazareth of Tennis court. Her neighbors had an
+idea that Annette was very smart; that she had a great "head piece," but
+unless she left A.P. to teach school elsewhere, they did not see what
+good her education was going to do her. It wasn't going to put any meal
+in the barrel nor any potatoes in the bin. Even Mrs. Larkins relaxed her
+ancient hostility to Annette and opened her heart to present her with a
+basket of flowers. Annette within the last year had become very much
+changed in her conduct and character. She had become friendly in her
+manner and considerate in her behavior to Mrs. Larkins since she had
+entered the church, during a protracted meeting. Annette was rather
+crude in her religious views but here again Mrs. Lasette became her
+faithful friend and advisor. In dealing with a young convert she thought
+more was needed than getting her into the church and making her feel
+that the moment she rose from the altar with rejoicing on her lips, that
+she was a full blown christian. That, to Mrs. Lasette was the initial
+step in the narrow way left luminous by the bleeding feet of Christ, and
+what the young convert needed was to be taught how to walk worthy of her
+high calling, and to make her life a thing of usefulness and
+faithfulness to God and man, a growth in grace and in the saving
+knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Simply attired in a dress which Mrs.
+Lasette thought fitted for the occasion, Annette took her seat quietly
+on the platform and calmly waited till her turn came. Her subject was
+announced: "The Mission of the Negro." It was a remarkable production
+for a girl of her age. At first she portrayed an African family seated
+beneath their bamboo huts and spreading palms; the light steps of the
+young men and maidens tripping to music, dance and song; their pastimes
+suddenly broken upon by the tramp of the merchants of flesh and blood;
+the capture of defenceless people suddenly surprised in the midst of
+their sports, the cries of distress, the crackling of flames, the cruel
+oaths of reckless men, eager for gold though they coined it from tears
+and extracted it from blood; the crowding of the slaveships, the horrors
+of the middle passage, the landing of the ill-fated captives were
+vividly related, and the sad story of ages of bondage. It seemed as if
+the sorrow of centuries was sobbing in her voice. Then the scene
+changed, and like a grand triumphal march she recounted the deliverance
+of the Negro, and the wondrous change which had come over his condition;
+the slave pen exchanged for the free school, the fetters on his wrist
+for the ballot in his right hand. Then her voice grew musical when she
+began to speak of the mission of the Negro, "His mission," she said, "is
+grandly constructive." Some races had been "architects of destruction,"
+but their mission was to build over the ruins of the dead past, the most
+valuable thing that a man or woman could possess on earth, and that is
+good character. That mission should be to bless and not to curse. To
+lift up the banner of the Christian religion from the mire and dust into
+which slavery and pride of caste had trailed it, and to hold it up as an
+ensign of hope and deliverance to other races of the world, of whom the
+greater portion were not white people. It seemed as if an inspiration
+lit up the young face; her eye glowed with unwonted fervor; it seemed as
+if she had fused her whole soul into the subject, which was full of
+earnestness and enthusiasm. Her theme was the sensation of the hour. Men
+grew thoughtful and attentive, women tender and sympathetic as they
+heard this member of a once despised people, recount the trials and
+triumphs of her race, and the hopes that gathered around their future.
+The day before Annette graduated Mr. Thomas had met a friend of his at
+Mrs. Lasette's, who had lately returned from an extensive tour. He had
+mingled with many people and had acquired a large store of information.
+Mr. Thomas had invited him to accompany him to the commencement. He had
+expected that Annette would acquit herself creditably, but she had far
+exceeded his most sanguine expectations. Clarence Luzerne had come
+because his friend Mr. Thomas had invited him and because he and Mrs.
+Lasette had taken such great interest in Annette's welfare, and his
+curiosity was excited to see how she would acquit herself and compare
+with the other graduates. He did not have much faith in graduating
+essays. He had heard a number of such compositions at commencements
+which had inspired him with glowing hopes for the future of the authors,
+which he had never seen realized, and he had come more to gratify Mr.
+Thomas than to please himself. But if he came through curiosity, he
+remained through interest, which had become more and more absorbing as
+she proceeded.
+
+"Clarence," said Mr. Thomas to his friend, noticing the deep interest he
+was manifesting, "Are you entranced? You appear perfectly spell-bound."
+
+"Well, I am; I am really delighted and indebted to you for a rare and
+unexpected pleasure. Why, that young lady gave the finest production
+that I have heard this morning. I hardly think she could have written it
+herself. It seems wonderful that a girl of her age should have done it
+so well. You are a great friend of hers; now own up, are not your finger
+marks upon it? I wouldn't tell it out of our ranks, but I don't think
+she wrote that all herself."
+
+"Who do you think wrote it for her?"
+
+"Mrs. Lasette."
+
+"I do not think so; Mrs. Lasette is a fine writer, but that nervous,
+fervid and impassioned style is so unlike hers, that I do not think she
+wrote one line of it, though she might have overlooked it, and made
+some suggestions, but even if it were so that some one else wrote it, we
+know that no one else delivered it, and that her delivery was
+excellent."
+
+"That is so; why, she excelled all the other girls. Do you know what was
+the difference between her and the other girls?"
+
+"No; what was it?" said Mr. Thomas.
+
+"They wrote from their heads, she wrote from her heart. Annette has
+begun to think; she has been left a great deal to herself, and in her
+loneliness, she has developed a thoughtfulness past her years, and I
+think that a love for her race and a desire to serve it has become a
+growing passion in her soul; her heart has supplied her intellect."
+
+"Ah, I think from what you say that I get the true clue to the power and
+pathos with which she spoke this morning and that accounts for her
+wonderful success."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Luzerne,[14] "it is the inner life which develops the
+outer life, and just such young people as Annette make me more hopeful
+of the future of the race."
+
+Mrs. Lasette witnessed Annette's graduation with intense interest and
+pleasure. Grandmother Harcourt looked the very impersonation of
+satisfaction as she gathered up the floral gifts, and modestly waited
+while Annette received the pleasant compliments of admiring friends.
+
+At his request Mr. Thomas introduced Mr. Luzerne to Annette, who in the
+most gracious and affable manner, tendered to Annette his hearty
+congratulations which she modestly received, and for the time being all
+went merry as a marriage bell.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII
+
+
+"What a fool he is to refuse my offer," thought the saloon-keeper.
+"What a pity it is," said Mr. Thomas to himself, "that a man of his
+education and ability should be engaged in such accursed business."
+
+After refusing the saloonkeeper's offer Mr. Thomas found a job of
+work. It was not a job congenial to his feelings, but his motto was,
+"If I do not see an opening I will make one." After he had turned
+from Mr. Englishman's workshop, burning with a sense of wrong which
+he felt powerless to overcome, he went on the levee and looked around
+to see if any work might be picked up by him as a day laborer. He saw
+a number of men singing, joking and plying their tasks with nimble
+feet and apparently no other care upon their minds than meeting the
+demands of the present hour, and for a moment he almost envied their
+lightheartedness, and he thought within himself, where all men are born
+blind, no man misses the light. These men are contented with privileges,
+and I who have fitted myself for a different sphere in life, am chaffing
+because I am denied rights. The right to sell my labor in any workshop
+in this city same as the men of other nationalities, and to receive with
+them a fair day's wages for a fair day's work. But he was strong and
+healthy and he was too high spirited to sit moping at home depending
+upon his mother to divide with him her scanty means till something
+should turn up. The first thing that presented itself to him was the job
+of helping unload a boat which had landed at the wharf, and a hand was
+needed to assist in unloading her. Mr. Thomas accepted the position and
+went to work and labored manfully at the unaccustomed task. That being
+finished the merchant for whom he had done the work, hired him to labor
+in his warehouse. He showed himself very handy in making slight repairs
+when needed and being ready to turn his hand to any service out of his
+routine of work, hammering a nail, adjusting a disordered lock and
+showing a general concern in his employer's interests. One day his
+employer had engaged a carpenter to make him a counter, but the man
+instead of attending to his work had been off on a drunken spree, and
+neglected to do the job. The merchant, vexed at the unnecessary delay,
+said to Mr. Thomas in a bantering manner, "I believe you can do almost
+anything, couldn't you make this counter?"
+
+Mr. Thomas answered quite modestly, "I believe I could if I had my
+tools."
+
+"Tools! What do you mean by tools?"
+
+Mr. Thomas told him how he learned to be a carpenter in the South and
+how he had tried so unsuccessfully in the North to get an opportunity to
+work at his trade until discouraged with the attempt, he had made up his
+mind to take whatever work came to hand till he could see farther.
+
+The merchant immediately procured the materials and set Mr. Thomas to
+work, who in a short time finished the counter, and showed by his
+workmanship that he was an excellent carpenter. The merchant pleased
+with his work and satisfied with his ability, entrusted him with the
+erection of a warehouse and, strange as it may appear, some of those men
+who were too proud or foolish to work with him as a fellow laborer, were
+humble enough to work under him as journeymen. When he was down they
+were ready to kick him down. When he was up they were ready to receive
+his helping hand. Mr. Thomas soon reached that "tide in his affairs
+which taken at the flood leads on to fortune." Against the odds which
+were against him his pluck and perseverance prevailed, and he was
+enabled not only to build up a good business for himself, but also to
+help others, and to teach them by his own experience not to be too
+easily discouraged, but to trust to pluck more than luck, and learn in
+whatever capacity they were employed to do their work heartily as unto
+the Lord and not unto men.
+
+Anxious to do what she could to benefit the community in which she
+lived, Mrs. Lasette threw open her parlors for the gathering together
+of the best thinkers and workers of the race, who choose to avail
+themselves of the privilege of meeting to discuss any question of vital
+importance to the welfare of the colored people of the nation. Knowing
+the entail of ignorance which slavery had left them, she could not be
+content by shutting up herself to mere social enjoyments within the
+shadow of her home. And often the words would seem to ring within her
+soul, "my people is destroyed for lack of knowledge," and with those
+words would come the question, am I doing what I can to dispel the
+darkness which has hung for centuries around our path? I have been
+blessed with privileges which were denied others; I sat 'mid the light
+of knowledge when some of my ill-fated sisters did not know what it was
+to see daylight in their cabins from one week's end to the other.
+Sometimes when she met with coldness and indifference where she least
+expected it, she would grow sad but would not yield to discouragement.
+Her heart was in the right place. "Freely she had received and freely
+she would give." It was at one of Mrs. Lasette's gatherings that Mr.
+Thomas met Rev. Mr. Lomax on whose church he had been refused a place,
+and Mr. Thurman, a tradesman who also had been ousted from his position
+through pride of caste and who had gone into another avocation, and
+also Charley Cooper, of whom we have lost sight for a number of years.
+He is now a steady and prosperous young man, a constant visitor at
+Mrs. Lasette's. Rumor says that Mrs. Lasette's bright-eyed and lovely
+daughter is the magnet which attracts him to their pleasant home. Rev.
+Lomax has also been absent for several years on other charges, but when
+he meets Mr. Thomas, the past flows back and the incidents of their
+latest interviews naturally take their place in the conversation. "It
+has been some time since we met," said Mr. Thomas, heartily shaking the
+minister's hand.
+
+"How has life used you since last we met?" said Rev. Lomax to Mr.
+Thomas. "Are you well?"
+
+"Perfectly well, I have had a varied experience since I met you, but
+I have no reason to complain, and I think my experience has been
+invaluable to me, and with this larger experience and closer
+observation, I feel that I am more able to help others, and that, I
+feel, has been one of my most valued acquirements. I sometimes think
+of members of our people in some directions as sheep without a
+shepherd, and I do wish from the bottom of my heart that I knew the
+best way to help them."
+
+"You do not," said the minister, somewhat anxiously, "ignore the power
+of the pulpit."
+
+"No, I do not; I only wish it had tenfold force. I wish we had ten
+thousand ministers like Oberlin who was not ashamed to take the lead
+in opening a road from Bande Roche to Strasburgh, a distance of several
+miles to bring his parishioners in contact with the trade and business
+of a neighboring village. I hope the time will come when every minister
+in building a church which he consecrates to the worship of God will
+build alongside of it or under the same roof, parish buildings or rooms
+to be dedicated to the special wants of our people in their peculiar
+condition."
+
+"I do wish, Brother Lomax, those costly buildings which you erect will
+cover more needs and wants of our people than some of them do now."
+
+"What would you have in them?"
+
+"I would have a parish building to every church, and I would have in
+them an evening home for boys. I would have some persons come in and
+teach them different handicrafts, so as at least to give them an
+opportunity to be more expert in learning how to use their hands. I
+would have that building a well warmed and well lighted room in winter,
+where all should be welcome to come and get a sandwich and a warm cup
+of tea or coffee and a hot bowl of soup, and if the grogshops were
+selling liquor for five cents, I would sell the soup for three or four
+cents, with a roll. I would have a room reserved for such ladies as Mrs.
+Lasette, who are so willing to help, for the purpose of holding mother's
+meetings. I would try to have the church the great centre of moral,
+spiritual and intellectual life for the young, and try to present
+counter attractions to the debasing influence of the low grogshops,
+gambling dens and houses of ill fame."
+
+"Part of our city (ought I confine myself to saying part of the city)
+has not the whole city been cursed by rum? But I now refer to a special
+part. I have seen church after church move out of that part of the city
+where the nuisance and curse were so rife, but I never, to my knowledge,
+heard of one of those churches offering to build a reading room and
+evening home for boys, or to send out paid and sustained by their
+efforts, a single woman to go into rum-cursed homes and teach their
+inmates a more excellent way. I would have in that parish building the
+most earnest men and women to come together and consult and counsel
+with each other on the best means to open for ourselves, doors which
+are still closed against us."
+
+"I am sure," said the minister, "I am willing to do what I can for the
+temporal and spiritual welfare of our people, and in this I have the
+example of the great Physician who did not consider it beneath him to
+attend to physical maladies as well as spiritual needs, and who did not
+consider the synagogue too holy, nor the Sabbath day too sacred to
+administer to the destitute and suffering."
+
+"I was very sorry when I found out, Brother Thomas, that I could not
+have you employed on my church, but I do not see what else I could have
+done except submit."
+
+"That was all you could have done in that stage of the work when I
+applied, and I do not wish to bestow the slightest censure on you or the
+trustees of your church, but I think, if when you were about to build
+had you advertised for competent master-builders in the South, that you
+could have gotten enough to have built the church without having
+employed Mr. Hoog the master-builder. Had you been able to have gone to
+him and said, 'we are about to build a church and it is more convenient
+for us to have it done by our citizens than to send abroad for laborers.
+We are in communication with a colored master builder in Kentucky, who
+is known as an efficient workman and who would be glad to get the job,
+and if your men refuse to work with a colored man our only alternative
+will be to send for colored carpenters and put the building in their
+hands.' Do you think he would have refused a thirty thousand dollar job
+just because some of his men refused to work with colored men? I think
+the greater portion of his workmen would have held their prejudices in
+abeyance rather than let a thirty thousand dollar job slip out of their
+hands. Now here is another thing in which I think united effort could
+have effected something. Now, here is my friend Mr. Thurman; he was a
+saddler versed in both branches of harness making. For awhile he got
+steady work in a saddler's shop, but the prejudice against him was so
+great that his employer was forced to dismiss him. He took work home,
+but that did not heal the dissatisfaction, and at last he gave it up
+and went to well-digging. Now, there were colored men in that place
+who could have, as I think, invested some money in buying material
+and helped him, not as a charity, but as a mere business operation
+to set up a place for himself; he had the skill; they had the money,
+and had they united both perhaps to-day there would be a flourishing
+business carried on by the man who is now digging wells for a living.
+I do hope that some time there will be some better modes of
+communication between us than we now possess; that a labor bureau
+will be established not as a charity among us, but as a business
+with capable and efficient men who will try to find out the different
+industries that will employ men irrespective of color and advertise
+and find steady and reliable colored men to fill them. Colored men
+in the South are largely employed in raising cotton and other produce;
+why should there not be more openings in the South for colored men
+to handle the merchandize and profit by it?"
+
+"What hinders?" said Rev. Lomax.
+
+"I will not say what hinders, but I will say what I think you can try
+to do to help. Teach our young to dedicate their young lives to the
+noble service of devoting them to the service of our common cause; to
+throw away their cigars, dash down the foaming beer and sparkling wine
+and strive to be more like those of whom it was said, 'I write unto you,
+young men, because you are strong.'"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV
+
+
+Grandmother Harcourt was failing. Annette was rising towards life's
+summit. Her grandmother was sinking to death's vale.
+
+  The hours are rifting day by day
+  Strength from the walls of living clay.
+
+Her two children who were living in A.P. wished her to break up her home
+and come and live with them. They had room in their hearts and homes for
+her, but not for Annette. There was something in Annette's temperament
+with which other members of the family could not harmonize. They were
+not considerate enough to take into account her antenatal history, and
+to pity where they were so ready to condemn. Had Annette been born
+deficient in any of her bodily organs, they could have made allowance
+for her, and would have deemed it cruel to have demanded that she should
+have performed the same amount of labor with one hand that she could
+have done with both. They knew nothing of heredity, except its effects,
+which they were not thoughtful enough to trace back to the causes over
+which Annette had no control, and instead of trying to counteract them
+as one might strive to do in a case of inherited physical tendencies,
+they only aggravated, and constantly strengthened all the unlovely
+features in Annette's character, and Annette really seemed like an
+anomalous contradiction. There was a duality about her nature as if
+the blood of two races were mingling in her veins. To some persons
+Annette was loving and love-able, bright, intelligent, obliging and
+companionable; to others, unsociable, unamiable and repelling. Her heart
+was like a harp which sent out its harmonious discords in accordance
+with the moods of the player who touched its chords. To some who swept
+them it gave out tender and touching melody, to others its harshest and
+saddest discords. Did not the Psalmist look beneath the mechanism of the
+body to the constitution of the soul when he said that "We are fearfully
+and wonderfully made?"
+
+But the hour came when all discussion was ended as to who was to shelter
+the dear old grandmother in her declining years. Mrs. Harcourt was
+suddenly paralyzed, and in a few days Annette stood doubly orphaned.
+Grandmother Harcourt's children gathered around the bedside of their
+dying mother. She was conscious but unable to speak. Occasionally her
+eyes would rest lovingly upon Annette and then turn wistfully to her
+children. Several times she assayed to speak, but the words died upon
+her lips. Her eldest son entered the room just as life was trembling on
+its faintest chords. She recognized him, and gathering up her remaining
+strength she placed his hand on Annette's, and tried again to speak. He
+understood her and said very tenderly,
+
+"Mother, I will look after Annette."
+
+All the care faded from the dear old face. Amid the shadows that never
+deceive flitted a smile of peace and contentment. The fading eye lit up
+with a sudden gaze of joy and wonder. She reached out her hand as if to
+meet a welcome and precious friend, and then the radiant face grew
+deathly pale; the outstretched hands relaxed their position, and with a
+smile, just such a smile as might greet a welcoming angel, her spirit
+passed out into the eternities, and Annette felt as she had never felt
+before, that she was all alone. The love that had surrounded and watched
+over her, born with her perverseness, and sheltered her in its warm
+clasp, was gone; it had faded suddenly from her vision, and left in its
+stead a dull and heavy pain. After the funeral, Mrs. Harcourt's children
+returned to the house where they quietly but earnestly discussed the
+question what shall be done with Annette. Mrs. Hanson's house was rather
+small; that is, it was rather small for Annette. She would have found
+room in her house if she only had room in her heart for her. She had
+nursed her mother through her sickness, and said with unnatural
+coldness, "I have got rid of one trouble and I do not want another."
+Another sister who lived some distance from A.P., would have taken
+Annette, but she knew that other members of her family would object, as
+they would be fearful that Annette would be an apple of discord among
+them. At length, her uncle Thomas decided that she should go with him.
+He felt that his mother had died with the assurance on her mind that he
+would care for Annette, and he resolved to be faithful in accepting what
+was to him the imposition of a new burden on his shoulders. His wife was
+a cold and unsympathizing woman. She was comfortably situated but did
+not wish that comfort invaded by her husband's relations. In household
+matters her husband generally deferred to her judgment, but here was no
+other alternative than that of taking Annette under the shadow of his
+home, or leaving her unprotected in the wide world, and he was too
+merciful and honorable to desert Annette in her saddest hour of need.
+Having determined that Annette should share his home, he knew that it
+was advisable to tell his wife about his decision, and to prepare her
+for Annette's coming.
+
+"Well," said Dr. Harcourt's wife after her husband's return from the
+funeral, "what are you going to do with Annette?"
+
+"She is coming here," said Dr. Harcourt quietly and firmly.
+
+"Coming here?" said Mrs. Harcourt, looking aghast. "I think at least you
+might have consulted me."
+
+"That is true, my dear, I would have gladly done so had you been present
+when the decision was made."
+
+"But where are her aunts, and where was your brother, John; why didn't
+they take her?"
+
+"John was at home sick with the rheumatism and sister Jane did not
+appear to be willing to have her come."
+
+"I guess Jane is like I am; got enough to do to look after her own
+family."
+
+"And sister Eliza said she hadn't any room."
+
+"No room; when she has eight rooms in her house and only two children?
+She could have made room for her had she chosen."
+
+"May be her husband wasn't willing."
+
+"Oh, it is no such thing. I know John Hanson[15] better than that; Liza
+is the head man of that house, and just leads him by the nose wherever
+she wants him to go, and besides, Mrs. Lord's daughter is there
+pretending to pay board, but I don't believe that she pays it one-half
+the time."
+
+"She is company for Alice and they all seem very fond of her."
+
+"I do get so sick of that girl, mambying and jambying about that family;
+calling Liza and her husband 'Ma and Pa,' I haven't a bit of faith in
+her."
+
+"Well, I confess that I am not very much preposessed in her favor. She
+just puts me in mind of a pussy cat purring around you."
+
+"Well, now as to Annette. You do not want her here?"
+
+"Not if I can help it."
+
+"But can't she help you to work?"
+
+"She could if she knew how. If wishes were horses beggars might ride.
+Your mother made a great mistake in bringing Annette up. Annette has a
+good education, but when that is said, all is said."
+
+"Why, my dear mother was an excellent housekeeper. Did she not teach
+Annette?"
+
+"Your mother was out a great deal as a sick nurse, and when she went
+away from home she generally boarded Annette with a friend, who did not,
+as your mother paid her good board, exact any service from Annette, and
+while with her she never learned to make a loaf of bread or to cook a
+beefsteak, and when your mother was at home when she set Annette to do
+any work, if she did it awkwardly and clumsily she would take it out of
+her hand and do it herself rather than bother with her, and now I
+suppose I am to have all the bother and worry with her."
+
+"Well my dear."
+
+"Oh don't come dearing me, and bringing me all this trouble."
+
+"Well my dear, I don't see how it could be helped. I could not leave
+Annette in the house all by herself. I couldn't afford to make myself
+the town's talk. May be things will turn out better than you expect.
+We've got children of our own, and we don't know when we are gone, how
+they will fare."
+
+"That is true, but I never mean to bring my children up in such a way
+that they will be no use anywhere, and no one will want them."
+
+"Well, I don't see any other way than bringing Annette here."
+
+"Well, if I must, I must," she said with an air of despondency.
+
+Dr. Harcourt rode over to his sister's where Annette was spending the
+day and brought the doubly orphaned girl to his home. As she entered the
+room, it seemed as though a chill struck to her heart when her Aunt bade
+her good morning. There was no warm pressure in the extended hand. No
+loving light in the cold unsympathizing eyes which seemed to stab her
+through and through. The children eyed her inquisitively, as if wishing
+to understand her status with their parents before they became sociable
+with her. After supper Annette's uncle went out and her aunt sat quietly
+and sewed till bed time, and then showed Annette to her room and left
+the lonely girl to herself and her great sorrow. Annette sat silent,
+tearless, and alone. Grief had benumbed her faculties. She had sometimes
+said when grandmother had scolded her that "she was growing cross and
+cold." But oh, what would she not have given to have had the
+death-created silence broken by that dear departed voice, to have felt
+the touch of a vanished hand, to have seen again the loving glance of
+the death darkened eye. But it was all over; no tears dimmed her eye, as
+she sat thinking so mournfully of her great sorrow, till she unfastened
+from her neck a little keepsake containing a lock of grandmother's hair,
+then all the floodgates of her soul were opened and she threw herself
+upon her bed and sobbed herself to sleep. In the morning she awoke with
+that sense of loss and dull agony which only they know, who have seen
+the grave close over all they have held dearest on earth. The beautiful
+home of her uncle was very different from the humble apartments; here
+she missed all the freedom and sunshine that she had enjoyed beneath the
+shelter of her grandmother's roof.
+
+"Can you sew?" said her aunt to Annette, as she laid on the table a
+package of handkerchiefs.
+
+"Yes ma'm."
+
+"Let me see how you can do this," handing her one to hem. Annette hemmed
+the handkerchief nicely; her aunt examined it, put it down and gave her
+some others to hem, but there was no word of encouragement for her, not
+even a pleasant, "well done." They both relapsed into silence; between
+them there was no pleasant interchange of thought. Annette was tolerated
+and endured, but she did not feel that she was loved and welcomed. It
+was no place to which she could invite her young friends to spend a
+pleasant evening. Once she invited some of her young friends to her
+home, but she soon found that it was a liberty which she should be
+careful never to repeat. Soon after Annette came to live with her aunt
+her aunt's mother had a social gathering and reunion of the members of
+her family. All Dr. Harcourt's children were invited, from the least to
+the greatest, but poor Annette was left behind. Mrs. Lasette, who
+happened in the house the evening before the entertainment, asked, "Is
+not Annette going?" when Mrs. Harcourt replied, very coldly, "She is not
+one of the family," referring to her mother's family circle.
+
+A shadow flitted over the face of Mrs. Lasette; she thought of her own
+daughter and how sad it would be to have her live in such a chilly
+atmosphere of social repression and neglect at a period of life when
+there was so much danger that false friendship might spread their lures
+for her inexperienced feet. I will criticize, she said to herself, by
+creation. I, too, have some social influence, if not among the careless,
+wine-bibbing, ease-loving votaries of fashion, among some of the most
+substantial people of A.P., and as long as Annette preserves her
+rectitude at my house she shall be a welcome guest and into that
+saddened life I will bring all the sunshine that I can.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV
+
+
+"Well mama," said Mrs. Lasette's daughter to her mother, "I cannot
+understand why you take so much interest in Annette. She is very
+unpopular. Scarcely any of the girls ever go with her, and even her
+cousin never calls for her to go to church or anywhere else, and I
+sometimes feel so sorry to see her so much by herself, and some of the
+girls when I went with her to the exposition, said that they wouldn't
+have asked her to have gone with them, that she isn't our set."
+
+"Poor child," Mrs. Lasette replied; "I am sorry for her. I hope that you
+will never treat her unkindly, and I do not think if you knew the sad
+story connected with her life that you would ever be unkind enough to
+add to the burden she has been forced to bear."
+
+"But mamma, Annette is so touchy. Her aunt says that her tear bags must
+lay near her eyes and that she will cry if you look at her, and that she
+is the strangest, oddest creature she ever saw, and I heard she did not
+wish her to come."
+
+"Why, my dear child, who has been gossipping to you about your
+neighbors?"
+
+"Why, Julia Thomas."
+
+"Well, my daughter, don't talk after her; gossip is liable to degenerate
+into evil speaking and then I think it tends to degrade and belittle the
+mind to dwell on the defects and imperfections of our neighbors. Learn
+to dwell on the things that are just and true and of good report, but I
+am sorry for Annette, poor child."
+
+"What makes her so strange, do you know?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Lasette somewhat absently.
+
+"If you do, won't you tell me?"
+
+Again Mrs. Lasette answered in the same absent manner.
+
+"Why mama, what is the matter with you; you say yes to everything and
+yet you are not paying any attention to anything that I say. You seem
+like someone who hears, but does not listen; who sees, but does not
+look. Your face reminds me of the time when I showed you the picture of
+a shipwreck and you said, 'My brother's boat went down in just such a
+fearful storm.'"
+
+"My dear child," said Mrs. Lasette, rousing up from a mournful reverie,
+"I was thinking of a wreck sadder, far sadder than the picture you
+showed me. It was the mournful wreck of a blighted life."
+
+"Whose life, mama?"
+
+"The life of Annette's [grand]mother. We were girls together and I loved
+her dearly," Mrs. Lasette replied as tears gathered in her eyes when she
+recalled one of the saddest memories of her life.
+
+"Do tell me all about it, for I am full of curiosity."
+
+"My child, I want this story to be more than food for your curiosity; I
+want it to be a lesson and a warning to you. Annette's grandmother was
+left to struggle as breadwinner for a half dozen children when her
+husband died. Then there were not as many openings for colored girls as
+there are now. Our chief resource was the field of domestic service, and
+circumstances compelled Annette's mother to live out, as we called it.
+In those days we did not look down upon a girl and try to ostracize her
+from our social life if she was forced to be a servant. If she was poor
+and respectable we valued her for what she was rather than for what she
+possessed. Of course we girls liked to dress nicely, but fine clothes
+was not the chief passport to our society, and yet I think on the whole
+that our social life would compare favorably with yours in good
+character, if not in intellectual attainments. Our dear old mothers were
+generally ignorant of books, but they did try to teach good manners and
+good behavior; but I do not think they saw the danger around the paths
+of the inexperienced with the same clearness of vision we now do. Mrs.
+Harcourt had unbounded confidence in her children, and as my mother
+thought, gave her girls too much rein in their own hands. Our mother was
+more strict with her daughters and when we saw Mrs. Harcourt's daughters
+having what we considered such good times, I used to say, 'O, I wish
+mother wasn't so particular!' Other girls could go unattended to
+excursions, moonlight drives and parties of pleasure, but we never went
+to any such pleasure unless we were attended by our father, brother or
+some trusted friend of the family. We were young and foolish then and
+used to chafe against her restrictions; but to-day, when I think of my
+own good and noble husband, my little bright and happy home, and my
+dear, loving daughter, I look back with gratitude to her thoughtful care
+and honor and bless her memory in her grave. Poor Lucy Harcourt was not
+so favored; she was pretty and attractive and had quite a number of
+admirers. At length she became deeply interested in a young man who came
+as a stranger to our city. He was a fine looking man, but there was
+something about him from which I instinctively shrank. My mother felt
+the same way and warned us to be careful how we accepted any attention
+from him; but poor Lucy became perfectly infatuated with him and it was
+rumored that they were to be shortly married. Soon after the rumor he
+left the city and there was a big change in Lucy's manner. I could not
+tell what was the matter, but my mother forbade me associating with her,
+and for several months I scarcely saw her, but I could hear from others
+that she was sadly changed. Instead of being one of the most
+light-hearted girls, I heard that she used to sit day after day in her
+mother's house and wring her hands and weep and that her mother's heart
+was almost broken. Friends feared that Lucy was losing her mind and
+might do some desperate deed, but she did not. I left about that time to
+teach school in a distant village, and when I returned home I heard sad
+tidings of poor Lucy. She was a mother, but not a wife. Her brothers had
+grown angry with her for tarnishing their family name, of which they
+were so proud; her mother's head was bowed with agony and shame. The
+father of Lucy's child had deserted her in her hour of trial and left
+her to bear her burden alone with the child like a millstone around her
+neck. Poor Lucy; I seldom saw her after that, but one day I met her in
+the Park. I went up to her and kissed her, she threw her arms around me
+and burst into a flood of tears. I tried to restrain her from giving
+such vent to her feelings. It was a lack of self-control which had
+placed her where she was."
+
+"'Oh Anna!' she said, 'it does me so much good to hold your hand in mine
+once more. I reminds me of the days when we used to be together. Oh,
+what would I give to recall those days.'"
+
+"I said to her, Lucy, you can never recall the past, but you can try to
+redeem the future. Try to be a faithful mother. Men may build over the
+wreck and ruin of their young lives a better and brighter future, why
+should not a woman? Let the dead past bury its dead and live in the
+future for the sake of your child. She seemed so grateful for what I had
+said. Others had treated her with scorn. Her brother Thomas had refused
+to speak to her; her betrayer had forsaken her; all the joyousness had
+faded from her life and, poor girl, I was glad that I was able to say a
+helpful and hopeful word to her. Mother, of course, would not let us
+associate with her, but she always treated her kindly when she came and
+did what she could to lighten the burden which was pressing her down to
+the grave. But, poor child, she was never again the same light-hearted
+girl. She grew pale and thin and in the hectic flush and faltering
+tread I read the death sign of early decay, and I felt that my misguided
+young friend was slowly dying of a broken heart. Then there came a day
+when we were summoned to her dying bed. Her brothers and sisters were
+present; all their resentment against her had vanished in the presence
+of death. She was their dear sister about to leave them and they bent in
+tearful sorrow around her couch. As one of her brothers, who was a good
+singer, entered the room, she asked him to sing 'Vital spark of heavenly
+flame.' He attempted to sing, but there were tremors in his voice and he
+faltered in the midst of the hymn. 'Won't you sing for your dying
+sister.'"
+
+"Again he essayed to sing, but [his?] voice became choked with emotion,
+and he ceased, and burst into tears. Her brother Thomas who had been so
+hard and cold, and had refused to speak to her, now wept and sobbed like
+a child, but Lucy smiled as she bade them good bye, and exclaimed,
+'Welcome death, the end of fear. I am prepared to die.' A sweet peace
+settled down on her face, and Lucy had exchanged, I hope, the sorrow and
+pain of life for the peace and rest of heaven, and left Annette too
+young to know her loss. Do you wonder then my child that I feel such an
+interest in Annette and that knowing as I do her antenatal history that
+I am ever ready to pity where others condemn, and that I want to do what
+I can to help round out in beauty and usefulness the character of that
+sinned against and disinherited child, whose restlessness and
+sensitiveness I trace back to causes over which she had no control."
+
+"What became of Frank Miller? You say that when he returned to A.P. that
+society opened its doors to him while they were closed to Annette's
+mother. I don't understand it. Was he not as guilty as she was?"
+
+"Guiltier, I think. If poor Lucy failed as a woman, she tried to be
+faithful as a mother, while he, faithless as a man, left her to bear her
+burden alone. She was frail as a woman, but he was base, mean, and
+selfish as a man."
+
+"How was it that society received him so readily?"
+
+"All did not receive him so readily, but with some his money, like
+charity, covered a multitude of sins. But from the depths of my heart I
+despised him. I had not then learned to hate the sin with all my heart,
+and yet the sinner love. To me he was the incarnation of social meanness
+and vice. And just as I felt I acted. We young folks had met at a social
+gathering, and were engaged in a pastime in which we occasionally
+clasped hands together. Some of these plays I heartily disliked,
+especially when there was romping and promiscuous kissing. During the
+play Frank Miller's hand came in contact with mine and he pressed it. I
+can hardly describe my feelings. It seemed as if my very veins were on
+fire, and that every nerve was thrilling with repulsion and indignation.
+Had I seen him murder Lucy and then turn with blood dripping hands to
+grasp mine, I do not think that I should have felt more loathing than I
+did when his hand clasped mine. I felt that his very touch was
+pollution; I immediately left the play, tore off my glove, and threw it
+in the fire."
+
+"Oh, mother, how could you have done so? You are so good and gentle."
+
+Mrs. Lasette replied, "I was not always so. I do not hate his sin any
+less now than I did then but I think that I have learned a Christian
+charity which would induce me to pluck such as he out of the fire while
+I hated the garments spotted by his sins. I sat down trembling with
+emotion. I heard a murmur of disapprobation. There was a check to the
+gayety of the evening. Frank Miller, bold and bad as he was looked
+crestfallen and uneasy. Some who appeared to be more careful of the
+manners of society than its morals, said that I was very rude. Others
+said that I was too prudish, and would be an old maid, that I was
+looking for perfection in young men, and would not find it. That young
+men sow their wild oats, and that I was more nice than wise, and that I
+would frighten the gentlemen away from me. I told them if the young men
+were so easily frightened, that I did not wish to clasp hands for life
+with any such timid set, and that I was determined that I would have a
+moral husband or none; that I was not obliged to be married, but that I
+was obliged to be true to my conscience. That when I married I expected
+to lay the foundation of a new home, and that I would never trust my
+future happiness in the hands of a libertine, or lay its foundations
+over the reeling brain of a drunkard, and I determined that I would
+never marry a man for whose vices I must blush, and whose crimes I must
+condone; that while I might bend to grief I would not bow to shame; that
+if I brought him character and virtue, he should give me true manhood
+and honor in return."
+
+"And I think mother that you got it when you married father."
+
+"I am satisfied that I did, and the respect and appreciation my daughter
+has for her father is only part of my life's reward, but it was my dear
+mother who taught me to distinguish between the true and the false, and
+although she was [not?] what you call educated, she taught me that no
+magnificence of fortune would atone for meanness of spirit, that without
+character the most wealthy and talented man is a bankrupt in soul. And
+she taught me how to be worthy of a true man's love."
+
+"And I think you have succeeded splendidly."
+
+"Thank you, my darling. But mother has become used to compliments."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI
+
+
+"I do not think she gets any more than she deserves," said Mr. Lasette,
+entering the room. "She is one of whom it may be said, 'Her children
+arise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her;
+many daughters have done virtuously but thou excellest them all.'"
+
+"I do not think you will say that I am excelling if I do not haste
+about your supper; you were not home to dinner and must be hungry by
+this time, and it has been said that the way to a man's heart is through
+his stomach."
+
+"Oh, isn't that a libel on my sex!"
+
+"Papa," said Laura Lasette, after her mother had left the room, "did you
+know Frank Miller? Mother was telling me about him but she did not
+finish; what became of him?"
+
+"Now, you ask me two questions in one breath; let me answer one at a
+time."
+
+"Well, papa, I am all attention."
+
+"Do I know Frank Miller, the saloon keeper? Yes; he is connected with a
+turning point in my life. How so? Well, just be patient a minute and I
+will tell you. I was almost a stranger in A.P. when I first met your
+mother. It was at a social where Frank Miller was a guest. I had heard
+some very damaging reports concerning his reputation, but from the
+manner in which he was received in society, I concluded that I had been
+misinformed. Surely, I thought, if the man is as vicious as he has been
+represented, good women, while they pity him, will shrink instinctively
+from him, but I saw to my surprise, that with a confident and unblushing
+manner, he moved among what was called the elite of the place, and that
+instead of being withheld, attentions were lavished upon him. I had
+lived most of my life in a small inland town, where people were old
+fashioned enough to believe in honor and upright conduct, and from what
+I had heard of Frank Miller I was led to despise his vices and detest
+his character, and yet here were women whom I believed to be good and
+virtuous, smiling in his face, and graciously receiving his attentions.
+I cannot help thinking that in their case,
+
+  "Evil is wrought by want of thought"
+   As well as want of heart.
+
+They were not conscious of the influence they might exert by being true
+to their own womanhood. Men like Frank Miller are the deadliest foes of
+women. One of the best and strongest safe guards of the home is the
+integrity of its women, and he who undermines that, strikes a fearful
+blow at the highest and best interests of society. Society is woman's
+realm and I never could understand how, if a woman really loves purity
+for its own worth and loveliness, she can socially tolerate men whose
+lives are a shame, and whose conduct in society is a blasting, withering
+curse."
+
+"But, papa, tell me how you came to love my mother; but I don't see how
+you could have helped it."
+
+"That's just it, my daughter. I loved her because I could not help it;
+and respected her because I knew that she was worthy of respect. I was
+present at a social gathering where Frank was a guest, and was watching
+your mother attentively when I saw her shrink instinctively from his
+touch and leave the play in which she was engaged and throw her glove in
+the fire. Public opinion was divided about her conduct. Some censured,
+others commended her, but from that hour I learned to love her, and I
+became her defender. Other women would tolerate Frank Miller, but here
+was a young and gracious girl, strong enough and brave enough to pour on
+the head of that guilty culprit her social disapprobation and I gloried
+in her courage. I resolved she should be my wife if she would accept me,
+which she did, and I have never regretted my choice and I think that I
+have had as happy a life as usually falls to the lot of mortals."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII
+
+
+"Papa," said Laura Lasette, "all the girls have had graduating parties
+except Annette and myself. Would it not be nice for me to have a party
+and lots of fun, and then my birthday comes next week; now wouldn't it
+be just the thing for me to have a party?"
+
+"It might be, darling, for you, but how would it be for me who would
+have to foot the bill?"
+
+"Well, papa, could you not just give me a check like you do mama
+sometimes?"
+
+"But mama knows how to use it."
+
+"But papa, don't I know how also?"
+
+"I have my doubts on that score, but let me refer you to your mother.
+She is queen of this realm, and in household matters I as a loyal
+subject, abide by her decisions."
+
+"Well, I guess mama is all right on this subject."
+
+Mrs. Lasette was perfectly willing to gratify her daughter, and it was
+decided to have an entertainment on Laura's birthday.
+
+The evening of Mrs. Lasette's entertainment came bringing with it into
+her pleasant parlors a bright and merry throng of young people. It was
+more than a mere pleasure party. It was here that rising talent was
+encouraged, no matter how humble the garb of the possessor, and Mrs.
+Lasette was a model hostess who would have thought her entertainment a
+failure had any one gone from it smarting under a sense of social
+neglect. Shy and easily embarrassed Annette who was very seldom invited
+anywhere, found herself almost alone in that gay and chattering throng.
+Annette was seated next to several girls who laughed and chatted
+incessantly with each other without deigning to notice her. Mrs. Lasette
+entering the room with Mr. Luzerne whom she presented to the company,
+and noticing the loneliness and social isolation of Annette, gave him a
+seat beside her, and was greatly gratified that she had found the means
+to relieve the tedium of Annette's position. Mrs. Lasette had known him
+as a light hearted boy, full of generous impulses, with laughing eyes
+and a buoyant step, but he had been absent a number of years, and had
+developed into a handsome man with a magnificent physique, elegant in
+his attire, polished in his manners and brilliant in conversation. Just
+such a man as is desirable as a companion and valuable as a friend,
+staunch, honorable and true, and it was rumored that he was quite
+wealthy. He was generally cheerful, but it seemed at times as if some
+sad memories came over him, dashing all the sunshine from his face and
+leaving in its stead, a sadness which it was touching to behold. Some
+mystery seemed to surround his life, but being reticent in reference to
+his past history, there was a dignity in his manner which repelled all
+intrusion into the secrecy over which he choose to cast a veil. Annette
+was not beautiful, but her face was full of expression and her manner
+winsome at times. Lacking social influence and social adaptation, she
+had been ignored in society, her faults of temper made prominent her
+most promising traits of character left unnoticed, but this treatment
+was not without some benefit to Annette. It threw her more entirely on
+her own resources. At first she read when she had leisure, to beguile
+her lonely hours, and fortunately for her, she was directed in her
+reading by Mrs. Lasette, who gave and lent her books, which appealed to
+all that was highest and best in her nature, and kindled within her a
+lofty enthusiasm to make her life a blessing to the world. With such an
+earnest purpose, she was not prepared to be a social favorite in any
+society whose chief amusement was gossip, and whose keenest weapon was
+ridicule.
+
+Mr. Luzerne had gone to Mrs. Lasette's with the hope of meeting some of
+the best talent in A.P., and had come to the conclusion that there was
+more lulliancy than depth in the intellectual life with which he came in
+contact; he felt that it lacked earnestness, purpose and grand
+enthusiasms and he was astonished to see the social isolation of
+Annette, whose society had interested and delighted him, and after
+parting with her he found his mind constantly reverting to her and felt
+grateful to Mrs. Lasette for affording him a rare and charming pleasure.
+Annette sat alone in her humble room with a new light in her eyes and a
+sense of deep enjoyment flooding her soul. Never before had she met
+with such an interesting and congenial gentleman. He seemed to
+understand as scarcely as any one else had done or cared to do. In the
+eyes of other guests she had been treated as if too insignificant for
+notice, but he had loosened her lips and awakened within her a dawning
+sense of her own ability, which others had chilled and depressed. He had
+fingered the keys of her soul and they had vibrated in music to his
+touch. Do not smile, gentle reader, and say that she was very easily
+impressed, it may be that you have never known what it is to be hungry,
+not for bread, but for human sympathy, to live with those who were never
+interested in your joys, nor sympathized in your sorrows. To whom your
+coming gave no joy and your absence no pain. Since Annette had lost her
+grandmother, she had lived in an atmosphere of coldness and repression
+and was growing prematurely cold. Her heart was like a sealed fountain
+beneath whose covering the bright waters dashed and leaped in imprisoned
+boundary. Oh, blessed power of human love to lighten human suffering,
+well may we thank the giver of every good and perfect gift for the love
+which gladdens hearts, brightens homes and sets the solitary in the
+midst of families. Mr. Luzerne frequently saw Annette at the house of
+Mrs. Lasette and occasionally called at her uncle's, but there was an
+air of restraint in the social atmosphere which repressed and chilled
+him. In that home he missed the cordial freedom and genial companionship
+which he always found at Mrs. Lasette's but Annette's apparent
+loneliness and social isolation awakened his sympathy, and her bright
+intelligence and good character commanded his admiration and respect,
+which developed within him a deep interest for the lovely girl. He often
+spoke admiringly of her and never met her at church, or among her
+friends that he did not gladly avail himself of the opportunity of
+accompanying her home. Madame rumor soon got tidings of Mr. Luzerne's
+attentions to Annette and in a shout the tongues of the gossips of A.P.
+began to wag. Mrs. Larkins who had fallen heir to some money, moved out
+of Tennis court, and often gave pleasant little teas to her young
+friends, and as a well spread table was quite a social attraction in
+A.P., her gatherings were always well attended. After rumor had caught
+the news of Mr. Luzerne's interest in Annette, Mrs. Larkins had a social
+at her house to which she invited him, and a number of her young
+friends, but took pains to leave Annette out in the cold. Mr. Luzerne on
+hearing that Annette was slighted, refused to attend. At the supper
+table Annette's prospects were freely discussed.
+
+"I expected that Mr. Luzerne would have been here this evening, but he
+sent an apology in which he declined to come."
+
+"Did you invite Annette?" said Miss Croker.
+
+"No, I did not. I got enough of her when I lived next door to her."
+
+"Well that accounts for Mr. Luzerne's absence. They remind me of the
+Siamese twins; if you see one, you see the other."
+
+"How did she get in with him?"
+
+"She met him at Mrs. Lasette's party, and he seemed so taken up with her
+that for a while he had neither eyes nor ears for any one else."
+
+"That girl, as quiet as she looks, is just as deep as the sea."
+
+"It is not that she's so deep, but we are so shallow. Miss Booker and
+Miss Croker were sitting near Annette and not noticing her, and we girls
+were having a good time in the corner to ourselves, and Annette was
+looking so lonely and embarrassed I think Mr. Luzerne just took pity on
+her and took especial pains to entertain her. I just think we stepped
+our feet into it by slighting Annette, and of course, as soon as we saw
+him paying attention to her, we wouldn't change and begin to make much
+of her."
+
+"I don't know what he sees in Annette with her big nose and plain face."
+
+"My father," said Laura Lasette, "says that Annette is a credit to her
+race and my mother is just delighted because Mr. Luzerne is attracted
+to her, but, girls, had we not better be careful how we talk about her?
+People might say that we are jealous of her and we know that we are
+taught that jealousy is as cruel as the grave."
+
+"We don't see anything to be jealous about her. She is neither pretty
+nor stylish."
+
+"But my mother says she is a remarkable girl," persisted Laura.
+
+"Your mother," said Mrs. Larkins, "always had funny notions about
+Annette, and saw in her what nobody else did."
+
+"Well, for my part, I hope it will be a match."
+
+"It is easy enough for you to say so, Laura. You think it is a sure
+thing between you and Charley Cooper, but don't be too sure; there's
+many a slip between the cup and the lip."
+
+There was a flush on Laura's cheek as she replied, "If there are a
+thousand slips between the cup and the lip and Charlie and I should
+never marry, let me tell you that I would almost as soon court another's
+husband as a girl's affianced lover. I can better afford to be an old
+maid than to do a dishonorable thing."
+
+"Well, Laura, you are a chip off the old block; just like your mother,
+always ready to take Annette's part."
+
+"I think, Mrs. Larkins, it is the finest compliment you can pay me, to
+tell me that I am like my dear mother."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII
+
+
+"Good morning," said Mr. Luzerne, entering Mr. Thomas' office. "Are you
+busy?"
+
+"Not very; I had just given some directions to my foreman concerning a
+job I have undertaken, and had just settled down to read the paper. Well
+how does your acquaintance with Miss Harcourt prosper? Have you popped
+the question yet?"
+
+"No, not exactly; I had been thinking very seriously of the matter, but
+I have been somewhat shaken in my intention."
+
+"How so," said Mr. Thomas, laying down his paper and becoming suddenly
+interested.
+
+"You know that I have had an unhappy marriage which has overshadowed all
+my subsequent life, and I cannot help feeling very cautious how I risk,
+not only my own, but another's happiness in a second marriage. It is
+true that I have been thinking of proposing to Miss Harcourt and I do
+prefer her to any young lady I have ever known; but there is a
+depreciatory manner in which people speak of her, that sorely puzzles
+me. For instance, when I ask some young ladies if they know Annette,
+they shrug their shoulders, look significantly at each other and say,
+'Oh, yes, we know her; but she don't care for anything but books; oh she
+is so self conceited and thinks she knows more than any one else.' But
+when I spoke to Mrs. Larkins about her, she said Annette makes a fine
+appearance, but all is not gold that glitters. By this time my curiosity
+was excited, and I asked, 'What is the matter with Miss Harcourt? I had
+no idea that people were so ready to pick at her.' She replied, 'No
+wonder; she is such a spitfire.'"
+
+"Well," said Mr. Thomas, a little hotly, "if Annette is a spitfire, Mrs.
+Larkins is a lot of combustion. I think of all the women I know, she has
+the greatest genius for aggravation. I used to board with her, but as I
+did not wish to be talked to death I took refuge in flight."
+
+"And so you showed the white feather that time."
+
+"Yes, I did, and I could show it again. I don't wonder that people have
+nick-named her 'Aunty talk forever.' I have known Annette for years and
+I known that she is naturally quick tempered and impulsive, but she is
+not malicious and implacable and if I were going to marry to-morrow I
+would rather have a quick, hot-tempered woman than a cold, selfish one,
+who never thought or cared about anyone but herself. Mrs. Larkins' mouth
+is not a prayer-book; don't be uneasy about anything she says against
+Annette."
+
+Reassured by Mr. Thomas, Clarence Luzerne decided that he would ask Dr.
+Harcourt's permission to visit his niece, a request which was readily
+granted and he determined if she would consent that she should be his
+wife. He was wealthy, handsome and intelligent; Annette was poor and
+plain, but upright in character and richly endowed in intellect, and no
+one imagined that he would pass by the handsome and stylish girls of
+A.P. to bestow his affections on plain, neglected Annette. Some of the
+girls who knew of his friendship for Annette, but who never dreamed of
+its termination in marriage would say to Annette, "Speak a good word for
+me to Mr. Luzerne;" but Annette kept her counsel and would smile and
+think: I will speak a good word for myself. Very pleasant was the
+growing friendship between Annette and Mr. Luzerne. Together they read
+and discussed books and authors and agreed with wonderful unanimity,
+which often expressed itself in the words:
+
+"I think as you do." Not that there was any weak compliance for the sake
+of agreement, but a unison of thought and feeling between them which
+gave a pleasurable zest to their companionship.
+
+"Miss Annette," said Luzerne, "do you believe that matches are made in
+heaven?"
+
+"I never thought anything about it."
+
+"But have you no theory on the subject?"
+
+"Not the least; have you?"
+
+"Yes; I think that every human soul has its counterpart, and is never
+satisfied till soul has met with soul and recognized its spiritual
+affinity."
+
+"Affinity! I hate the word."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I think it has been so wrongly used, and added to the social
+misery of the world."
+
+"What do you think marriage ought to be?"
+
+"I think it should be a blending of hearts, an intercommunion of souls,
+a tie that only love and truth should weave, and nothing but death
+should part."
+
+Luzerne listened eagerly and said, "Why, Miss Annette, you speak as if
+you had either loved or were using your fine imaginative powers on the
+subject with good effect. Have you ever loved any one?"
+
+Annette blushed and stammered, and said, "I hardly know, but I think I
+have a fine idea of what love should be. I think the love of a woman for
+the companion of her future life should go out to him just as naturally
+as the waves leap to the strand, or the fire ascends to the sun."
+
+"And this," said Luzerne, taking her hand in his, "is the way I feel
+towards you. Surely our souls have met at last. Annette," said he, in a
+voice full of emotion, "is it not so? May I not look on your hand as a
+precious possession, to hold till death us do part?"
+
+"Why, Mr. Luzerne," said Annette, recovering from her surprise, "this is
+so sudden, I hardly know what to say. I have enjoyed your companionship
+and I confess have been pleased with your attentions, but I did not
+dream that you had any intentions beyond the enjoyment of the hour."
+
+"No, Annette, I never seek amusement in toying with human hearts. I
+should deem myself a villain if I came into your house and stole your
+purse, and I should think myself no better if I entered the citadel of a
+woman's heart to steal her affections only to waste their wealth. Her
+stolen money I might restore, but what reparation could I make for
+wasted love and blighted affections? Annette, let there be truth between
+us. I will give you time to think on my proposal, hoping at the same
+time that I shall find favor in your eyes."
+
+After Mr. Luzerne left, Annette, sat alone by the fireside, a delicious
+sense of happiness filling her soul with sudden joy. Could it be that
+this handsome and dignified man had honored her above all the girls in
+A.P., by laying his heart at her feet, or was it only a dream from
+which would come a rude awakening? Annette looked in the glass, but no
+stretch of imagination could make her conceive that she was beautiful in
+either form or feature. She turned from the glass with a faint sigh,
+wishing for his sake that she was as beautiful as some of the other
+girls in A.P., whom he had overlooked, not thinking for one moment that
+in loving her for what she was in intellect and character he had paid
+her a far greater compliment than if she had been magnificently
+beautiful and he had only been attracted by an exquisite form and lovely
+face. In a few days after Mr. Luzerne's proposal to Annette he came for
+the answer, to which he looked with hope and suspense.
+
+"I am glad," he said, "to find you at home."
+
+"Yes; all the rest of the family are out."
+
+"Then the coast is clear for me?" There was tenderness and decision in
+his voice as he said, "Now, Annette, I have come for the answer which
+cannot fail to influence all my future life." He clasped the little hand
+which lay limp and passive in his own. His dark, handsome eyes were bent
+eagerly upon her as if scanning every nook and corner of her soul. Her
+eye fell beneath his gaze, her hand trembled in his, tears of joy were
+springing to her eyes, but she restrained them. She withdrew her hand
+from his clasp; he looked pained and disappointed. "Have I been too
+hasty and presumptuous?"
+
+Annette said no rather faintly, while her face was an enigma he did not
+know how to solve.
+
+"Why did you release your hand and avert your eyes?"
+
+"I felt that my will was succumbing to yours, and I want to give you an
+answer untrammeled and uncontrolled by your will."
+
+Mr. Luzerne smiled, and thought what rare thoughtfulness and judgment
+she has evinced. How few women older than herself would have thought as
+quickly and as clearly, and yet she is no less womanly, although she
+seems so wise.
+
+"What say you, my dear Annette, since I have released your hand. May I
+not hope to hold this hand as the most precious of all my earthly
+possessions until death us do part?"
+
+Annette fixed her eyes upon the floor as if she were scanning the
+figures on the carpet. Her heart beat quickly as she timidly repeated
+the words, "Until death us do part," and placed her hand again in his,
+while an expression of love and tender trust lit up the mobile and
+expressive face, and Annette felt that his love was hers; the most
+precious thing on earth that she could call her own. The engagement
+being completed, the next event in the drama was preparation for the
+wedding. It was intended that the engagement should not be long.
+Together they visited different stores in purchasing supplies for their
+new home. How pleasant was that word to the girl, who had spent such
+lonely hours in the home of her uncle. To her it meant one of the
+brightest spots on earth and one of the fairest types of heaven. In the
+evening they often took pleasant strolls together or sat and chatted in
+a beautiful park near their future home. One evening as they sat quietly
+enjoying themselves Annette said, "How happened it that you preferred me
+to all the other girls in A. P.? There are lots of girls more stylish
+and better looking; what did you see in poor, plain me?" He laughingly
+replied:
+
+  "I chose you out from all the rest,
+  The reason was I loved you best."
+
+"And why did you prefer me?" She answered quite archly:
+
+  "The rose is red, the violet's blue,
+  Sugar is sweet and so are you."
+
+"I chose you because of your worth. When I was young, I married for
+beauty and I pierced my heart through with many sorrows."
+
+"You been married?" said Annette with a tremor in her tones. "Why, I
+never heard of it before."
+
+"Did not Mr. Thomas or Mrs. Lasette tell you of it? They knew it, but it
+is one of the saddest passages of my life, to which I scarcely ever
+refer. She, my wife, drifted from me, and was drowned in a freshet near
+Orleans."
+
+"Oh, how dreadful, and I never knew it."
+
+"Does it pain you?"
+
+"No, but it astonishes me."
+
+"Well, Annette, it is not a pleasant subject, let us talk of something
+else. I have not spoken of it to you before, but to-day, when it pressed
+so painfully upon my mind, it was a relief to me to tell you about it,
+but now darling dismiss it from your mind and let the dead past bury its
+dead."
+
+Just then there came along where they were sitting a woman whose face
+bore traces of great beauty, but dimmed and impaired by lines of sorrow
+and disappointment. Just as she reached the seat where they were
+sitting, she threw up her hands in sudden anguish, gasped out,
+"Clarence! my long lost Clarence," and fell at his feet in a dead faint.
+
+As Mr. Luzerne looked on the wretched woman lying at his feet, his face
+grew deathly pale. He trembled like an aspen and murmured in a
+bewildered tone, "has the grave restored its dead?"
+
+But with Annette there was no time for delay. She chaffed, the rigid
+hands, unloosed the closely fitting dress, sent for a cab and had her
+conveyed as quickly as possible to the home for the homeless. Then
+turning to Luzerne, she said bitterly, "Mr. Luzerne, will you explain
+your encounter with that unfortunate woman?" She spoke as calmly as she
+could, for a fierce and bitter anguish was biting at her heartstrings.
+"What claim has that woman on you?"
+
+"She has the claim of being my wife and until this hour I firmly
+believed she was in her grave." Annette lifted her eyes sadly to his;
+he calmly met her gaze, but there was no deception in his glance; his
+eyes were clear and sad and she was more puzzled than ever.
+
+"Annette," said he, "I have only one favor to ask; let this scene be a
+secret between us as deep as the sea. Time will explain all. Do not
+judge me too harshly."
+
+"Clarence," she said, "I have faith in you, but I do not understand you;
+but here is the carriage, my work at present is with this poor,
+unfortunate woman, whose place I was about to unconsciously supplant."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX
+
+
+And thus they parted. All their air castles and beautiful chambers of
+imagery, blown to the ground by one sad cyclone of fate. In the city of
+A.P., a resting place was found for the stranger who had suddenly dashed
+from their lips the scarcely tasted cup of happiness. Mr. Luzerne
+employed for her the best medical skill he could obtain. She was
+suffering from nervous prostration and brain fever. Annette was constant
+in her attentions to the sufferer, and day after day listened to her
+delirious ravings. Sometimes she would speak of a diamond necklace, and
+say so beseechingly, "Clarence, don't look at me so. You surely can't
+think that I am guilty. I will go away and hide myself from you.
+Clarence, you never loved me or you would not believe me guilty."
+
+But at length a good constitution and careful nursing overmastered
+disease, and she showed signs of recovery. Annette watched over her when
+her wild ravings sounded in her ears like requiems for the loved and
+cherished dead. Between her and the happiness she had so fondly
+anticipated, stood that one blighted life, but she watched that life
+just as carefully as if it had been the dearest life on earth she knew.
+
+One day, as Annette sat by her bedside, she surmised from the look on
+her face that the wandering reason of the sufferer had returned.
+Beckoning to Annette she said "Who are you and where am I?"
+
+Annette answered, "I am your friend and you are with friends."
+
+"Poor Clarence," she murmured to herself; "more sinned against than
+sinning."
+
+"My dear friend," Annette said very tenderly, "you have been very ill,
+and I am afraid that if you do not be very quiet you will be very sick
+again." Annette gently smoothed her beautiful hair and tried to soothe
+her into quietness. Rest and careful nursing soon wrought a wondrous
+change in Marie Luzerne, but Annette thoughtfully refrained from all
+reference to her past history and waited for time to unravel the mystery
+she could not understand, and with this unsolved mystery the match
+between her and Luzerne was broken off. At length, one day when Marie's
+health was nearly restored, she asked for writing materials, and said,
+"I mean to advertise for my mother in a Southern paper. It seems like a
+horrid dream that all I knew or loved, even my husband, whom I deserted,
+believed that I was dead, till I came suddenly on him in the park with a
+young lady by his side. She looked like you. Was it you?"
+
+"Yes," said Annette, as a sigh of relief came to her lips. If Clarence
+had wooed and won her he had not willfully deceived her. "Oh, how I
+would like to see him. I was wayward and young when I left him in anger.
+Oh, if I have sinned I have suffered; but I think that I could die
+content if I could only see him once more." Annette related the strange
+sad story to her physician, who decided that it was safe and desirable
+that there should be an interview between them. Luzerne visited his long
+lost wife and after a private interview, he called Annette to the room,
+who listened sadly while she told her story, which exonerated Luzerne
+from all intent to deceive Annette by a false marriage while she had a
+legal claim upon him.
+
+"I was born," she said, "in New Orleans. My father was a Spaniard and
+my mother a French Creole. She was very beautiful and my father met her
+at a French ball and wished her for his companion for life, but as she
+was an intelligent girl and a devout Catholic she would not consent to
+live a life by which she would be denied the Sacrament of her Church; so
+while she could not contract a civil marriage, which would give her the
+legal claims of a wife, she could enter into an ecclesiastical marriage
+by which she would not forfeit her claim to the rights and privileges of
+the Church as a good Catholic. I was her only child, loved and petted by
+my father, and almost worshipped by my mother, and I never knew what it
+was to have a wish unfilled if it was in her power to gratify it. When I
+was about 16 I met Clarence Luzerne. People then said that I was very
+beautiful. You would scarcely think so now, but I suppose he thought so,
+too. In a short time we were married, and soon saw that we were utterly
+unfitted to each other; he was grave and I was gay; he was careful and
+industrious, I was careless and extravagant; he loved the quiet of his
+home and books; I loved the excitements of pleasure and the ball room,
+and yet I think he loved me, but it was as a father might love a wayward
+child whom he vainly tried to restrain. I had a cousin who had been
+absent from New Orleans a number of years, of whose antecedents I knew
+not scarcely anything. He was lively, handsome and dashing. My husband
+did not like his society, and objected to my associating with him. I did
+not care particularly for him, but I chafed against the restraint, and
+in sheer waywardness I continued the association. One day he brought me
+a beautiful diamond necklace which he said he had obtained in a distant
+land. I laid it aside intending to show it to my husband; in the
+meantime, a number of burglaries had been committed in the city of B.,
+and among them was a diamond necklace. My heart stood still with sudden
+fear while I read of the account and while I was resolving what to do,
+my husband entered the house followed by two officers, who demanded the
+necklace. My husband interfered and with a large sum of money obtained
+my freedom from arrest. My husband was very proud of the honor of his
+family and blamed me for staining its record. From that day my husband
+seemed changed in his feelings towards me. He grew cold, distant and
+abstracted, and I felt that my presence was distasteful to him. I could
+not enter into his life and I saw that he had no sympathy with mine, and
+so in a fit of desperation I packed my trunk and took with me some money
+I had inherited from my father and left, as I said in a note, forever. I
+entered a convent and resolved that I would devote myself to the service
+of the poor and needy, for life had lost its charms for me. I had
+scarcely entered the convent before the yellow fever broke out and raged
+with fearful intensity. I was reckless of my life and engaged myself as
+a nurse. One day there came to our hospital a beautiful girl with a
+wealth of raven hair just like mine was before I became a nurse. I
+nursed her through a tedious illness and when she went out from the
+hospital, as I had an abundance of clothing, I supplied her from my
+wardrobe with all she needed, even to the dress she wore away. The
+clothing was all marked with my name. Soon after I saw in the paper that
+a young woman who was supposed from the marks on her clothing and the
+general description of her person to be myself was found drowned in a
+freshet. I was taken ill immediately afterwards and learned on
+recovering that I had been sick and delirious for several weeks. I
+sought for my mother, inquired about my husband, but lost all trace of
+them both till I suddenly came across my husband in Brightside Park. But
+Clarence, if you have formed other ties don't let me come between you
+and the sunshine. You are free to apply for a divorce; you can make the
+plea of willful desertion. I will not raise the least straw in your way.
+I will go back to the convent and spend the rest of my life in penitence
+and prayer. I have sinned; it is right that I should suffer." Clarence
+looked eagerly into the face of Annette; it was calm and peaceful, but
+in it he read no hope of a future reunion.
+
+"What say you, Annette, would you blame me if I accepted this release?"
+
+"I certainly would. She is your lawful wife. In the church of her father
+you pledged your faith to her, and I do not think any human law can
+absolve you from being faithful to your marriage vows. I do not say it
+lightly. I do not think any mother ever laid her first born in the grave
+with any more sorrow than I do to-day when I make my heart the sepulchre
+in which I bury my first and only love. This, Clarence, is the saddest
+trial of my life. I am sadder to-day than when I stood a lonely orphan
+over my grandmother's grave, and heard the clods fall on her coffin and
+stood lonely and heart-stricken in my uncle's house, and felt that I was
+unwelcome there. But, Clarence, the great end of life is not the
+attainment of happiness but the performance of duty and the development
+of character. The great question is not what is pleasant but what is
+right."
+
+"Annette, I feel that you are right; but I am too wretched to realize
+the force of what you say. I only know that we must part, and that means
+binding my heart as a bleeding sacrifice on the altar of duty."
+
+"Do you not know who drank the cup of human suffering to its bitter
+dregs before you? Arm yourself with the same mind, learn to suffer and
+be strong. Yes, we must part; but if we are faithful till death heaven
+will bring us sweeter rest." And thus they parted. If Luzerne had felt
+any faltering in his allegiance to duty he was too honorable and upright
+when that duty was plainly shown to him to weakly shrink from its
+performance, and as soon as his wife was able to travel he left A.P.,
+for a home in the sunny South. After Luzerne had gone Annette thought,
+"I must have some active work which will engross my mind and use every
+faculty of my soul. I will consult with my dear friend Mrs. Lasette."
+
+All unnerved by her great trial, Annette rang Mrs. Lasette's front door
+bell somewhat hesitatingly and walked wearily into the sitting-room,
+where she found Mrs. Lasette resting in the interval between twilight
+and dark. "Why Annette!" she said with pleased surprise, "I am so glad
+to see you. How is Clarence? I thought you would have been married
+before now. I have your wedding present all ready for you."
+
+"Mrs. Lasette," Annette said, while her voice trembled with
+inexpressible sorrow, "it is all over."
+
+Mrs. Lasette was lighting the lamp and had not seen Annette's face in
+the dusk of the evening, but she turned suddenly around at the sound of
+her voice and noticed the wan face so pitiful in its expression of
+intense suffering.
+
+"What is the matter, my dear; have you and Luzerne had a lover's
+quarrel?"
+
+"No," said Annette, sadly, and then in the ears of her sympathizing
+friend she poured her tale of bitter disappointment. Mrs. Lasette folded
+the stricken girl to her heart in tenderest manner.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Lasette," she said, "you make me feel how good it is for girls
+to have a mother."
+
+"Annette, my brave, my noble girl, I am so glad."
+
+"Glad of what, Mrs. Lasette?"
+
+"Glad that you have been so true to conscience and to duty; glad that
+you have come through your trial like gold tried in the fiercest fire;
+glad that my interest in you has not been in vain, and that I have been
+able to see the blessed fruitage of my love and labors. And now, my dear
+child, what next?"
+
+"I must have a change; I must find relief in action. I feel so weak and
+bruised in heart."
+
+"A bruised reed will not break," murmured Mrs. Lasette to herself.
+
+"Annette," said Mrs. Lasette, "this has been a fearful trial, but it
+must not be in vain; let it bring you more than happiness; let it bring
+you peace and blessedness. There is only one place for us to bring our
+sins and our sorrows, and that is the mercy seat. Let us both kneel
+there to-night and ask for grace to help in this your time of need. We
+are taught to cast our care upon Him for he careth for us. Come, my
+child, with the spirit of submission and full surrender, and consecrate
+your life to his service, body, soul and spirit, not as a dead offering,
+but a living sacrifice."
+
+Together they mingled their prayers and tears, and when Annette rose
+from her knees there was a look of calmness on her face, and a deep
+peace had entered her soul. The strange trial was destined to bring joy
+and gladness and yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness in the
+future. Mrs. Lasette wrote to some friends in a distant Southern town
+where she obtained a situation for Annette as a teacher. Here she soon
+found work to enlist her interest and sympathy and bring out all the
+activity of her soul. She had found her work and the people among whom
+she labored had found their faithful friend.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XX
+
+
+Luzerne's failure to marry Annette and re-instatement of his wife was
+the sensation of the season. Some pitied Annette; others blamed Luzerne,
+but Annette found, as a teacher, opportunity among the freedmen to be a
+friend and sister to those whose advantages had been less than hers.
+Life had once opened before her like a fair vision enchanted with
+delight, but her beautiful dream had faded like sun rays mingling with
+the shadows of night. It was the great disappointment of her life, but
+she roused up her soul to bear suffering and to be true to duty, and
+into her soul came a joy which was her strength. Little children learned
+to love her, the street gamins knew her as their friend, aged women
+blessed the dear child as they called her, who planned for their comfort
+when the blasts of winter were raging around their homes. Before her
+great trial she had found her enjoyment more in her intellectual than
+spiritual life, but when every earthly prop was torn away, she learned
+to lean her fainting head on Christ the corner-stone and the language of
+her heart was "Nearer to thee, e'en though it be a cross that raiseth
+me." In surrendering her life she found a new life and more abundant
+life in every power and faculty of her soul.
+
+Luzerne went South and found Marie's mother who had mourned her child as
+dead. Tenderly they watched over her, but the seeds of death were sown
+too deeply in her wasted frame for recovery, and she wasted away and
+sank into a premature grave, leaving Luzerne the peaceful satisfaction
+of having smoothed her passage to the grave, and lengthened with his
+care, her declining days. Turning from her grave he plunged into active
+life. It was during the days of reconstruction when tricksters and
+demagogues were taking advantage of the ignorance and inexperience of
+the newly enfranchised citizens. Honorable and upright, Luzerne
+preserved his integrity among the corruptions of political life. Men
+respected him too much to attempt to swerve him from duty for personal
+advantage. No bribes ever polluted his hands, nor fraud, nor political
+chicanery ever stained his record.
+
+He was the friend and benefactor of his race, giving them what gold is
+ever too poor to buy--the benefit of a good example and a noble life,
+and earned for himself the sobriquet by which he was called, "honest
+Luzerne." And yet at times he would turn wistfully to Annette and the
+memory of those glad, bright days when he expected to clasp hands with
+her for life. At length his yearning had become insatiable and he
+returned to A. P.
+
+Laura Lasette had married Charley Cooper who by patience and industry
+had obtained a good position in the store of a merchant who was manly
+enough to let it be known that he had Negro blood in his veins, but that
+he intended to give him a desk and place in his establishment and he
+told his employees that he intended to employ him, and if they were not
+willing to work with him they could leave. Charley was promoted just the
+same as others according to his merits. Time had dealt kindly with Mrs.
+Lasette, as he scattered his silvery crystals amid her hair, and of her
+it might be said,
+
+  Each silver hair, each wrinkle there
+    Records some good deed done,
+  Some flower she scattered by the way
+    Some spark from love's bright sun.
+
+Mrs. Larkins had grown kinder and more considerate as the years passed
+by. Mr. Thomas had been happily married for several years. Annette was
+still in her Southern home doing what she could to teach, help and
+befriend those on whose chains the rust of ages had gathered. Mr.
+Luzerne found out Annette's location and started Southward with a fresh
+hope springing up in his heart.
+
+It was a balmy day in the early spring when he reached the city where
+Annette was teaching. Her home was a beautiful place of fragrance and
+flowers. Groups of young people were gathered around their teacher
+listening eagerly to a beautiful story she was telling them. Elderly
+women were scattered in little companies listening to or relating some
+story of Annette's kindness to them and their children.
+
+"I told her," said one, "that I had a vision that some one who was fair,
+was coming to help us. She smiled and said she was not fair. I told her
+she was fair to me."
+
+"I wish she had been here fifteen years ago," said another one. "Before
+she came my boy was just as wild as a colt, but now he is jist as stiddy
+as a judge."
+
+"I just think," said another one, "that she has been the making of my
+Lucy. She's just wrapped up in Miss Annette, thinks the sun rises and
+sets in her." Old mothers whose wants had been relieved, came with the
+children and younger men too, to celebrate Annette's 31st birthday.
+Happy and smiling, like one who had passed through suffering into peace
+she stood, the beloved friend of old and young, when suddenly she heard
+a footstep on the veranda which sent the blood bounding in swift
+currents back to her heart and left her cheek very pale. It was years
+since she had heard the welcome rebound of that step, but it seemed as
+familiar to her as the voice of a loved and long lost friend, or a
+precious household word, and before her stood, with slightly bowed form
+and hair tinged with gray, Luzerne. Purified through suffering, which to
+him had been an evangel of good, he had come to claim the love of his
+spirit. He had come not to separate her from her cherished life work,
+but to help her in uplifting and helping those among whom her lot was
+cast as a holy benediction, and so after years of trial and pain, their
+souls had met at last, strengthened by duty, purified by that faith
+which works by love, and fitted for life's highest and holiest truths.
+
+And now, in conclusion, permit me to say under the guise of fiction, I
+have essayed to weave a story which I hope will subserve a deeper
+purpose than the mere amusement of the hour, that it will quicken and
+invigorate human hearts and not fail to impart a lesson of usefulness
+and value.
+
+
+
+Notes
+
+
+1. In the original, this sentence reads: "After she became a wife and
+mother, instead of becoming entirely absorbed in a round of household
+cares and duties, and she often said, that the moment the crown of
+motherhood fell upon her how that she had poured a new interest in the
+welfare of her race."
+
+2. The original reads "But Mr. Thompson."
+
+3. The original reads "but during her short sojourn in the South."
+
+4. In the original this sentence reads: "Young men anxious for places in
+the gift of government found that by winking at Frank Miller's vices and
+conforming to the demoralizing customs of his place, were the passports
+to political favors, and lacking moral stamina, hushed their consciences
+and became partakers of his sins."
+
+5. The original reads "Mrs. Larking."
+
+6. The original reads "said Mrs. Larkins, seating herself beside Mrs.
+Larking."
+
+7. The original reads "continued Mr. Slocum."
+
+8. The original reads "'Isn't your name Benny?'"
+
+9. The original reads "said Charley Hastings."
+
+10. The original reads "scarcely on intellect."
+
+11. The original reads "expensive views."
+
+12. The original reads "Mrs. Harcourt."
+
+13. The original reads "Mrs. Hanson."
+
+14. The original reads "Mr. Thomas."
+
+15. The original reads "Tom Hanson."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Trial and Triumph, by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11056 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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+Project Gutenberg's Trial and Triumph, by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Trial and Triumph
+
+Author: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
+
+Release Date: February 12, 2004 [EBook #11056]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRIAL AND TRIUMPH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: This document is the text of Trial and Triumph. Any
+                    bracketed notations such as [?], and those inserting
+                    letters or other comments are from the original text.
+
+
+Transcriber's Note About the Author:
+Francis Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was born to free parents in
+Baltimore, Maryland. Orphaned at three, she was raised by her uncle, a
+teacher and radical advocate for civil rights. She attended the Academy
+for Negro Youth and was educated as a teacher. She became a professional
+lecturer, activist, suffragette, poet, essayist, novelist, and the author
+of the first published short story written by an African-American. Her
+work spanned more than sixty years.
+
+
+
+
+TRIAL AND TRIUMPH
+
+A Rediscovered Novel by
+
+Frances E.W. Harper
+
+Edited by Frances Smith Foster
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+
+"Oh, that child! She is the very torment of my life. I have been the
+mother of six children, and all of them put together, never gave me as
+much trouble as that girl. I don't know what will ever become of her."
+
+"What is the matter now, Aunt Susan? What has Annette been doing?"
+
+"Doing! She is always doing something; everlastingly getting herself
+into trouble with some of the neighbors. She is the most mischievous and
+hard-headed child I ever saw."
+
+"Well what has she been doing this morning which has so upset you?"
+
+"Why, I sent her to the grocery to have the oil can filled, and after
+she came back she had not been in the house five minutes before there
+came such an uproar from Mrs. Larkins', my next door neighbor, that I
+thought her house was on fire, but----"
+
+"Instead of that her tongue was on fire, and I know what that means."
+
+"Yes, that's just it, and I don't wonder. That little minx sitting up
+there in the corner looking so innocent, stopped to pour oil on her
+clean steps. Now you know yourself what an aggravating thing that must
+have been."
+
+"Yes, it must have been, especially as Mrs. Larkins is such a nice
+housekeeper and takes such pride in having everything neat and nice
+about her. How did you fix up matters with her."
+
+"I have not fixed them up at all. Mrs. Larkins only knows one cure for
+bad children, and that is beating them, and she always blames me for
+spoiling Annette, but I hardly know what to do with her. I've scolded
+and scolded till my tongue is tired, whipping don't seem to do her a bit
+of good, and I hate to put her out among strangers for fear that they
+will not treat her right, for after all she is very near to me. She is
+my poor, dead Lucy's child. Sometimes when I get so angry with her that
+I feel as though I could almost shake the life out of her, the thought
+of her dying mother comes back to me and it seems to me as if I could
+see her eyes looking so wistfully on the child and turning so trustingly
+to me and saying, 'Mother, when I am gone won't you take care of
+Annette, and try to keep her with you?' And then all the anger dies out
+of me. Poor child! I don't know what is going to become of her when my
+head is laid low. I'm afraid she is born for trouble. Nobody will ever
+put up with her as I do. She has such an unhappy disposition. She is not
+like any of my children ever were."
+
+"Yes. I've often noticed that she does seem different from other
+children. She never seems light-hearted and happy."
+
+"Yes, that is so. She reminds me so of poor Lucy before she was born.
+She even moans in her sleep like she used to do. It was a dark day when
+Frank Miller entered my home and Lucy became so taken up with him. It
+seemed to me as if my poor girl just worshiped him. I did not feel that
+he was all right, and I tried to warn my dear child of danger, but what
+could an old woman like me do against him with his handsome looks and
+oily tongue."
+
+"Yes," said her neighbor soothingly, "you have had a sad time, but
+still we cannot recall the dead past, and it is the living present with
+which we have to deal. Annette needs wise guidance, a firm hand and a
+loving heart to deal with her. To spoil her at home is only to prepare
+her for misery abroad."
+
+"I am afraid that I am not equal to the task."
+
+"If any man lack wisdom we are taught to ask it of One who giveth
+liberally to all men and upbraideth none. There would be so much less
+stumbling if we looked earnestly within for 'the light which lighteth
+every man that cometh into the world.'"
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Harcourt, Annette's grandmother, "there is one thing
+about Annette that I like. She is very attentive to her books. If you
+want to keep that child out of mischief just put a book in her hand; but
+then she has her living to get and she can't get it by nursing her hands
+and reading books. She has got to work like the rest of us."
+
+"But why not give her a good education? Doors are open to her which were
+closed against us. This is a day of light and knowledge. I don't know
+much myself, but I mean to give my girls a chance. I don't believe in
+saying, let my children do as I have done, when I think some of us have
+done poorly enough digging and delving from morning till night. I don't
+believe the good Lord ever sent anybody into his light and beautiful
+world to be nothing but a drudge, and I just think it is because some
+take it so easy that others, who will do, have to take it so hard."
+
+"It always makes my blood boil," said a maiden lady who was present, "to
+see a great hulk of a man shambling around complaining of hard times,
+and that he can't get work, when his wife is just working herself down
+to the grave to keep up the family." I asked Mrs. Johnson, who just
+lives in the wash tub and is the main stay of her family, what would her
+husband do if she were to die? and she said, 'get another wife.' Now, I
+just think she has spoiled that man and if she dies first, I hope that
+he will never find another woman to tread in her footsteps. He ought to
+have me to deal with. When he got through with me he would never want
+to laze around another woman."
+
+"I don't think he ever would," said Mrs. Harcourt, while a gleam of
+humor sparkled in her eye. Her neighbor was a maiden lady who always
+knew how to manage other people's husbands, but had never succeeded in
+getting one of her own, and not having any children herself understood
+perfectly well how to rate other people's.
+
+Just then a knock was heard at the door and Mr. Thomas, Annette's former
+school teacher, entered the room. After an exchange of courtesies he
+asked, "How does Annette come on with her new teacher?"
+
+"I have not heard any complaint," said Mrs. Harcourt. "At first Mrs.
+Joseph's girl did not want to sit with Annette, but she soon got over it
+when she saw how well the other girls treated Annette and how pleasant
+the teacher was to her. Mr. Scott, who has been so friendly to us, told
+us not to mind her; that her mother had been an ignorant servant girl,
+who had married a man with a little money; that she was still ignorant,
+loud and [dressy?] and liked to put on airs. The nearer the beggar the
+greater the prejudice."
+
+"I think it is true," said Mr. Thomas. "If you apply those words, not to
+condition, but human souls, for none but beggarly souls would despise a
+man because of circumstances over which he had no control; noble,
+large-hearted men and women are never scornful. Contempt and ridicule
+are the weapons of weak souls. I am glad however, that Annette is
+getting on so well. I hope that she will graduate at the head of her
+class, with high honors."
+
+"What's the use of giving her so much education? there are no openings
+for her here, and if she gets married she won't want it," and Mrs.
+Harcourt sighed as she finished her sentence.
+
+Mr. Thomas looked grave for a moment and then his face relaxed into a
+smile. "Well, really, Mrs. Harcourt, that is not very complimentary to
+us young men; do we have no need of intelligent and well educated
+wives? I think our race needs educated mothers for the home more than we
+do trained teachers for the school room. Not that I would ignore or
+speak lightly of the value of good colored teachers nor suggest as a
+race, that we can well afford to do without them; but to-day, if it were
+left to my decision, whether the education of the race should be placed
+in the hands of the school teacher or the mothers and there was no other
+alternative, I should, by all means, decide for the education of the
+race through its motherhood rather than through its teachers."
+
+"But we poor mothers had no chance. We could not teach our children."
+
+"I think you could teach some of them more than they wish to learn; but
+I must go now; at some other time we will talk on this subject."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+
+"Oh, Annette!" said Mrs. Harcourt, turning to her granddaughter after
+Mr. Thomas had left the door; "What makes you so naughty? Why did you
+pour that oil on Mrs. Larkin's steps; didn't you know it was wrong?"
+
+Annette stood silent looking like a guilty culprit.
+
+"Why don't you answer me; what makes you behave so bad?"
+
+"I don't know, grandma, I 'specs I did it for the devil. The preacher
+said the devil makes people do bad things."
+
+"The preacher didn't say any such thing; he said the devil tempts people
+to be bad, but you are not to mind every thing the devil tells you to
+do, if you do, you will get yourself into a lot of trouble."
+
+"Well, grandma, Mrs. Larkins is so mean and cross and she is always
+telling tales on me and I just did it for fun."
+
+"Well, that is very poor fun. You deserve a good whipping, and I've a
+great mind to give it to you now."
+
+"Why don't she let me alone; she is all the time trying to get you to
+beat me. She's a spiteful old thing anyhow. I don't like her, and I know
+she don't like me."
+
+"Hush Annette, you must not talk that way of any one so much older than
+yourself. When I was a child I wouldn't have talked that way about any
+old person. Don't let me hear you talk that way again. You will never
+rest till I give you a good whipping."
+
+"Yes ma'm," said Annette very demurely.
+
+"Oh, Annette!" said her grandmother with a sudden burst of feeling. "You
+do give me so much trouble. You give me more worry than all my six
+children put together; but there is always one scabby sheep in the flock
+and you will be that one. Now get ready for school and don't let me hear
+any more complaints about you; I am not going to let you worry me to
+death."
+
+Annette took up her bonnet and glided quietly out of the door, glad to
+receive instead of the threatened whipping a liberal amount of talk, and
+yet the words struck deeper than blows. Her own grandmother had
+prophesied evil things of her. She was to be the scabby sheep of the
+flock. The memory of the blows upon her body might have passed soon away
+after the pain and irritation of the infliction were over, but that
+inconsiderate prophecy struck deep into her heart and left its impress
+upon her unfolding life. Without intending it, Mrs. Harcourt had struck
+a blow at the child's self-respect; one of the things which she should
+have strengthened, even if it was "ready to die." Annette had entered
+life sadly handicapped. She was the deserted child of a selfish and
+unprincipled man and a young mother whose giddiness and lack of
+self-control had caused her to trail the robes of her womanhood in the
+dust. With such an ante-natal history how much she needed judicious, but
+tender, loving guidance. In that restless, sensitive and impulsive child
+was the germ of a useful woman with a warm, loving heart, ready to
+respond to human suffering, capable of being faithful in friendship and
+devoted in love. Before that young life with its sad inheritance seemed
+to lay a future of trial, and how much, humanly speaking, seemed to
+depend upon the right training of that life and the development within
+her of self-control, self-reliance and self-respect. There was no
+mother's heart for her to nestle upon in her hours of discouragement and
+perplexity; no father's strong, loving arms to shelter and defend her;
+no sister to brighten her life with joyous companionship, and no brother
+to champion her through the early and impossible period of ripening
+womanhood. Her grandmother was kind to her, but not very tender and
+loving. Her struggle to keep the wolf from the door had absorbed her
+life, and although she was neither hard nor old, yet she was not
+demonstrative in her affections, and to her a restless child was an
+enigma she did not know how to solve. If the child were hungry or cold
+she could understand physical wants, but for the hunger of the heart she
+had neither sympathy nor comprehension. Fortunately Annette had found a
+friend who understood her better than her grandmother, and who, looking
+beneath the perverseness of the child, saw in her rich possibilities,
+and would often speak encouragingly to her. Annette early developed a
+love for literature and poetry and would sometimes try to make rhymes
+and string verses together and really Mrs. Lasette thought that she had
+talent or even poetic genius and ardently wished that it might be
+cultivated and rightly directed; but it never entered the minds of her
+grandmother and aunts that in their humble home was a rarely gifted soul
+destined to make music which would set young hearts to thrilling with
+higher hopes and loftier aspirations.
+
+Mrs. Lasette had been her teacher before she married. After she became a
+wife and mother, instead of becoming entirely absorbed in a round of
+household cares and duties, the moment the crown of motherhood fell upon
+her, as she often said, she had poured a new interest into the welfare
+of her race.[1] With these feelings she soon became known as a friend
+and helper in the community in which she lived. Young girls learned to
+look to her for council and encouragement amid the different passages of
+their [lives?] sometimes with blushing cheeks they whispered in to her
+ears tender secrets they did not always bring to their near relatives,
+and young men about to choose their life work, often came to consult her
+and to all her heart was responsive. With this feeling of confidence in
+her judgment, Mr. Thomas had entered her home after leaving Mrs.
+Harcourt's, educating himself for a teacher. He had spent several years
+in the acquisition of knowledge and was proving himself an acceptable
+and conscientious teacher, when the change came which deprived him of
+his school, by blending his pupils in the different ward schools of the
+city. Public opinion which moves slowly, had advanced far enough to
+admit the colored children into the different schools, irrespective of
+color, but it was not prepared, except in a few places to admit the
+colored teachers as instructors in the schools. "What are you going to
+do next?" inquired Mrs. Lasette of Mr. Thomas as he seated himself
+somewhat wearily by the fire. "I hardly know, I am all at sea, but I am
+going to be like the runaway slave who, when asked, 'Where is your
+pass?' raised his fist and said 'Dem is my passes,' and if 'I don't see
+an opening I will make one.'"
+
+"Why don't you go into the ministry? When Mr. Pugh failed in his
+examination he turned his attention to the ministry, and it is said that
+he is succeeding admirably."
+
+"Mrs. Lasette, I was brought up to respect the institutions of religion,
+and not to lay rash hands on sacred things, and while I believe that
+every man should preach Christ by an upright life, and chaste
+conversation, yet I think one of the surest ways to injure a Church, and
+to make the pulpit lose its power over the rising generation, is for men
+without a true calling, or requisite qualifications to enter the
+ministry because they have failed in some other avocation and find in
+preaching an open door to success."
+
+"But they often succeed."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Why by getting into good churches, increasing their congregations and
+paying off large church debts." "And is that necessarily success? We
+need in the Church men who can be more than financiers and who can
+attract large congregations. We need earnest thoughtful Christly men,
+who will be more anxious to create and develop moral earnestness than to
+excite transient emotions. Now there is Rev. Mr. Lamson who was educated
+in R. College. I have heard him preach to, as I thought, an honest, well
+meaning, but an ignorant congregation, and instead of lifting them to
+more rational forms of worship, he tried to imitate them and made a
+complete failure. He even tried to moan as they do in worship but it
+didn't come out natural."
+
+"Of course it did not. These dear old people whose moaning during
+service, seems even now so pitiful and weird, I think learned to mourn
+out in prayers, thoughts and feelings wrung from their agonizing hearts,
+which they did not dare express when they were forced to have their
+meetings under the surveillance of a white man."
+
+"It is because I consider the ministry the highest and most sacred
+calling, that I cannot, nay I dare not, rush into it unless I feel
+impelled by the strongest and holiest motives."
+
+"You are right and I think just such men as you ought to be in the
+ministry."
+
+"Are you calling me?" "I wish it were in my power." "I am glad that it
+is not, I think there are more in the ministry now than magnify their
+calling."
+
+"But Mr. Thomas[2] are you not looking on the dark side of the question?
+you must judge of the sun, not by its spots, but by its brightness."
+
+"Oh I did not mean to say that the ministry is crowded with unworthy
+men, who love the fleece more than the flock. I believe that there are
+in the ministry a large number who are the salt of the earth and whose
+life work bears witness to their fitness. But unfortunately there are
+men who seem so lacking in reverence for God, by their free handling of
+sacred things; now I think one of the great wants of our people is more
+reverence for God who is above us, and respect for the man who is beside
+us, and I do hope that our next minister will be a good man, of active
+brain, warm heart and Christly sympathies, who will be among us a
+living, moral, and spiritual force, and who will be willing to teach us
+on the Bible plan of 'line upon line, precept upon precept, here a
+little there a little.'"
+
+"I hope he will be; it is said that brother Lomax our new minister is an
+excellent young man."
+
+"Well I hope that we will not fail to receive him as an apostle and try
+to hold up his hands."
+
+"I hope so. I think that to be called of God to be an ambassador for
+Christ, to help him build the kingdom of righteousness, love and peace,
+amid the misery, sin and strife, is the highest and most blessed
+position that a man can hold, and because I esteem the calling so highly
+I would not rush into it unless I felt divinely commissioned."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+
+Mrs. Harcourt was a Southern woman by birth, who belonged to that class
+of colored people whose freedom consisted chiefly in not being the
+chattels of the dominant race--a class to whom little was given and from
+whom much was required. She was naturally bright and intelligent, but
+had come up in a day when the very book of the Christian's law was to
+her a sealed volume; but if she had not been educated through the aid of
+school books and blackboards, she had obtained that culture of manners
+and behavior which comes through contact with well-bred people, close
+observation and a sense of self-respect and self-reliance, and when
+deprived of her husband's help by an untimely death, she took up the
+burden of life bravely and always tried to keep up what she called "a
+stiff upper lip." Feeling the cramping of Southern life, she became
+restive under the privations and indignities which were heaped upon free
+persons of color, and at length she and her husband broke up their home
+and sold out at a pecuniary sacrifice to come North, where they could
+breathe free air and have educational privileges for their children. But
+while she was strong and healthy her husband, whose health was not very
+firm, soon succumbed to the change of climate and new modes of living
+and left Mrs. Harcourt a stranger and widow in a strange land with six
+children dependent on her for bread and shelter: but during her short
+sojourn in the North[3] she had enlisted the sympathy and respect of
+kind friends, who came to her relief and helped her to help herself, the
+very best assistance they could bestow upon her. Capable and efficient,
+she found no difficulty in getting work for herself and older children,
+who were able to add their quota to the support of the family by running
+errands, doing odd jobs for the neighbors and helping their mother
+between school hours. Nor did she lay all the household burdens on the
+shoulders of the girls and leave her boys to the mercy of the pavement;
+she tried to make her home happy and taught them all to have a share in
+adding to its sunshine. "It makes boys selfish," she would say, "to have
+their sisters do all the work and let the boys go scot-free. I don't
+believe there would be so many trifling men if the boys were trained to
+be more helpful at home and to feel more for their mothers and sisters."
+All this was very well for the peace and sunshine of that home, but as
+the children advanced in life the question came to her with painful
+emphasis----"What can I do for the future of my boys and girls?" She was
+not anxious to have them all professional men and school teachers and
+government clerks, but she wanted each one to have some trade or calling
+by which a respectable and comfortable living could be made; but first
+she consulted their tastes and inclinations. Her youngest boy was very
+fond of horses, but instead of keeping him in the city, where he was in
+danger of getting too intimate with horse jockeys and stable boys, she
+found a place for him with an excellent farmer, who, seeing the tastes
+of the boy, took great interest in teaching him how to raise stock and
+he became a skillful farmer. Her second son showed that he had some
+mechanical skill and ingenuity and she succeeded in getting him a
+situation with a first-class carpenter, and spared no pains to have him
+well instructed in all the branches of carpentry, and would often say to
+him, "John, don't do any sham work if you are going to be a carpenter;
+be thorough in every thing you do and try to be the best carpenter in
+A.P., and if you do your work better than others, you won't have to be
+all the time going around advertising yourself; somebody will find out
+what you can do and give you work." Her oldest son was passionately fond
+of books and she helped him through school till he was able to become a
+school teacher. But as the young man was high spirited and ambitious, he
+resolved that he would make his school teaching a stepping stone to a
+more congenial employment. He studied medicine and graduated with M.D.,
+but as it takes a young doctor some time to gain the confidence of an
+old community, he continued after his graduation to teach and obtained a
+certificate to practice medicine. Without being forced to look to his
+mother for assistance, while the confidence of his community was slowly
+growing, he depended on the school for his living and looked to the
+future for his success as a physician.
+
+For the girls, because they were colored, there were but few avenues
+open, but they all took in sewing and were excellent seamstresses,
+except Lucy, who had gone from home to teach school in a distant city as
+there were no openings of the kind for her at her own home.
+
+Mrs. Harcourt was very proud of her children and had unbounded
+confidence in them. She was high-spirited and self-respecting and it
+never seemed to enter her mind that any evil might befall the children
+that would bring sorrow and shame to her home; but nevertheless it came
+and Lucy, her youngest child, the pet and pride of the household
+returned home with a great sorrow tugging at her heart and a shadow on
+her misguided life. It was the old story of woman's weakness and folly
+and man's perfidy and desertion. Poor child, how wretched she was till
+"peace bound up her bleeding heart," and even then the arrow had pierced
+too deep for healing. Sorrow had wasted her strength and laid the
+foundation of disease and an early death. Religion brought balm to the
+wounded spirit, but no renewed vigor to the wasted frame and in a short
+time she fell a victim to consumption, leaving Annette to the care of
+her mother. It was so pitiful to see the sorrow on the dear old face as
+she would nestle the wronged and disinherited child to her heart and
+would say so mournfully, "Oh, I never, never expected this!"
+
+Although Annette had come into the family an unbidden and unwelcome
+guest, associated with the saddest experience of her grandmother's life,
+yet somehow the baby fingers had wound themselves around the tendrils of
+her heart and the child had found a shelter in the warm clasp of loving
+arms. To her, Annette was a new charge, an increased burden; but burden
+to be defended by her love and guarded by her care. All her other
+children had married and left her, and in her lowly home this young
+child with infantile sweetness, beguiled many a lonely hour. She loved
+Lucy and that was Lucy's child.
+
+  But where was he who sullied
+    Her once unspotted name;
+  Who lured her from life's brightness
+    To agony and shame?
+
+Did society, which closed its doors against Lucy and left her to
+struggle as best she might out of the depth into which she had fallen,
+pour any righteous wrath upon his guilty head? Did it demand that he
+should at least bring forth some fruit meet for repentance by at least
+helping Mrs. Harcourt to raise the unfortunate child? Not so. He left
+that poor old grandmother to struggle with her failing strength, not
+only to bear her own burden, but the one he had so wickedly imposed upon
+her. He had left A.P. before Lucy's death and gone to the Pacific coast
+where he became wealthy through liquor selling, speculation, gambling
+and other disreputable means, and returned with gold enough to hide a
+multitude of sins, and then fair women permitted and even courted his
+society. Mothers with marriageable daughters condoned his offences
+against morality and said, "oh, well, young men will sow their wild
+oats; it is no use to be too straight laced." But there were a few
+thoughtful mothers old fashioned enough to believe that the law of
+purity is as binding upon the man as the woman, and who, under no
+conditions, would invite him to associate with their daughters. Women
+who tried to teach their sons to be worthy of the love and esteem of
+good women by being as chaste in their conversation and as pure in their
+lives as their young daughters who sat at their side sheltered in their
+pleasant and peaceful homes. One of the first things that Frank Miller
+did after he returned to A.P. was to open a large and elegantly
+furnished saloon and restaurant. The license to keep such a place was
+very high, and men said that to pay it he resorted to very questionable
+means, that his place was a resort for gamblers, and that he employed a
+young man to guard the entrance of his saloon from any sudden invasion
+of the police by giving a signal without if he saw any of them
+approaching, and other things were whispered of his saloon which showed
+it to be a far more dangerous place for the tempted, unwary and
+inexperienced feet of the young men of A.P., than any low groggery in
+the whole city. Young men who would have scorned to enter the lowest
+dens of vice, felt at home in his gilded palace of sin. Beautiful
+pictures adorned the walls, light streamed into the room through finely
+stained glass windows, women, not as God had made them, but as sin had
+debased them, came there to spend the evening in the mazy dance, or to
+sit with partners in sin and feast at luxurious tables. Politicians came
+there to concoct their plans for coming campaigns, to fix their slates
+and to devise means for grasping with eager hands the spoils of
+government. Young men anxious for places in the gift of the government
+found that winking at Frank Miller's vices and conforming to the
+demoralizing customs of his place were passports to political favors,
+and lacking moral stamina, hushed their consciences and became partakers
+of his sins.[4] Men talked in private of his vices, and drank his
+liquors and smoked his cigars in public. His place was a snare to their
+souls. "The dead were there but they knew it not." He built a beautiful
+home and furnished it magnificently, and some said that the woman who
+married him would do well, as if it were possible for any woman to marry
+well who linked her destinies to a wicked, selfish and base man, whose
+business was a constant menace to the peace, the purity and progress of
+society. I believe it was Milton who said that the purity of a man
+should be more splendid than the purity of a woman, basing his idea upon
+the declaration, "The head of the woman is the man, and the head of the
+man is Jesus Christ." Surely if man occupies this high rank in the
+creation of God he should ever be the true friend and helper of woman
+and not, as he too often proves, her falsest friend and basest enemy.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+
+"Annette," said Mrs. Harcourt one morning early, "I want you to stir
+your stumps to-day; I am going to have company this evening and I want
+you to help me to get everything in apple pie order."
+
+"Who is coming, grandma?"
+
+"Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Lasette."
+
+"Mrs. Lasette!" Annette's eyes brightened. "I hope she will come; she is
+just as sweet as a peach and I do love her ever so much; and who else?"
+
+"Brother Lomax, the minister who preached last Sunday and gave us such a
+good sermon."
+
+"Is he coming, too?" Annette opened her eyes with pleased surprise. "Oh,
+I hope he will come, he's so nice."
+
+"What do you know about him?"
+
+"Why, grandmother, I understood everything that he said, and I felt that
+I wanted to be good just like he told us, and I went and asked aunt
+'Liza how people got religion. She had been to camp-meeting and seen
+people getting religion, and I wanted her to tell me all about it for I
+wanted to get it too."
+
+"What did she tell you?"
+
+"She told me that people went down to the mourner's bench and prayed and
+then they would get up and shout and say they had religion, and that was
+all she knew about it."
+
+"You went to the wrong one when you went to your aunt 'Liza. And what
+did you do after she told you?"
+
+"Why, I went down in the garden and prayed and I got up and shouted, but
+I didn't get any religion. I guess I didn't try right."
+
+"I guess you didn't if I judge by your actions. When you get older you
+will know more about it."
+
+"But, grandma, Aunt 'Liza is older than I am, why don't she know?"
+
+"Because she don't try; she's got her head too full of dress and dancing
+and nonsense."
+
+Grandmother Harcourt did not have very much faith in what she called
+children's religion, and here was a human soul crying out in the
+darkness; but she did not understand the cry, nor look for the
+"perfecting of praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings," not
+discerning the emotions of that young spirit, she let the opportunity
+slip for rightly impressing that young soul. She depended too much on
+the church and too little on the training of the home. For while the
+church can teach and the school instruct, the home is the place to train
+innocent and impressible childhood for useful citizenship on earth and a
+hope of holy companionship in heaven; and every Christian should strive
+to have "her one of the provinces of God's kingdom," where she can plant
+her strongest batteries against the ramparts of folly, sin and vice.
+
+"Who else is coming, grandma?"
+
+"Why, of course I must invite Mrs. Larkins; it would never do to leave
+her out."
+
+Annette shrugged her shoulders, a scowl came over her face and she said:
+
+"I hope she won't come."
+
+"I expect she will and when she comes I want you to behave yourself and
+don't roll up your eyes at her and giggle at her and make ugly speeches.
+She told me that you made mouths at her yesterday, and that when Mr.
+Ross was whipping his horse you said you knew some one whom you wished
+was getting that beating, and she said that she just believed you meant
+her. How was that, Annette? If I were like you I would be all the time
+keeping this neighborhood in hot water."
+
+Annette looked rather crestfallen and said, "I did make mouths at her
+house as I came by, but I didn't know that she saw me."
+
+"Yes she did, and you had better mind how you cut your cards with her."
+
+Annette finding the conversation was taking a rather disagreeable turn
+suddenly remembered that she had something to do in the yard and ceased
+to prolong the dialogue. If the truth must be confessed, Annette was not
+a very earnest candidate for saintship, and annoying her next door
+neighbor was one of her favorite amusements.
+
+Grandma Harcourt lived in a secluded court, which was shut in on every
+side but one from the main streets, and her environments were not of the
+most pleasant and congenial kind. The neighbors, generally speaking,
+belonged to neither the best nor worst class of colored people. The
+court was too fully enclosed to be a thoroughfare of travel, but it was
+a place in which women could sit at their doors and talk to one another
+from each side of the court. Women who had no scruples about drinking as
+much beer, and sometimes stronger drinks, as they could absorb, and some
+of the men said that the women drank more than men, and under the
+besotting influence of beer and even stronger drinks, a fearful amount
+of gossiping, news-carrying and tattling went on, which often resulted
+in quarrels and contentions, which, while it never resulted in blood,
+sadly lowered the tone of social life. It was the arena of wordy strife
+in which angry tongues were the only weapons of warfare, and poor little
+Annette was fast learning their modes of battle. But there was one thing
+against which grandmother Harcourt set her face like flint, and that was
+sending children to saloons for beer, and once she flamed out with
+righteous indignation when one of her neighbors, in her absence, sent
+Annette to a saloon to buy her some beer. She told her in emphatic terms
+she must never do so again, that she wanted her girl to grow up a
+respectable woman, and that she ought to be ashamed of herself, not only
+to be guzzling beer like a toper, but to send anybody's child to a
+saloon to come in contact with the kind of men who frequented such
+places, and that any women who sent their children to such places were
+training their boys to be drunkards and their girls to be
+street-walkers. "I am poor," she said, "but I mean to keep my credit up
+and if you and I live in this neighborhood a hundred years you must
+never do that thing again."
+
+Her neighbor looked dazed and tried to stammer out an apology, but she
+never sent Annette to a beer saloon again, and in course of time she
+became a good temperance woman herself, influenced by the faithfulness
+of grandmother Harcourt.
+
+The court in which Mrs. Harcourt lived was not a very desirable place,
+but, on account of her color, eligible houses could not always be
+obtained, and however decent, quiet or respectable she might appear on
+applying for a house, she was often met with the rebuff, "We don't rent
+to colored people," and men who virtually assigned her race the lowest
+place and humblest positions could talk so glibly of the degradation of
+the Negro while by their Christless and inhuman prejudice they were
+helping add to their low social condition. In the midst of her
+unfavorable environments Mrs. Harcourt kept her home neat and tidy; sent
+Annette to school constantly and tried to keep her out of mischief, but
+there was moral contagion in the social atmosphere of Tennis Court and
+Annette too often succumbed to its influence; but Annette was young and
+liked the company of young girls and it seemed cruel to confine the
+child's whole life to the home and schoolhouse and give her no chance to
+be merry and playful with girls of her own age. So now and then
+grandmother Harcourt would let her spend a little time with some of the
+neighbors' girls but from the questions that Annette often asked her
+grandmother and the conversations she sometimes repeated Mrs. Harcourt
+feared that she was learning things which should only be taught by
+faithful mothers in hours of sacred and tender confidence, and she
+determined, even if it gave offence to her neighbors, that she would
+choose among her own friends, companions for her granddaughter and not
+leave all her social future to chance. In this she was heartily aided by
+Mrs. Lasette, who made it a point to hold in that neighborhood, mothers'
+meetings and try to teach mothers, who in the dark days of slavery had
+no bolts nor bars strong enough to keep out the invader from scattering
+their children like leaves in wintry weather, how to build up light and
+happy homes under the new dispensation of freedom. To her it was a
+labor of love and she found her reward in the peace and love which
+flowed into the soul and the improved condition of society. In lowly
+homes where she visited, her presence was a benediction and an
+inspiration. Women careless in their household and slatternly in their
+dress grew more careful in the keeping of their homes and the
+arrangement of their attire. Women of the better class of their own
+race, coming among them awakened their self-respect. Prejudice and pride
+of race had separated them from their white neighbors and the more
+cultured of their race had shrunk from them in their ignorance, poverty
+and low social condition and they were left, in a great measure, to
+themselves--ostracised by the whites on the one side and socially
+isolated from the more cultured of their race on the other hand. The law
+took little or no cognizance of them unless they were presented at its
+bar as criminals; but if they were neither criminals nor paupers they
+might fester in their vices and perpetuate their social condition. Who
+understood or cared to minister to their deepest needs or greatest
+wants? It was just here where the tender, thoughtful love of a
+warm-hearted and intelligent woman was needed. To her it was a labor of
+love, but it was not all fair sailing. She sometimes met with coldness
+and distrust where she had expected kindness and confidence; lack of
+sympathy where she had hoped to find ready and willing cooperation; but
+she knew that if her life was in harmony with God and Christly sympathy
+with man; for such a life there was no such word as fail.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+
+By dint of energy and perseverance grandmother Harcourt had succeeded in
+getting everything in order when her guests began to arrive. She had
+just put the finishing touches upon her well-spread table and was
+reviewing it with an expression of pleasure and satisfaction. And now
+while the guests are quietly taking their seats let me introduce you to
+them.
+
+Mr. Thomas came bringing with him the young minister, Rev. Mr. Lomax,
+whose sermon had so interested and edified Mrs. Harcourt the previous
+Sunday. Mrs. Lasette, looking bright and happy, came with her daughter,
+and Mrs. Larkins entered arrayed in her best attire, looking starched
+and prim, as if she had made it the great business of her life to take
+care of her dignity and to think about herself. Mrs. Larkins,[5] though
+for years a member of church, had not learned that it was unchristian to
+be narrow and selfish. She was strict in her attendance at church and
+gave freely to its support; but somehow with all her attention to the
+forms of religion, one missed its warm and vivifying influence from her
+life, and in the loving clasp of a helping hand, in the tender beam of a
+sympathizing glance, weary-hearted mothers and wives never came to her
+with their heartaches and confided to her their troubles. Little
+children either shrank from her or grew quiet in her presence. What was
+missing from her life was the magnetism of love. She had become so
+absorbed in herself that she forgot everybody else and thought more of
+her rights than her duties. The difference between Mrs. Lasette and Mrs.
+Larkins was this, that in passing through life one scattered sunshine
+and the other cast shadows over her path. Mrs. Lasette was a fine
+conversationalist. She regarded speech as one of heaven's best gifts,
+and thought that conversation should be made one of the finest arts, and
+used to subserve the highest and best purposes of life, and always
+regretted when it was permitted to degenerate into gossip and
+backbiting. Harsh judgment she always tried to modify, often saying in
+doubtful cases, "Had we not better suspend our judgments? Truly we do
+not like people to think the worst of us and it is not fulfilling the
+law of love to think the worst of them. Do you not know that if we wish
+to dwell in his tabernacle we are not to entertain a reproach against
+our neighbor, nor to back-bite with our lips and I do not think there is
+a sin which more easily besets society than this." "Speech," she would
+say, "is a gift so replete with rich and joyous possibilities," and she
+always tried to raise the tone of conversation at home and abroad. Of
+her it might be emphatically said, "She opened her mouth with wisdom and
+in her lips was the law of kindness."
+
+The young minister, Rev. Mr. Lomax, was an earnest, devout and gifted
+young man. Born in the midst of poverty, with the shadows of slavery
+encircling his early life, he had pushed his way upward in the world,
+"toiling while others slept." His father was dead. While living he had
+done what he could to improve the condition of his family, and had, it
+was thought, overworked himself in the struggle to educate and support
+his children. He was a kind and indulgent father and when his son had
+made excellent progress in his studies, he gave him two presents so dear
+to his boyish heart--a gun and a watch. But the hour came when the
+loving hands were closed over the quiet breast, and the widowed wife
+found herself unable to provide the respectable funeral she desired to
+give him. Thomas then came bravely and tenderly to her relief. He sold
+his watch and gun to defray the funeral expenses of his father. He was a
+good son to his aged mother, and became the staff of her declining
+years. With an earnest purpose in his soul, and feeling that knowledge
+is power, he applied himself with diligence to his studies, passed
+through college, and feeling within his soul a commission to teach and
+help others to develop within themselves the love of nature, he entered
+the ministry, bringing into it an enthusiasm for humanity and love of
+Christ, which lit up his life and made him a moral and spiritual force
+in the community. He had several advantageous offers to labor in other
+parts of the country, but for the sake of being true to the heavenly
+vision, which showed him the needs of his people and his adaptation to
+their wants, he chose, not the most lucrative, but the most needed work
+which was offered him with
+
+  A joy to find in every station,
+  Something still to do or bear.
+
+He had seen many things in the life of the people with whom he was
+identified which gave him intense pain, but instead of constantly
+censuring and finding fault with their inconsistencies of conscience, he
+strove to live so blamelessly before them that he would show them by
+example a more excellent way and "criticise by creation." To him
+religion was a reasonable service and he wished it to influence their
+conduct as well as sway their emotions. Believing that right thinking is
+connected with right living, he taught them to be conservative without
+being bigoted, and liberal without being morally indifferent and
+careless in their modes of thought. He wanted them to be able to give a
+reason for the faith that was in them and that faith to be rooted and
+grounded in love. He was young, hopeful, and enthusiastic and life was
+opening before him full of hope and promise.
+
+"It has been a beautiful day," said Mrs. Lasette, seating herself beside
+Mrs. Larkins,[6] who always waited to be approached and was ever ready
+to think that some one was slighting her or ignoring her presence.
+
+"It has been a fine day, but I think it will rain soon; I judge by my
+corn."
+
+"Oh! I think the weather is just perfect. The sun set gloriously this
+evening and the sky was the brightest blue."
+
+"I think the day was what I call a weather breeder. Whenever you see
+such days this time of year, you may look out for falling weather. I
+[expect?] that it will snow soon."
+
+"How that child grows," said Mrs. Larkins, as Annette entered the room.
+
+"Ill weeds grow apace; she has nothing else to do. That girl is going
+to give her grandmother a great deal of trouble."
+
+"Oh! I do not think so."
+
+"Well, I do, and I told her grandmother so one day, but she did not
+thank me for it."
+
+"No, I suppose not."
+
+"I didn't do it for thanks; I did it just to give her a piece of my mind
+about that girl. She is the most mischievous and worrisome child I ever
+saw. The partition between our houses is very thin and many a time when
+I want to finish my morning sleep or take an afternoon nap, if Mrs.
+Harcourt is not at home, Annette will sing and recite at the top of her
+voice and run up and down the stairs as if a regiment of soldiers were
+after her."
+
+"Annette is quite young, full of life and brimful of mischief, and girls
+of that age I have heard likened to persimmons before they are ripe; if
+you attempt to eat them they will pucker your mouth, but if you wait
+till the first frost touches them they are delicious. Have patience with
+the child, act kindly towards her, she may be slow in developing womanly
+sense, but I think that Annette has within her the making of a fine
+woman."
+
+"Do you know what Annette wants?"
+
+"Yes, I know what she wants; but what do you think she wants?"
+
+"She wants kissing."
+
+"I'd kiss her with a switch if she were mine."
+
+"I do not think it wise to whip a child of her age."
+
+"I'd whip her if she were as big as a house."
+
+"I do not find it necessary with my Laura; it is sufficient to deter her
+from doing anything if she knows that I do not approve of it. I have
+tried to establish perfect confidence between us. I do not think my
+daughter keeps a secret from me. I think many young persons go astray
+because their parents have failed to strengthen their characters and to
+forewarn and forearm them against the temptations and dangers that
+surround their paths. How goes the battle?" said Mrs. Lasette, turning
+to Mr. Thomas.
+
+"I am still at sea, and the tide has not yet turned in my favor. Of
+course, I feel the change; it has taken my life out of its accustomed
+channel, but I am optimist enough to hope that even this change will
+result in greater good to the greatest number. I think one of our great
+wants is the diversification of our industries, and I do not believe it
+would be wise for the parents to relax their endeavors to give their
+children the best education in their power. We cannot tell what a race
+can do till it utters and expresses itself, and I know that there is an
+amount of brain among us which can and should be utilized in other
+directions than teaching school or seeking for clerkships. Mr. Clarkson
+had a very intelligent daughter whom he wished to fit for some other
+employment than that of a school teacher. He had her trained for a
+physician. She went to B., studied faithfully, graduated at the head of
+her class and received the highest medal for her attainments, thus
+proving herself a living argument of the capability in her race. Her
+friend, Miss Young, had artistic talent, and learned wood carving. She
+developed exquisite taste and has become a fine artist in that branch of
+industry. A female school teacher's work in the public schools is apt to
+be limited to her single life, but a woman who becomes proficient in a
+useful trade or business, builds up for herself a wall of defense
+against the invasions of want and privation whether she is married or
+single. I think that every woman, and man too, should be prepared for
+the reverses of fortune by being taught how to do some one thing
+thoroughly so as to be able to be a worker in the world's service, and
+not a pensioner upon its bounty. And for this end it does not become us
+as a race to despise any honest labor which lifts us above pauperism and
+dependence. I am pleased to see our people having industrial fairs. I
+believe in giving due honor to all honest labor, in covering idleness
+with shame, and crowning labor with respect."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+
+For awhile Mrs. Harcourt was busy in preparing the supper, to which they
+all did ample justice. In her white apron, faultless neck handkerchief
+and nicely fitting, but plain dress, Mrs. Harcourt looked the
+impersonation of contented happiness. Sorrow had left deep furrows upon
+her kindly face, but for awhile the shadows seemed to have been lifted
+from her life and she was the pleasant hostess, forgetting her own
+sorrows in contributing to the enjoyment of others. Supper being over,
+her guests resumed their conversation.
+
+"You do not look upon the mixing of the schools as being necessarily
+disadvantageous to our people," said the minister.
+
+"That," said Mr. Thomas, "is just in accordance to the way we adapt
+ourselves to the change. If we are to remain in this country as a
+component part of the nation, I cannot fail to regard with interest any
+step which tends toward our unification with all the other branches of
+the human race in this Western Hemisphere."
+
+"Although," said Mrs. Lasette, "I have been educating my daughter and
+have felt very sorry when I have witnessed the disappointment of parents
+who have fitted their children for teachers and have seen door after
+door closed against them, I cannot help regarding the mixing of the
+schools as at least one step in a right direction."
+
+"But Mrs. Lasette," said the minister, "as we are educated by other
+means than school books and blackboards, such as the stimulus of hope,
+the incentives of self-respect and the consensus of public opinion, will
+it not add to the depression of the race if our children are made to
+feel that, however well educated they may be or exemplary as pupils, the
+color of their skin must debar them from entering avenues which are
+freely opened to the young girls of every other nationality."
+
+Mr. Thomas replied, "In considering this question, which is so much
+broader than a mere local question, I have tried to look beyond the life
+of the individual to the life of the race, and I find that it is through
+obstacles overcome, suffering endured and the tests of trial that
+strength is obtained, courage manifested and character developed. We are
+now passing through a crucial period in our race history and what we so
+much need is moral earnestness, strength of character and purpose to
+guide us through the rocks and shoals on which so many life barques have
+been stranded and wrecked."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Lasette, "I believe that we are capable of being more
+than light-hearted children of the tropics and I want our young people
+to gain more persistence in their characters, perseverance in their
+efforts and that esprit de corps, which shall animate us with higher,
+nobler and holier purpose in the future than we have ever known in the
+past; and while I am sorry for the parents who, for their children's
+sake, have fought against the entailed ignorance of the ages with such
+humble weapons as the washboard, flat iron and scrubbing brush, and who
+have gathered the crumbs from the humblest departments of labor, still I
+feel with Mr. Thomas that the mixing of the schools is a stride in the
+march of the nation, only we must learn how to keep step in the progress
+of the centuries."
+
+"I do not think that I fully comprehend you," Mr. Lomax replied.
+
+"Let me explain. I live in the 19th Ward. In that Ward are not a half
+dozen colored children. When my husband bought the land we were more
+than a mile from the business part of the city, but we were poor and the
+land was very cheap and my husband said that paying rent was like
+putting money in a sinking fund; so he resolved, even if it put us to a
+little disadvantage, that he would buy the tract of land where we now
+live. Before he did so, he called together a number of his
+acquaintances, pointed out to them the tract of land and told them how
+they might join with him in planting a small hamlet for themselves; but
+except the few colored neighbors we now have, no one else would join
+with us. Some said it was too far from their work, others that they did
+not wish to live among many colored people, and some suspected my
+husband of trying either to take the advantage of them, or of
+agrandising himself at their expense, and I have now dear friends who
+might have been living comfortably in their own homes, who, to-day, are
+crowded in tenement houses or renting in narrow alleys and little
+streets."
+
+"That's true," said Mrs. Larkins, "I am one of them. I wanted my husband
+to take up with your husband's offer, but he was one of those men who
+knew it all and he never seemed to think it possible that any colored
+man could see any clearer than he did. I knew your husband's head was
+level and I tried to persuade Mr. Larkins to take up with his offer, but
+he would not hear to it; said he knew his own business best, and shut me
+up by telling me that he was not going to let any woman rule over him;
+and here I am to-day, Larkins gone and his poor old widow scuffing night
+and day to keep soul and body together; but there are some men you
+couldn't beat anything into their heads, not if you took a sledge
+hammer. Poor fellow, he is gone now and I ought not to say anything agin
+him, but if he had minded me, I would have had a home over my head and
+some land under my feet; but it is no use to grieve over spilled milk.
+When he was living if I said, yes, he was always sure to say, no. One
+day I said to him when he was opposing me, the way we live is like the
+old saying, 'Pull Dick and pull devil,' and what do you think he said?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure, what was it?"
+
+"Why, he just looked at me and smiled and said, 'I am Dick.' Of course
+he meant that I was the other fellow."
+
+"But," said Mrs. Lasette, "this is a digression from our subject. What
+I meant to say is this, that in our Ward is an excellent school house
+with a half score of well equipped and efficient teachers. The former
+colored school house was a dingy looking building about a mile and a
+half away with only one young school teacher, who had, it is true,
+passed a creditable examination. Now, when my daughter saw that the
+children of all other nationalities, it mattered not how low and
+debasing might be their environments, could enter the school for which
+her father paid taxes, and that she was forced either to stay at home or
+to go through all weathers to an ungraded school, in a poorly ventilated
+and unevenly heated room, would not such public inequality burn into her
+soul the idea of race-inferiority? And this is why I look upon the mixed
+school as a right step in the right direction."
+
+"Taking this view of the matter I see the pertinence of your position on
+this subject. Do you know," continued Mr. Lomax,[7] his face lighting up
+with a fine enthusiasm, "that I am full of hope for the future of our
+people?"
+
+"That's more than I am," said Mrs. Larkins very coldly. "When you have
+summered and wintered them as I have, you will change your tune."
+
+"Oh, I hope not," he replied with an accent of distress in his voice.
+"You may think me a dreamer and enthusiast, but with all our faults I
+firmly believe that the Negro belongs to one of the best branches of the
+human race, and that he has a high and holy mission in the great drama
+of life. I do not think our God is a purposeless Being, but his ways are
+not as our ways are, and his thoughts are not our thoughts, and I dare
+not say 'Had I his wisdom or he my love,' the condition of humanity
+would be better. I prefer thinking that in the crucible of pain and
+apparent disaster, that we are held by the hand of a loving Father who
+is doing for us all, the best he can to fit us for companionship with
+him in the eternities, and with John G. Whittier, I feel:
+
+  Amid the maddening maze of things
+    When tossed by storm and flood,
+  To one fixed stake my spirit clings
+    I know that God is good.
+
+"I once questioned and doubted, but now I have learned to love and trust
+in 'Him whom the heavens must receive till the time of the restitution
+of all things.' By this trust I do not mean a lazy leaning on Providence
+to do for us what we have ability to do for ourselves. I think that our
+people need more to be taught how to live than to be constantly warned
+to get ready to die. As Brother Thomas said, we are now passing through
+a crucial period of our history and what we need is life--more abundant
+life in every fibre of our souls; life which will manifest itself in
+moral earnestness, vigor of purpose, strength of character and spiritual
+progression."
+
+"I do hope," said Mr. Thomas, "that as you are among us, you will impart
+some of your earnestness and enthusiasm to our young people."
+
+"As I am a new comer here, and it is said that the people of A.P., are
+very sensitive to criticism, though very critical themselves and rather
+set and conservative in their ways, I hope that I shall have the benefit
+of your experience in aiding me to do all I can to help the people among
+whom my lot is cast."
+
+"You are perfectly welcome to any aid I can give you. Just now some of
+us are interested in getting our people out of these wretched alleys and
+crowded tenement houses into the larger, freer air of the country. We
+want our young men to help us fight the battle against poverty,
+ignorance, degradation, and the cold, proud scorn of society. Before our
+public lands are all appropriated, I want our young men and women to get
+homesteads, and to be willing to endure privations in order to place our
+means of subsistence on a less precarious basis. The land is a basis of
+power, and like Anteus in the myth, we will never have our full measure
+of material strength till we touch the earth as owners of the soil. And
+when we get the land we must have patience and perseverance enough to
+hold it."
+
+"In one of our Western States is a city which suggests the idea of
+Aladdin's wonderful lamp. Where that city now stands was once the
+homestead of a colored man who came from Virginia and obtained it under
+the homestead law. That man has since been working as a servant for a
+man who lives on 80 acres of his former section, and who has plotted the
+rest for the city of C."
+
+"How did he lose it?"
+
+"When he came from the South the country was new and female labor in
+great demand. His wife could earn $1.50 a day, and instead of moving on
+his land, he remained about forty miles away, till he had forfeited his
+claim, and it fell into the hands of the present proprietor. Since then
+our foresight has been developing and some months since in travelling in
+that same State, I met a woman whose husband had taken up a piece of
+land and was bringing it under cultivation. She and her children
+remained in town where they could all get work, and transmit him help
+and in a few years, I expect, they will be comfortably situated in a
+home owned by their united efforts."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+
+What next? was the question Mr. Thomas was revolving in his mind, when a
+knock was heard at his door, and he saw standing on the threshold, one
+of his former pupils.
+
+"Well, Charley, how does the world use you? Everything going on
+swimmingly?"
+
+"Oh, no indeed. I have lost my situation."
+
+"How is that? You were getting on so well. Mr. Hazleton seemed to be
+perfectly satisfied with you, and I thought that you were quite a
+favorite in the establishment. How was it that you lost your place?"
+
+"I lost it through the meanness of Mr. Mahler."
+
+"Mr. Mahler, our Superintendent of public schools?"
+
+"Yes, it was through him that I lost my situation."
+
+"Why, what could you have done to offend him?"
+
+"Nothing at all; I never had an unpleasant word with him in my life."
+
+"Do explain yourself. I cannot see why he should have used any influence
+to deprive you of your situation."
+
+"He had it in his power to do me a mean, low-life trick, and he did it,
+and I hope to see the day when I will be even with him," said the lad,
+with a flashing eye, while an angry flush mantled his cheek.
+
+"Do any of the family deal at Mr. Hazleton's store? Perhaps you gave
+some of them offence through neglect or thoughtlessness in dealing with
+them."
+
+"It was nothing of the kind. Mr. Mahler knew me and my mother. He knew
+her because she taught under him, and of course saw me often enough to
+know that I was her son, and so last week when he saw me in the store, I
+noticed that he looked very closely at me, and that in a few moments
+after he was in conversation with Mr. Hazleton. He asked him, 'if he
+employed a nigger for a cashier?' He replied, 'Of course not.' 'Well,'
+he said, 'you have one now.' After that they came down to the desk where
+I was casting up my accounts and Mr. Mahler asked, 'Is Mrs. Cooper your
+mother?' I answered, 'yes sir.' Of course I would not deny my mother.
+'Isn't your name Charley?'[8] and again I answered, yes; I could have
+resorted to concealment, but I would not lie for a piece of bread, and
+yet for mother's sake I sorely needed the place.
+
+"What did Mr. Hazleton say?"
+
+"Nothing, only I thought he looked at me a little embarrassed, just as
+any half-decent man might when he was about to do a mean and cruel
+thing. But that afternoon I lost my place. Mr. Hazleton said to me when
+the store was about to close, that he had no further use for me. Not
+discouraged, I found another place; but I believe that my evil genius
+found me out and that through him I was again ousted from that situation
+and now I am at my wits end."
+
+"But, Charley, were you not sailing under false colors?"
+
+"I do not think so, Mr. Thompson. I saw in the window an advertisement,
+'A boy wanted.' They did not say what color the boy must be and I
+applied for the situation and did my work as faithfully as I knew how.
+Mr. Hazleton seemed to be perfectly satisfied with my work and as he did
+not seek to know the antecedents of my family I did not see fit to
+thrust them gratuitously upon him. You know the hard struggle my poor
+mother has had to get along, how the saloon has cursed and darkened our
+home and I was glad to get anything to do by which I could honestly earn
+a dollar and help her keep the wolf from the door, and I tried to do my
+level best, but it made no difference; as soon as it was known that I
+had Negro blood in my veins door after door was closed against me; not
+that I was not honest, industrious, obliging and steady, but simply
+because of the blood in my veins."
+
+"I admit," said Mr. Thomas, trying to repress his indignation and speak
+calmly, "that it was a hard thing to be treated so for a cause over
+which you had not the least control, but, Charley, you must try to pick
+up courage."
+
+"Oh, it seems to me that my courage has all oozed out. I think that I
+will go away; maybe I can find work somewhere else. Had I been a convict
+from a prison there are Christian women here who would have been glad to
+have reached me out a helping hand and hailed my return to a life of
+honest industry as a blessed crowning of their labors of love; while I,
+who am neither a pauper nor felon, am turned from place after place
+because I belong to a race on whom Christendom bestowed the curse of
+slavery and under whose shadow has flourished Christless and inhuman
+caste prejudice. So I think that I had better go and start life afresh."
+
+"No, Charley, don't go away. I know you could pass as a white man; but,
+Charley, don't you know that to do so you must separate from your
+kindred and virtually ignore your mother? A mother, who, for your sake,
+would, I believe, take blood from every vein and strength from every
+nerve if it were necessary. If you pass into the white basis your mother
+can never be a guest in your home without betraying your origin; you
+cannot visit her openly and crown her with the respect she so well
+deserves without divulging the secret of your birth; and Charley, by
+doing so I do not think it possible that however rich or strong or
+influential you may be as a white man, that you can be as noble and as
+true a man as you will be if you stand in your lot without compromise or
+concealment, and feel that the feebler your mother's race is the closer
+you will cling to it. Charley, you have lately joined the church; your
+mission in the world is not to seek to be rich and strong, but because
+there is so much sin and misery in the world by it is to clasp the hand
+of Christ through faith and try to make the world better by your
+influence and gladder and brighter by your presence."
+
+"Mr. Thomas I try to be, and I hope I am a Christian, but if these
+prejudices are consistent with Christianity then I must confess that I
+do not understand it, and if it is I do not want it. Are these people
+Christians who open the doors of charitable institutions to sinners who
+are white and close them against the same class who are black? I do not
+call such people good patriots, let alone clear-sighted Christians. Why,
+they act as if God had done wrong in making a man black, and that they
+have never forgiven him and had become reconciled to the workmanship of
+his hands."
+
+"Charley, you are excited just now, and I think that you are making the
+same mistake that better educated men than you have done. You are
+putting Christianity and its abuses together. I do think, notwithstanding
+all its perversions, and all the rubbish which has gathered around its
+simplicity and beauty, that Christianity is the world's best religion.
+I know that Christ has been wounded in what should have been the house
+of his friends; that the banner of his religion which is broad enough
+to float over the wide world with all its sin and misery, has been
+drenched with the blood of persecution, trampled in the mire of slavery
+and stained by the dust of caste proscription; but I believe that men
+are beginning more fully to comprehend the claims of the gospel of
+Jesus Christ. I am not afraid of what men call infidelity. I hold the
+faith which I profess, to be too true, too sacred and precious to be
+disturbed by every wave of wind and doubt. Amid all the religious
+upheavals of the Nineteenth Century, I believe God is at the helm, that
+there are petrifactions of creed and dogma that are to [be] broken up,
+not by mere intellectual speculations, but by the greater solvent of
+the constraining love of Christ, and it is for this that I am praying,
+longing and waiting. Let schoolmen dispute and contend, the faith for
+which I most ardently long and earnestly contend, is a faith which works
+by love and purifies the soul."
+
+"Mr. Thomas, I believe that there is something real about your religion,
+but some of these white Christians do puzzle me awfully. Oh, I think
+that I will go. I am sick and tired of the place. Everything seems to be
+against me."
+
+"No, Charley; stay for your mother's sake. I know a noble and generous
+man who is brave enough to face a vitiated public opinion, and rich
+enough to afford himself the luxury of a good conscience. I shall tell
+him your story and try to interest him in your behalf. Will you stay?"
+
+"I certainly will if he will give me any chance to get my living and
+help my mother."
+
+"It has been said that everything has two handles, and if you take it by
+the wrong handle it will be too hard to hold."
+
+"I should like to know which is the right handle to this prejudice
+against color."
+
+"I do not think that there is prejudice against color in this country."
+
+"No prejudice against color!" said Charley Cooper,[9] opening his eyes
+with sudden wonder. "What was it that dogged my steps and shut door
+after door against me? Wasn't that prejudice against color?"
+
+"Whose color, Charley? Surely not yours, for you are whiter than several
+of Mr. Hazleton's clerks. Do you see in your case it was not prejudice
+against color?"
+
+"What was it, then?"
+
+"It was the information that you were connected by blood with a once
+enslaved and despised people on whom society had placed its ban, and to
+whom slavery and a low social condition had given a heritage of scorn,
+and as soon as he found out that you were connected with that race, he
+had neither the manliness nor the moral courage to say, the boy is
+capable and efficient. I see no cause why he should be dismissed for the
+crimes of his white ancestors. I heard an eminent speaker once say that
+some people would sing, 'I can smile at Satan's rage, and face a
+frowning world,' when they hadn't courage enough to face their next door
+neighbor on a moral question."
+
+"I think that must be the case with Mr. Hazleton."
+
+"I once used to despise such men. I have since learned to pity them."
+
+"I don't see what you find to pity in Mr. Hazleton, unless it is his
+meanness."
+
+"Well, I pity him for that. I think there never was slave more cowed
+under the whip of his master than he is under the lash of public
+opinion. The Negro was not the only one whom slavery subdued to the
+pliancy of submission. Men fettered the slave and cramped their own
+souls, denied him knowledge and then darkened their own spiritual
+insight, and the Negro, poor and despised as he was, laid his hands upon
+American civilization and has helped to mould its character. It is God's
+law. As ye sow, so shall ye reap, and men cannot sow avarice and
+oppression without reaping the harvest of retribution. It is a dangerous
+thing to gather
+
+  The flowers of sin that blossom
+    Around the borders of hell."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+
+"I never want to go to that school again," said Annette entering Mrs.
+Lasette's sitting room, throwing down her books on the table and looking
+as if she were ready to burst into tears.
+
+"What is the matter now, my dear child? You seem to be all out of
+sorts."
+
+"I've had a fuss with that Mary Joseph."
+
+"Mary Joseph, the saloon-keeper's daughter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How did it happen?"
+
+"Yesterday in changing seats, the teacher put us together according to
+the first letter in our last names. You know that I, comes next to J;
+but there wasn't a girl in the room whose name begins with I, and so as
+J comes next, she put Mary Joseph and myself together."
+
+"Ireland and Africa, and they were not ready for annexation?"
+
+"No, and never will be, I hope."
+
+"Never is a long day, Annette, but go on with your story."
+
+"Well, after the teacher put her in the seat next to me she began to
+wriggle and squirm and I asked her if anything was biting her, because
+if there was, I did not want it to get on me."
+
+"Oh, Annette, what a girl you are; why did you notice her? What did she
+say?"
+
+"She said if there was, it must have got there since the teacher put
+her on that seat, and it must have come from me."
+
+"Well, Mary Joseph knows how to scratch as well as you do."
+
+"Yes, she is a real scratch cat."
+
+"And what are you, my dear; a pattern saint?"
+
+"No," said Annette, as the ruefulness of her face relaxed into a smile,
+"but that isn't all; when I went to eat my lunch, she said she wasn't
+used to eating with niggers. Then I asked her if her mother didn't eat
+with the pigs in the old country, and she said that she would rather eat
+with them than to eat with me, and then she called me a nigger and I
+called her a poor white mick."
+
+"Oh, Annette, I am so sorry; I am afraid that trouble may come out of
+this fuss, and then it is so wrong and unlady-like for you to be
+quarrelling that way. Do you know how old you are?"
+
+"I am almost fourteen years old."
+
+"Where was the teacher all this time? Did she know anything about it?"
+
+"No; she was out of the room part of the time, but I don't think she
+likes colored people, because last week when Joe Smith was cutting up in
+school, she made him get up and sit alongside of me to punish him."
+
+"She should not have done so, but I don't suppose she thought for one
+moment how it looked."
+
+"I don't know, but when I told grandma about it, Mrs. Larkins was in the
+room, and she said if she had done a child of hers so, she would have
+gone there and sauced her head off; but grandma said that she would not
+notice it; that the easiest way is the best."
+
+"I think that your grandmother was right; but what did Joe say?"
+
+He said that the teacher didn't spite him; that he would as lieve sit by
+me as any girl in school, and that he liked girls."
+
+"A little scamp."
+
+"He says he likes girls because they are so jolly."
+
+"But tell me all about Mary Joseph."
+
+"Well, a mean old thing, she went and told her horrid old father, and
+just as I was coming along he took hold of my arm and said he had heard
+that I had called his daughter, Miss Mary Joseph, a poor white mick and
+that if I did it again he would give me a good thrashing, and that for
+two pins he would do it then."
+
+"What next?"
+
+"I guess I felt like Mrs. Larkins does when she says her Guinea gets up.
+My Guinea was up but I was afraid to show it. Oh, but I do hate these
+Irish. I don't like them for anything. Grandmother says that an Irishman
+is only a negro turned wrong side out, and I told her so yesterday
+morning when she was fussing with me."
+
+"Say, rather, when we were fussing together; I don't think the fault was
+all on her side."
+
+"But, Mrs. Lasette, she had no business calling me a nigger."
+
+"Of course not; but would you have liked it [any] better if she had
+called you a negro?"
+
+"No; I don't want her to call me anything of the kind, neither negro nor
+nigger. She shan't even call me black."
+
+"But, Annette, are you not black?"
+
+"I don't care if I am, she shan't call me so."
+
+"But suppose you were to say to Miss Joseph, 'How white your face is,'
+do you suppose she would get angry because you said that she looked
+white?"
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"But suppose you met her hurrying to school, and you said to her, how
+red and rosy you look this morning, would that make her angry?"
+
+"I don't suppose that it would."
+
+"But suppose she would say to you, 'Annette, how black your face is this
+morning,' how would you feel?"
+
+"I should feel like slapping her."
+
+"Why so; do you think because Miss Joseph----"
+
+"Don't call her Miss, she is so mean and hateful."
+
+"But that don't hinder her from being Miss Joseph; If she is rude and
+coarse, that is no reason why I should not have good manners."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Lasette you are too sweet for anything. I wish I was like
+you."
+
+"Never mind my sweetness; that is not to the point. Will you listen to
+me, my dear?"
+
+"Of course I will. I could listen to you all night."
+
+"Well, if it were not for signs there's no mistaking I should think you
+had a lot of Irish blood in your veins, and had kissed the blarney
+stone."
+
+"No I haven't and if I had I would try to let----"
+
+"Hush, my child; how you do rattle on. Do you think because Miss Joseph
+is white that she is any better than you are."
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"But don't you think that she can see and hear a little better than you
+can?"
+
+"Why, no; what makes you ask such a funny question?"
+
+"Never mind, just answer me a few more questions. Don't you think if you
+and she had got to fighting that she would have whipped you because she
+is white?"
+
+"Why, of course not. Didn't she try to get the ruler out of my hand and
+didn't because I was stronger."
+
+"But don't you think she is smarter than you are and gets her lessons
+better."
+
+"Now you are shouting."
+
+"Why, Annette, where in the world did you get that slang?"
+
+"Why, Mrs. Lasette, I hear the boys saying it in the street, and the
+girls in Tennis Court all say it, too. Is there any harm in it?"
+
+"It is slang, my child, and a young lady should never use slang. Don't
+use it in private and you will not be apt to use it in public. However
+humble or poor a person may be, there is no use in being coarse and
+unrefined."
+
+"But what harm is there in it?"
+
+"I don't say that there is any, but I don't think it nice for young
+ladies to pick up all sorts of phrases in the street and bring them into
+the home. The words may be innocent in themselves, but they may not have
+the best associations, and it is safer not to use them. But let us
+return to Miss Joseph. You do not think that she can see or hear any
+better than you can, learn her lessons any quicker than you can, and
+when it comes to a trial of strength that she is stronger than you are,
+now let me ask you one more question. Who made Miss Joseph?"
+
+"Why, the Lord, of course."
+
+"And who made you?"
+
+"He made me, too."
+
+"Are you sure that you did not make yourself?"
+
+"Why, of course not," said Annette with an accent of wonder in her
+voice.
+
+"Does God ever make any mistakes?"
+
+"Why, no!"
+
+"Then if any one calls you black, why should you get angry? You say it
+would not make Miss Joseph angry to say she looked white, or red and
+rosy."
+
+"I don't know; I know I don't like it and it makes me mad."
+
+"Now, let me explain the reason why it makes you angry to be called
+black. Suppose I were to burn my hand in that stove, what would I have
+on my hand?"
+
+"A sore place."
+
+"If it were your hand, what would you do?"
+
+"I would put something on it, wrap it up to keep from getting cold into
+it and try to get it well as soon as I could."
+
+"Well, that would be a very sensible way of dealing with it. In this
+country, Annette, color has been made a sore place; it has been
+associated with slavery, poverty and ignorance. You cannot change your
+color, but you can try to change the association connected with our
+complexions. Did slavery force a man to be servile and submissive? Learn
+to hold up your head and respect yourself. Don't notice Mary Joseph's
+taunts; if she says things to tease you don't you let her see that she
+has succeeded. Learn to act as if you realized that you were born into
+this world the child of the Ruler of the universe, that this is his
+world and that you have as much right in it as she has. I think it was
+Gilbert Haven, a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a man for
+whose tombstone I do not think America has any marble too white or any
+laurel too green, who saw on his travels a statue of Cleopatra, which
+suggested to him this thought, 'I am black, but comely, the sun has
+looked down upon me, but I will make you who despise me feel that I am
+your superior,' and, Annette, I want you to be so noble, true and pure
+that if everybody should hate you, that no one could despise you. No,
+Annette, if Miss Joseph ever attempts to quarrel with you don't put
+yourself on the same level by quarreling with her. I knew her parents
+when they were very poor; when a half dozen of them slept in one room.
+He has made money by selling liquor; he is now doing business in one of
+the most valuable pieces of property I see in East L street. He has been
+a curse, and his saloon a nuisance in that street. He has gone up in
+property and even political influence, but oh, how many poor souls have
+gone down, slain by strong drink and debauchery."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+
+True to his word, Mr. Thomas applied to Mr. Hastings, the merchant, of
+whom he had spoken to his young friend. He went to his counting-room and
+asked for a private interview, which was readily granted. They had
+kindred intellectual and literary tastes and this established between
+them a free masonry of mind which took no account of racial differences.
+
+"I have a favor to ask," said Mr. Thomas, "can you spare me a few
+moments?"
+
+"I am at your service," Mr. Hasting replied, "what can I do for you?"
+
+"I have," he said, "a young friend who is honest and industrious and
+competent to fill the place of clerk or cashier in your store. He has
+been a cashier for Hazleton & Co., and while there gave entire
+satisfaction."
+
+"Why did he leave?"
+
+"I cannot say, because he was guilty of a skin not colored like your
+own, but because a report was brought to Mr. Hazleton that he had Negro
+blood in his veins."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"He summarily dismissed him."
+
+"What a shame!"
+
+"Yes, it was a shame, but this pride of caste dwarfs men's moral
+perception so that it prepares them to do a number of contemptible
+things which, under other circumstances, they would scorn to do."
+
+"Yes, it is so, and I am sorry to see it."
+
+"There are men, Mr. Hastings, who would grow hotly indignant if you
+would say that they are not gentlemen who would treat a Negro in a
+manner which would not be recognized as fair, even by ruffians of the
+ring, for, I believe, it is their code of honor not to strike a man when
+he is down; but with respect to the colored man, it seems to be a
+settled policy with some not only to push him down, but to strike him
+when he is down. But I must go; I came to ask a favor and it is not
+right to trespass on your time."
+
+"No; sit still. I have a little leisure I can give you. My fall trade
+has not opened yet and I am not busy. I see and deplore these things of
+which you complain, but what can be done to help it?"
+
+"Mr. Hastings, you see them, and I feel them, and I fear that I am
+growing morbid over them, and not only myself, but other educated men
+of my race, and that, I think, is a thing to be deprecated. Between the
+white people and the colored people of this country there is a unanimity
+of interest and I know that our interests and duties all lie in one
+direction. Can men corrupt and intimidate voters in the South without a
+reflex influence being felt in the North? Is not the depression of labor
+in the South a matter of interest to the North? You may protect yourself
+from what you call the pauper of Europe, but you will not be equally
+able to defend yourself from the depressed laborer of the new South, and
+as an American citizen, I dread any turn of the screw which will lower
+the rate of wages here; and I like to feel as an American citizen that
+whatever concerns the nation concerns me. But I feel that this prejudice
+against my race compresses my soul, narrows my political horizon and
+makes me feel that I am an alien in the land of my birth. It meets me in
+the church, it confronts me in business and I feel its influence in
+almost every avenue of my life."
+
+"I wish, Mr. Thomas, that some of the men who are writing and talking
+about the Negro problem would only come in contact with the thoughtful
+men of your race. I think it would greatly modify their views."
+
+"Yes, you know us as your servants. The law takes cognizance of our
+crimes. Your charitable institutions of our poverty, but what do any of
+you know of our best and most thoughtful men and women? When we write
+how many of you ever read our books and papers or give yourselves any
+trouble to come near us as friends and help us? Even some of your
+professed Christians are trying to set us apart as if we were social
+lepers."
+
+"You draw a dark picture. I confess that I feel pained at the condition
+of affairs in the South, but what can we do in the South?"
+
+"Set the South a better example. But I am hindering you in your
+business."
+
+"Not at all. I want to see things from the same standpoint that you do."
+
+"Put yourself then in my place. You start both North and South from the
+premise that we are an inferior race and as such you have treated us.
+Has not the consensus of public opinion said for ages, 'No valor redeems
+our race, no social advancement nor individual development wipes off the
+ban which clings to us'; that our place is on the lowest round of the
+social ladder; that at least, in part of the country we are too low for
+the equal administrations of religion and the same dispensations of
+charity and a fair chance in the race of life?"
+
+"You bring a heavy verdict against us. I hardly think that it can be
+sustained. Whatever our motives may have been, we have been able to
+effect in a few years a wonderful change in the condition of the Negro.
+He has freedom and enfranchisement and with these two great rights he
+must work out his social redemption and political solution. If his means
+of education have been limited, a better day is dawning upon him. Doors
+once closed against him in the South are now freely opened to him, and I
+do not think that there ever was a people who freed their slaves who
+have given as much for their education as we have, and my only hope is
+that the moral life of the race will keep pace with its intellectual
+growth. You tell me to put myself in your place. I think if I were a
+colored young man that I would develop every faculty and use every power
+which God had given me for the improvement and development of my race.
+And who among us would be so blind and foolish as to attempt to keep
+down an enlightened people who were determined to rise in the scale of
+character and condition? No, Mr. Thomas, while you blame us for our
+transgressions and shortcomings, do not fail to do all you can to rouse
+up all the latent energies of your young men to do their part worthily
+as American citizens and to add their quota to the strength and progress
+of the nation."
+
+"I am conscious of the truth and pertinence of your remarks, but bear
+with me just a few moments while I give an illustration of what I mean."
+
+"Speak on, I am all attention. The subject you bring before me is of
+too vital importance to be constantly ignored."
+
+"I have a friend who is presiding elder in the A.M.E. Church and his
+wife, I think, is capable of being a social and intellectual accession
+in any neighborhood in which they might live. He rented a house in the
+city of L. and being of a fair complexion I suppose the lessee rented to
+him without having a suspicion of his race connection. When it was
+ascertained that he and his family were colored, he was ordered to
+leave, and this man, holding among the ministers of that city the
+position of ambassador for Christ, was ordered out of the house on
+account of the complexion of his family. Was there not a screw loose in
+the religious sentiment of that city which made such an act possible? A
+friend of mine who does mission work in your city, some time since,
+found a young woman in the slums and applied at the door of a midnight
+mission for fallen women, and asked if colored girls could be received,
+and was curtly answered, 'no.' For her in that mission there was no room.
+The love of Christ constrained no hand to strive to rescue her from the
+depths of degradation. The poor thing went from bad to worse till at
+last, wrecked and blighted, she went down to an early grave the victim
+of strong drink. That same lady found on her mission a white girl;
+seeing a human soul adrift, regardless of color, she went, in company
+with some others, to that same mission with the poor castaway; to her
+the door was opened without delay and ready admittance granted. But I
+might go on reciting such instances until you would be weary of hearing
+and I of relating them; but I appeal to you as a patriot and Christian,
+is it not fearfully unwise to keep alive in freedom the old animosities
+of slavery? To-day the Negro shares citizenship with you. He is not
+arraying himself against your social order; his hands are not dripping
+with dynamite, nor is he waving in your face the crimson banners of
+anarchy, but he is increasing in numbers and growing in intelligence,
+and is it not madness and folly to subject him to social and public
+inequalities, which are calculated to form and keep alive a hatred of
+race as a reaction against pride of caste?"
+
+"Mr. Thomas, you have given me a new view of the matter. To tell you the
+truth, we have so long looked upon the colored man as a pliable and
+submissive being that we have never learned to look at any hatred on his
+part as an element of danger, and yet I should be sorry to know that by
+our Southern supineness we were thoughtlessly helping create a black
+Ireland in our Gulf States, that in case the fires of anarchy should
+ever sweep through our land, that a discontented and disaffected people
+in our midst might be as so much fuel to fire."
+
+"But really I have been forgetting my errand. Have you any opening in
+your store for my young friend?"
+
+"I have only one vacancy, and that is the place of a utility man."
+
+"What are the duties of that position?"
+
+"Almost anything that comes to hand; tying up bundles, looking after the
+mails, scattering advertisements. A factotum whose work lies here, there
+and everywhere."
+
+"I am confident that he will accept the situation and render you
+faithful service."
+
+"Well, then send him around tomorrow and if there is anything in him I
+may be able to do better by him when the fall trade opens."
+
+And so Charley Cooper was fortunate enough in his hour of perplexity to
+find a helping hand to tide him over a difficult passage in his life.
+Gratefully and faithfully did he serve Mr. Hastings, who never regretted
+the hour when he gave the struggling boy such timely assistance. The
+discipline of the life through which he was passing as the main stay of
+his mother, matured his mind and imparted to it a thoughtfulness past
+his years. Instead of wasting his time in idle and pernicious pleasure,
+he learned how to use his surplus dollar and how to spend his leisure
+hours, and this knowledge told upon his life and character. He was not
+very popular in society. Young men with cigars in their mouths and the
+perfume of liquor on their breaths, shrugged their shoulders and called
+him a milksop because he preferred the church and Sunday school to the
+liquor saloon and gambling dens. The society of P. was cut up and
+divided into little sets and coteries; there was an amount of
+intelligence among them, but it ran in narrow grooves and scarcely
+one[10] intellect seemed to tower above the other, and if it did, no
+people knew better how to ignore a rising mind than the society people
+of A.P. If the literary aspirant did not happen to be of their set. As
+to talent, many of them were pleasant and brilliant conversationalists,
+but in the world of letters scarcely any of them were known or
+recognized outside of their set. They had leisure, a little money and
+some ability, but they lacked the perseverance and self-denial
+necessary to enable them to add to the great resources of natural
+thought. They had narrowed their minds to the dimensions of their set
+and were unprepared to take expansive[11] views of life and duty. They
+took life as a holiday and the lack of noble purposes and high and holy
+aims left its impress upon their souls and deprived them of that joy and
+strength which should have crowned their existence and given to their
+lives its "highest excellence and beauty."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+
+
+Two years have elapsed since we left Annette recounting her school
+grievances to Mrs. Lasette. She has begun to feel the social contempt
+which society has heaped upon the colored people, but she has determined
+not to succumb to it. There is force in the character of that fiery,
+impetuous and impulsive girl, and her school experience is bringing it
+out. She has been bending all her mental energies to compete for the
+highest prize at the commencement of her school, from which she expects
+to graduate in a few weeks. The treatment of the saloon-keeper's
+daughter, and that of other girls of her ilk, has stung her into
+strength. She feels that however despised her people may be, that a
+monopoly of brains has not been given to the white race. Mr. Thomas has
+encouraged her efforts, and taught her to believe that not only is her
+own honor at stake as a student, but that as a representative of her
+branch of the human race, she is on the eve of winning, or losing, not
+only for herself, but for others. This view of the matter increases her
+determination and rouses up all the latent energies of her nature, and
+she labors day and night to be a living argument of the capability in
+her race. For other girls who will graduate in that school, there will
+be open doors, and unclosed avenues, while she knows that the color of
+her skin will bar against her the doors of workshops, factories and
+school rooms, and yet Mr. Thomas, knowing all the discouragements around
+her path, has done what he could to keep her interest in her studies
+from flagging. He knows that she has fine abilities, but that they must
+be disciplined by trial and endeavor before her life can be rounded by
+success and triumph. He has seen several of her early attempts at
+versification; pleased and even delighted with them, he has shown them
+to a few of his most intellectual friends. Eager and earnest for the
+elevation of the colored people, he has been pained at the coldness with
+which they have been received.
+
+"I do not call that poetry," said one of the most intelligent women of
+A.P.
+
+"Neither do I see anything remarkable about her," said another.
+
+"I did not," said Mr. Thomas, "bring you the effusions of an
+acknowledged poet, but I think that the girl has fine ability, which
+needs encouragement and recognition."
+
+But his friends could not see it; they were very charry of their
+admiration, lest their judgment should be found at fault, and then it
+was so much easier to criticise than it was to heartily admire; and they
+knew it seemed safer to show their superior intelligence by dwelling on
+the defects, which would necessarily have an amount of crudeness in them
+than to look beneath the defects for the suggestions of beauty, strength
+and grace which Mr. Thomas saw in these unripe, but promising effusions.
+It seemed perfectly absurd with the surroundings of Tennis Court to
+expect anything grand or beautiful [to] develop in its midst; but with
+Annette, poetry was a passion born in her soul, and it was as natural
+for her to speak in tropes and figures as it was for others to talk in
+plain, common prose. Mr. Thomas called her "our inveterate poet," and
+encouraged her, but the literary aspirants took scarcely any interest in
+the girl whom they left to struggle on as best she might. In her own
+home she was doomed to meet with lack of encouragement and appreciation
+from her relatives and grandmother's friends. One day her aunt, Eliza
+Hanson, was spending the day with her mother, and Annette showed her
+some of her verses and said to her, "that is one of my best pieces."
+
+"Oh, you have a number of best pieces," said her aunt, carelessly. "Can
+you cook a beefsteak?"
+
+"I suppose I could if I tried."
+
+"Well, you had better try than to be trying to string verses together.
+You seem to think that there must be something very great about you. I
+know where you want to get. You want to get among the upper tens, but
+you haven't got style enough about you for that."
+
+"That's just what I tell her," said her grandmother. "She's got too many
+airs for a girl in her condition. She talks about writing a book, and
+she is always trying to make up what she calls poetry. I expect that she
+will go crazy some of these days. She is all the time talking to
+herself, and I just think it is a sin for her to be so much taken up
+with her poetry."
+
+"You had better put her to work; had she not better go out to service?"
+
+"No, I am going to let her graduate first."
+
+"What's the use of it? When she's through, if she wants to teach, she
+will have to go away."
+
+"Yes, I know that, but Mrs. Lasette has persuaded me to let Annette
+graduate, and I have promised that I would do so, and besides I think to
+take Annette from school just now would almost break her heart."
+
+"Well, mother, that is just like you; you will work yourself almost to
+death to keep Annette in school, and when she is through what good will
+it do her?"
+
+"Maybe something will turn up that you don't see just now. When a good
+thing turns up if a person ain't ready for it they can't take hold of
+it."
+
+"Well, I hope a good husband will turn up for my Alice."
+
+"But maybe the good husband won't turn up for Annette."
+
+"That is well said, for they tell me that Annette is not very popular,
+and that some of the girls are all the time making fun of her."
+
+"Well, they had better make fun of themselves and their own bad manners.
+Annette is poor and has no father to stand by her, and I cannot
+entertain like some of their parents can, but Annette, with all her
+faults, is as good as any of them. Talk about the prejudice of the white
+people, I think there is just as much prejudice among some colored as
+there is among them, only we do not get the same chance to show it; we
+are most too mixed up and dependent on one another for that." Just then
+Mrs. Lasette entered the room and Mrs. Hanson, addressing her, said, "We
+were just discussing Annette's prospects. Mother wants to keep Annette
+at school till she graduates, but I think she knows enough now to teach
+a country school and it is no use for mother to be working as she does
+to keep Annette in school for the sake of letting her graduate. There
+are lots of girls in A.P. better off than she who have never graduated,
+and I don't see that mother can afford to keep Annette at school any
+longer."
+
+"But, Eliza, Annette is company for me and she does help about the
+house."
+
+"I don't think much of her help; always when I come home she has a book
+stuck under her nose."
+
+"Annette," said Mrs. Lasette, "is a favorite of mine; I have always a
+warm place in my heart for her, and I really want to see the child do
+well. In my judgment I do not think it advisable to take her from school
+before she graduates. If Annette were indifferent about her lessons and
+showed no aptitude for improvement I should say as she does not
+appreciate education enough to study diligently and has not aspiration
+enough to keep up with her class, find out what she is best fitted for
+and let her be instructed in that calling for which she is best
+adapted."
+
+"I think," said Mrs. Hanson, "you all do wrong in puffing up Annette
+with the idea that she is something extra. You think, Mrs. Lasette, that
+there is something wonderful about Annette, but I can't see it, and I
+hear a lot of people say she hasn't got good sense."
+
+"They do not understand the child."
+
+"They all say that she is very odd and queer and often goes out into the
+street as if she never saw a looking glass. Why, Mrs. Miller's daughter
+just laughed till she was tired at the way Annette was dressed when she
+went to call on an acquaintance of hers. Why, Annette just makes herself
+a perfect laughing stock."
+
+"Well, I think Mary Miller might have found better employment than
+laughing at her company."
+
+"Now, let me tell you, Mary Miller don't take her for company, and that
+very evening Annette was at my house, just next door, and when Mary
+Miller went to church she never asked her to go along with her, although
+she belongs to the same church."
+
+"I am sorry to say it," said grandmother Harcourt, "but your Alice
+hardly ever comes to see Annette, and never asks her to go anywhere with
+her, but may be in the long run Annette will come out better than some
+who now look down upon her. It is a long road that has no turn and
+Annette is like a singed cat; she is better than she looks."
+
+"I think," said Mrs. Lasette, "while Annette is very bright and
+intelligent as a pupil, she has been rather slow in developing in some
+other directions. She lacks tact, is straightforward to bluntness and
+has not any style about her and little or no idea of company manners,
+but she is never coarse nor rude. I never knew her to read a book whose
+author I would blush to name, and I never heard her engage in any
+conversation I would shrink to hear repeated. I don't think there is a
+girl of purer lips in A.P. than Annette, and I do not think your set, as
+you call it, has such a monopoly of either virtue or intelligence that
+you can afford to ridicule and depress any young soul who does not
+happen to come up to your social standard. Where dress and style are
+passports Annette may be excluded, but where brain and character count
+Annette will gain admittance. I fear," said Mrs. Lasette, rising to go,
+"that many a young girl has gone down in the very depths who might have
+been saved if motherly women, when they saw them unloved and lonely, had
+reached out to them a helping hand and encouraged them to live useful
+and good lives. We cry am I my sister's keeper? [I?] will not wipe the
+blood off our hands if through pride and selfishness we have stabbed by
+our neglect souls we should have helped by our kindness. I always feel
+for young girls who are lonely and neglected in large cities and are in
+danger of being ensnared by pretended sympathies and false friendship,
+and, to-day, no girl is more welcome at any social gathering than
+Annette."
+
+"Mrs. Lasette," said Mrs. Hanson, "you are rich and you can do as you
+choose in A.P. You can set the fashion."
+
+"No; I am not rich, but I hope that I will always be able to lend a
+hand to any lonely girl who is neglected, slighted and forgotten while
+she is trying to do right, who comes within my reach while I live in
+A.P. Good morning."
+
+"Annette," said Mrs. Hanson,[12] "has a champion who will stand by her."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Harcourt,[13] "Anna is true as steel; the kind of woman
+you can tie to. When my great trouble came, she was good as gold, and
+when my poor heart was almost breaking, she always had a kind word for
+me. I wish we had ten thousand like her."
+
+"Well, mother, I must go, but if Annette does graduate don't let her go
+on the stage looking like a fright. General H's daughter has a beautiful
+new silk dress and a lovely hat which she got just a few weeks before
+her mother's death; as she has gone in black she wants to sell it, and
+if you say so, and will pay for it on installments, I can get if for
+Annette, and I think with a little alteration it would be splendid for
+her graduation dress."
+
+"No; Eliza, I can't afford it."
+
+"Why, mother, Annette will need something nice for the occasion, and it
+will not cost any more than what you intend to pay for her dress and
+hat. Why not take them?"
+
+"Because Annette is not able to wear them. Suppose she had that one fine
+dress and hat, would she not want more to match with them? I don't want
+her to learn to dress in a style that she cannot honestly afford. I
+think this love of dress is the ruination of many a young girl. I think
+this straining after fine things when you are not able to get them, is
+perfectly ridiculous. I believe in cutting your coat according to your
+cloth. I saw Mrs. Hempstead's daughter last Sunday dressed up in a
+handsome light silk, and a beautiful spring hat, and if she or her
+mother would get sick to-morrow, they would, I suppose, soon be objects
+of public charity or dependent on her widowed sister, who is too proud
+to see her go to the poor house; and this is just the trouble with a lot
+of people; they not only have their own burdens to bear but somebody
+else's. You may call me an old fogy, but I would rather live cheap and
+dress plain than shirk my burdens because I had wasted when they had
+saved. You and John Hanson are both young and have got your health and
+strength, and instead of buying sealskins, and velvets and furbelows,
+you had better be laying up for a rainy day. You have no more need for a
+sealskin cloak than a cat has for a catechism. Now you do as you please,
+I have had my say."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI
+
+
+It has been quite a length of time since we left Mr. Thomas and his
+young friend facing an uncertain future. Since then he has not only been
+successful in building up a good business for himself, but in opening
+the gates to others. His success has not inflated him with pride.
+Neither has he become self-abashed and isolated from others less
+fortunate, who need his counsel and sympathy. Generous and noble in his
+character, he was conservative enough to cling to the good of the past
+and radical enough to give hospitality to every new idea which was
+calculated to benefit and make life noble and better. Mr. Thomas, in
+laying the foundation of his education, was thoughtful enough to enter
+a manual labor school, where he had the double advantage of getting
+an education and learning a trade, through which he was enabled to
+rely on himself without asking aid from any one, which in itself was
+an education in manliness, self-respect and self-reliance, that he
+could not have obtained had he been the protege of the wealthiest
+philanthropist in the land. As he had fine mechanical skill and
+ingenuity, he became an excellent carpenter. But it is one thing to have
+a trade and another thing to have an opportunity to exercise that trade.
+It was a time when a number of colored churches were being erected. To
+build large and even magnificent churches seemed to be a ruling passion
+with the colored people. Their homes might be very humble, their walls
+bare of pictured grace, but by united efforts they could erect large and
+handsome churches in which they had a common possession and it was one
+of the grand satisfactions of freedom that they were enabled to build
+their own churches and carry on their own business without being
+interfered with, and overlooked by a class of white ecclesiastics whose
+presence was a reminder of their implied inferiority. The church of
+which Mr. Thomas was a member was about to erect a costly edifice. The
+trustees would probably have willingly put the work in the hands of a
+colored man, had there been a sufficient number to have done the work,
+but they did not seem to remember that white prejudice had barred the
+Northern workshops against the colored man, that slavery, by degrading
+and monopolizing labor had been the means of educating colored men in
+the South to be good mechanics, and that a little pains and search on
+their part might have brought to light colored carpenters in the South
+who would have done the work as efficiently as those whom they employed,
+but as the trustees were not very farsighted men, they did the most
+available thing that came to hand; they employed a white man. Mr.
+Thomas' pastor applied to the master builder for a place for his
+parishioner.
+
+"Can you give employment to one of my members, on our church?" Rev.
+Mr. Lomax asked the master builder.
+
+"I would willingly do so, but I can not."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because my men would all rise up against it. Now, for my part, I have
+no prejudice against your parishioner, but my men will not work with a
+colored man. I would let them all go if I could get enough colored men
+to suit me just as well, but such is the condition of the labor market,
+that a man must either submit to a number of unpalatable things or run
+the risk of a strike and being boycotted. I think some of these men who
+want so much liberty for themselves have very little idea of it for
+other people."
+
+After this conversation the minister told Mr. Thomas the result of his
+interview with the master builder, and said,
+
+"I am very sorry; but it is as it is, and it can't be any better."
+
+"Do you mean by that that things are always going to remain as they
+are?"
+
+"I do not see any quick way out of it. This prejudice is the outgrowth
+of ages; it did not come in a day, nor do I expect that it will vanish
+in an hour."
+
+"Nor do I; but I do not think the best way for a people to mend their
+pastures is to sit down and bewail their fate."
+
+"No; we must be up and going for ourselves. White people will----"
+
+"White people," exclaimed Mr. Thomas somewhat impatiently. "Is there not
+a great deal of bosh in the estimate some of us have formed of white
+people. We share a common human feeling, from which the same cause
+produces the same effect. Why am I today a social Pariah, begging for
+work, and refused situation after situation? My father is a wealthy
+Southerner; he has several other sons who are inheritors of his name and
+heirs of his wealth. They are educated, cultured and occupy high social
+positions. Had I not as good a right to be well born as any of them? And
+yet, through my father's crime, I was doomed to the status of a slave
+with its heritage of ignorance, poverty and social debasement. Talk of
+the heathenism of Africa, of hostile tribes warring upon each other and
+selling the conquered foes into the hands of white men, but how much
+higher in the scale of moral progression was the white man who doomed
+his own child, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, to a life of
+slavery? The heathen could plead in his defence the fortunes of war, and
+the hostility of an opposing tribe, but the white man who enslaved his
+child warred upon his hapless offspring and wrote chattel upon his
+condition when his hand was too feeble to hurl aside the accursed hand
+and recognize no other ownership but God. I once felt bitterly on this
+subject, and although it is impossible for my father to make full
+reparation for the personal wrong inflicted on me, I owe him no grudge.
+Hating is poor employment for any rational being, but I am not prepared
+to glorify him at the expense of my mother's race. She was faithful to
+me when he deserted me to a life of ignorance and poverty, and although
+three-fourths of the blood in my veins belongs to my father's face, I
+feel a kinship with my mother's people that I do not with his, and I
+will defend that race from the aspersions of the meanest Negro hater in
+the land. Heathenism and civilization live side by side on American
+soil, but all the heathenism is not on the side of the Negro. Look at
+slavery and kukluxism with their meanness and crimes, mormonism with its
+vile abominations, lynch law with its burnings and hangings, our
+national policy in regard to the Indians and Chinese."
+
+"I do not think," said the minister, "that there is another civilized
+country in the world where men are lynched for real or supposed crimes
+outside of America."
+
+"The Negro need not bow his head like a bulrush in the presence of a
+race whose records are as stained by crime and dishonor as theirs. Let
+others decry the Negro, and say hard things about him, I am not prepared
+to join in the chorus of depreciation."
+
+After parting with the minister, Mr. Thomas resolved, if pluck and
+energy were of any avail, that he would leave no stone unturned in
+seeking employment. He searched the papers carefully for advertisements,
+walked from one workshop to the other looking for work, and was
+eventually met with a refusal which meant, no negro need apply. At last
+one day when he had tried almost every workshop in the place, he entered
+the establishment of Wm. C. Nell, an Englishman who had not been long
+enough in America to be fully saturated by its Christless and inhuman
+prejudices. He was willing to give Mr. Thomas work, and put tools in his
+hands, and while watching how deftly he handled them, he did not notice
+the indignant scowls on the faces of his workmen, and their murmurs of
+disapprobation as they uttered their dissatisfaction one to the other.
+At length they took off their aprons, laid down their tools and asked to
+be discharged from work.
+
+"Why, what does this mean?" asked the astounded Englishman.
+
+"It means that we will not work with a nigger."
+
+"Why, I don't understand? what is the matter with him?"
+
+"Why, there's nothing the matter, only he's a nigger, and we never put
+niggers on an equality with us, and we never will."
+
+"But I am a stranger in this country, and I don't understand you."
+
+"Well, he's a nigger, and we don't want niggers for nothing; would you
+have your daughter marry a nigger?"
+
+"Oh, go back to your work; I never thought of such a thing. I think the
+Negro must be an unfortunate man, and I do not wish my daughter to marry
+any unfortunate man, but if you do not want to work with him I will put
+him by himself; there is room enough on the premises; will that suit you
+any better?"
+
+"No; we won't work for a man who employs a nigger."
+
+The builder bit his lip; he had come to America hearing that it was a
+land of liberty but he had found an undreamed of tyranny which had
+entered his workshop and controlled his choice of workmen, and as much
+as he deprecated the injustice, it was the dictum of a vitiated public
+opinion that his field of occupation should be closed against the Negro,
+and he felt that he was forced, either to give up his business or submit
+to the decree.
+
+Mr. Thomas then thought, "my money is vanishing, school rooms and
+workshops are closed against me. I will not beg, and I can not resort to
+any questionable means for bread. I will now take any position or do any
+work by which I can make an honest living." Just as he was looking
+gloomily at the future an old school mate laid his hand upon his
+shoulder and said, "how do you do, old fellow? I have not seen you for a
+week of Sundays. What are you driving at now?"
+
+"Oh, nothing in particular. I am looking for work."
+
+"Well, now this is just the ticket. I have just returned from the
+Pacific coast and while I was there I did splendidly; everything I
+touched turned to gold, and now I have a good job on hand if you are not
+too squeamish to take it. I have just set up a tiptop restaurant and
+saloon, and I have some of the best merchants of the city as my
+customers, and I want a first rate clerk. You were always good at
+figures and if you will accept the place come with me right away. Since
+high license went into operation, I am making money hand over fist. It
+is just like the big fish eating up the little fish. I am doing a
+rushing business and I want you to do my clerking."
+
+The first thought which rushed into Mr. Thomas' mind was, "Is thy
+servant a dog that he should do this thing?" but he restrained his
+indignation and said,
+
+"No, Frank, I cannot accept your offer; I am a temperance man and a
+prohibitionist, and I would rather have my hands clean than to have them
+foul."
+
+"You are a greater milksop than I gave you credit for. Here you are
+hunting work, and find door after door closed against you, not because
+you are not but because you are colored, and here am I offering you easy
+employment and good wages and you refuse them."
+
+"Frank," said Mr. Thomas, "I am a poor man, but I would rather rise up
+early, and sit up late and eat the bread of carelessness, than to roll
+in wealth by keeping a liquor saloon, and I am determined that no
+drunkard shall ever charge me with having helped drag him down to
+misery, shame and death. No drunkard's wife shall ever lay the wreck of
+her home at my door."
+
+"My business," said Frank Miller, "is a legitimate one; there is money
+in it, and I am after that. If people will drink too much and make fools
+of themselves I can't help it; it is none of my business, and if I don't
+sell to them other people will. I don't think much of a man who does not
+know how to govern himself, but it is no use arguing with you when you
+are once set in your ways; good morning."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+
+It was a gala day in Tennis Court. Annette had passed a highly
+successful examination, and was to graduate from the normal school, and
+as a matter of course, her neighbors wanted to hear Annette "speak her
+piece" as they called the commencement theme, and also to see how she
+was going to behave before all "them people." They were, generally
+speaking, too unaspiring to feel envious toward any one of their race
+who excelled them intellectually, and so there was little or no jealousy
+of Annette in Tennis Court; in fact some of her neighbors felt a kind of
+pride in the thought that Tennis Court would turn out a girl who could
+stand on the same platform and graduate alongside of some of their
+employers' daughters. If they could not stand there themselves they were
+proud that one of their race could.
+
+"I feel," said one, "like the boy when some one threatened to slap off
+his face who said 'you can slap off my face, but I have a big brother
+and you can't slap off his face;'" and strange as it may appear, Annette
+received more encouragement from a class of honest-hearted but ignorant
+and well meaning people who knew her, than she did from some of the most
+cultured and intelligent people of A.P. Nor was it very strange; they
+were living too near the poverty, ignorance and social debasement of the
+past to have developed much race pride, and a glowing enthusiasm in its
+progress and development. Although they were of African descent, they
+were Americans whose thoughts were too much Americanized to be wholly
+free from imbibing the social atmosphere with which they were in
+constant contact in their sphere of enjoyments. The literature they read
+was mostly from the hands of white men who would paint them in any
+colors which suited their prejudices or predilections. The religious
+ideas they had embraced came at first thought from the same sources,
+though they may have undergone modifications in passing through their
+channels of thought, and it must be a remarkable man or woman who thinks
+an age ahead of the generation in which his or her lot is cast, and who
+plans and works for the future on the basis of that clearer vision. Nor
+is it to be wondered at, if under the circumstances, some of the more
+cultured of A.P. thought it absurd to look for anything remarkable to
+come out of the black Nazareth of Tennis court. Her neighbors had an
+idea that Annette was very smart; that she had a great "head piece," but
+unless she left A.P. to teach school elsewhere, they did not see what
+good her education was going to do her. It wasn't going to put any meal
+in the barrel nor any potatoes in the bin. Even Mrs. Larkins relaxed her
+ancient hostility to Annette and opened her heart to present her with a
+basket of flowers. Annette within the last year had become very much
+changed in her conduct and character. She had become friendly in her
+manner and considerate in her behavior to Mrs. Larkins since she had
+entered the church, during a protracted meeting. Annette was rather
+crude in her religious views but here again Mrs. Lasette became her
+faithful friend and advisor. In dealing with a young convert she thought
+more was needed than getting her into the church and making her feel
+that the moment she rose from the altar with rejoicing on her lips, that
+she was a full blown christian. That, to Mrs. Lasette was the initial
+step in the narrow way left luminous by the bleeding feet of Christ, and
+what the young convert needed was to be taught how to walk worthy of her
+high calling, and to make her life a thing of usefulness and
+faithfulness to God and man, a growth in grace and in the saving
+knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Simply attired in a dress which Mrs.
+Lasette thought fitted for the occasion, Annette took her seat quietly
+on the platform and calmly waited till her turn came. Her subject was
+announced: "The Mission of the Negro." It was a remarkable production
+for a girl of her age. At first she portrayed an African family seated
+beneath their bamboo huts and spreading palms; the light steps of the
+young men and maidens tripping to music, dance and song; their pastimes
+suddenly broken upon by the tramp of the merchants of flesh and blood;
+the capture of defenceless people suddenly surprised in the midst of
+their sports, the cries of distress, the crackling of flames, the cruel
+oaths of reckless men, eager for gold though they coined it from tears
+and extracted it from blood; the crowding of the slaveships, the horrors
+of the middle passage, the landing of the ill-fated captives were
+vividly related, and the sad story of ages of bondage. It seemed as if
+the sorrow of centuries was sobbing in her voice. Then the scene
+changed, and like a grand triumphal march she recounted the deliverance
+of the Negro, and the wondrous change which had come over his condition;
+the slave pen exchanged for the free school, the fetters on his wrist
+for the ballot in his right hand. Then her voice grew musical when she
+began to speak of the mission of the Negro, "His mission," she said, "is
+grandly constructive." Some races had been "architects of destruction,"
+but their mission was to build over the ruins of the dead past, the most
+valuable thing that a man or woman could possess on earth, and that is
+good character. That mission should be to bless and not to curse. To
+lift up the banner of the Christian religion from the mire and dust into
+which slavery and pride of caste had trailed it, and to hold it up as an
+ensign of hope and deliverance to other races of the world, of whom the
+greater portion were not white people. It seemed as if an inspiration
+lit up the young face; her eye glowed with unwonted fervor; it seemed as
+if she had fused her whole soul into the subject, which was full of
+earnestness and enthusiasm. Her theme was the sensation of the hour. Men
+grew thoughtful and attentive, women tender and sympathetic as they
+heard this member of a once despised people, recount the trials and
+triumphs of her race, and the hopes that gathered around their future.
+The day before Annette graduated Mr. Thomas had met a friend of his at
+Mrs. Lasette's, who had lately returned from an extensive tour. He had
+mingled with many people and had acquired a large store of information.
+Mr. Thomas had invited him to accompany him to the commencement. He had
+expected that Annette would acquit herself creditably, but she had far
+exceeded his most sanguine expectations. Clarence Luzerne had come
+because his friend Mr. Thomas had invited him and because he and Mrs.
+Lasette had taken such great interest in Annette's welfare, and his
+curiosity was excited to see how she would acquit herself and compare
+with the other graduates. He did not have much faith in graduating
+essays. He had heard a number of such compositions at commencements
+which had inspired him with glowing hopes for the future of the authors,
+which he had never seen realized, and he had come more to gratify Mr.
+Thomas than to please himself. But if he came through curiosity, he
+remained through interest, which had become more and more absorbing as
+she proceeded.
+
+"Clarence," said Mr. Thomas to his friend, noticing the deep interest he
+was manifesting, "Are you entranced? You appear perfectly spell-bound."
+
+"Well, I am; I am really delighted and indebted to you for a rare and
+unexpected pleasure. Why, that young lady gave the finest production
+that I have heard this morning. I hardly think she could have written it
+herself. It seems wonderful that a girl of her age should have done it
+so well. You are a great friend of hers; now own up, are not your finger
+marks upon it? I wouldn't tell it out of our ranks, but I don't think
+she wrote that all herself."
+
+"Who do you think wrote it for her?"
+
+"Mrs. Lasette."
+
+"I do not think so; Mrs. Lasette is a fine writer, but that nervous,
+fervid and impassioned style is so unlike hers, that I do not think she
+wrote one line of it, though she might have overlooked it, and made
+some suggestions, but even if it were so that some one else wrote it, we
+know that no one else delivered it, and that her delivery was
+excellent."
+
+"That is so; why, she excelled all the other girls. Do you know what was
+the difference between her and the other girls?"
+
+"No; what was it?" said Mr. Thomas.
+
+"They wrote from their heads, she wrote from her heart. Annette has
+begun to think; she has been left a great deal to herself, and in her
+loneliness, she has developed a thoughtfulness past her years, and I
+think that a love for her race and a desire to serve it has become a
+growing passion in her soul; her heart has supplied her intellect."
+
+"Ah, I think from what you say that I get the true clue to the power and
+pathos with which she spoke this morning and that accounts for her
+wonderful success."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Luzerne,[14] "it is the inner life which develops the
+outer life, and just such young people as Annette make me more hopeful
+of the future of the race."
+
+Mrs. Lasette witnessed Annette's graduation with intense interest and
+pleasure. Grandmother Harcourt looked the very impersonation of
+satisfaction as she gathered up the floral gifts, and modestly waited
+while Annette received the pleasant compliments of admiring friends.
+
+At his request Mr. Thomas introduced Mr. Luzerne to Annette, who in the
+most gracious and affable manner, tendered to Annette his hearty
+congratulations which she modestly received, and for the time being all
+went merry as a marriage bell.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII
+
+
+"What a fool he is to refuse my offer," thought the saloon-keeper.
+"What a pity it is," said Mr. Thomas to himself, "that a man of his
+education and ability should be engaged in such accursed business."
+
+After refusing the saloonkeeper's offer Mr. Thomas found a job of
+work. It was not a job congenial to his feelings, but his motto was,
+"If I do not see an opening I will make one." After he had turned
+from Mr. Englishman's workshop, burning with a sense of wrong which
+he felt powerless to overcome, he went on the levee and looked around
+to see if any work might be picked up by him as a day laborer. He saw
+a number of men singing, joking and plying their tasks with nimble
+feet and apparently no other care upon their minds than meeting the
+demands of the present hour, and for a moment he almost envied their
+lightheartedness, and he thought within himself, where all men are born
+blind, no man misses the light. These men are contented with privileges,
+and I who have fitted myself for a different sphere in life, am chaffing
+because I am denied rights. The right to sell my labor in any workshop
+in this city same as the men of other nationalities, and to receive with
+them a fair day's wages for a fair day's work. But he was strong and
+healthy and he was too high spirited to sit moping at home depending
+upon his mother to divide with him her scanty means till something
+should turn up. The first thing that presented itself to him was the job
+of helping unload a boat which had landed at the wharf, and a hand was
+needed to assist in unloading her. Mr. Thomas accepted the position and
+went to work and labored manfully at the unaccustomed task. That being
+finished the merchant for whom he had done the work, hired him to labor
+in his warehouse. He showed himself very handy in making slight repairs
+when needed and being ready to turn his hand to any service out of his
+routine of work, hammering a nail, adjusting a disordered lock and
+showing a general concern in his employer's interests. One day his
+employer had engaged a carpenter to make him a counter, but the man
+instead of attending to his work had been off on a drunken spree, and
+neglected to do the job. The merchant, vexed at the unnecessary delay,
+said to Mr. Thomas in a bantering manner, "I believe you can do almost
+anything, couldn't you make this counter?"
+
+Mr. Thomas answered quite modestly, "I believe I could if I had my
+tools."
+
+"Tools! What do you mean by tools?"
+
+Mr. Thomas told him how he learned to be a carpenter in the South and
+how he had tried so unsuccessfully in the North to get an opportunity to
+work at his trade until discouraged with the attempt, he had made up his
+mind to take whatever work came to hand till he could see farther.
+
+The merchant immediately procured the materials and set Mr. Thomas to
+work, who in a short time finished the counter, and showed by his
+workmanship that he was an excellent carpenter. The merchant pleased
+with his work and satisfied with his ability, entrusted him with the
+erection of a warehouse and, strange as it may appear, some of those men
+who were too proud or foolish to work with him as a fellow laborer, were
+humble enough to work under him as journeymen. When he was down they
+were ready to kick him down. When he was up they were ready to receive
+his helping hand. Mr. Thomas soon reached that "tide in his affairs
+which taken at the flood leads on to fortune." Against the odds which
+were against him his pluck and perseverance prevailed, and he was
+enabled not only to build up a good business for himself, but also to
+help others, and to teach them by his own experience not to be too
+easily discouraged, but to trust to pluck more than luck, and learn in
+whatever capacity they were employed to do their work heartily as unto
+the Lord and not unto men.
+
+Anxious to do what she could to benefit the community in which she
+lived, Mrs. Lasette threw open her parlors for the gathering together
+of the best thinkers and workers of the race, who choose to avail
+themselves of the privilege of meeting to discuss any question of vital
+importance to the welfare of the colored people of the nation. Knowing
+the entail of ignorance which slavery had left them, she could not be
+content by shutting up herself to mere social enjoyments within the
+shadow of her home. And often the words would seem to ring within her
+soul, "my people is destroyed for lack of knowledge," and with those
+words would come the question, am I doing what I can to dispel the
+darkness which has hung for centuries around our path? I have been
+blessed with privileges which were denied others; I sat 'mid the light
+of knowledge when some of my ill-fated sisters did not know what it was
+to see daylight in their cabins from one week's end to the other.
+Sometimes when she met with coldness and indifference where she least
+expected it, she would grow sad but would not yield to discouragement.
+Her heart was in the right place. "Freely she had received and freely
+she would give." It was at one of Mrs. Lasette's gatherings that Mr.
+Thomas met Rev. Mr. Lomax on whose church he had been refused a place,
+and Mr. Thurman, a tradesman who also had been ousted from his position
+through pride of caste and who had gone into another avocation, and
+also Charley Cooper, of whom we have lost sight for a number of years.
+He is now a steady and prosperous young man, a constant visitor at
+Mrs. Lasette's. Rumor says that Mrs. Lasette's bright-eyed and lovely
+daughter is the magnet which attracts him to their pleasant home. Rev.
+Lomax has also been absent for several years on other charges, but when
+he meets Mr. Thomas, the past flows back and the incidents of their
+latest interviews naturally take their place in the conversation. "It
+has been some time since we met," said Mr. Thomas, heartily shaking the
+minister's hand.
+
+"How has life used you since last we met?" said Rev. Lomax to Mr.
+Thomas. "Are you well?"
+
+"Perfectly well, I have had a varied experience since I met you, but
+I have no reason to complain, and I think my experience has been
+invaluable to me, and with this larger experience and closer
+observation, I feel that I am more able to help others, and that, I
+feel, has been one of my most valued acquirements. I sometimes think
+of members of our people in some directions as sheep without a
+shepherd, and I do wish from the bottom of my heart that I knew the
+best way to help them."
+
+"You do not," said the minister, somewhat anxiously, "ignore the power
+of the pulpit."
+
+"No, I do not; I only wish it had tenfold force. I wish we had ten
+thousand ministers like Oberlin who was not ashamed to take the lead
+in opening a road from Bande Roche to Strasburgh, a distance of several
+miles to bring his parishioners in contact with the trade and business
+of a neighboring village. I hope the time will come when every minister
+in building a church which he consecrates to the worship of God will
+build alongside of it or under the same roof, parish buildings or rooms
+to be dedicated to the special wants of our people in their peculiar
+condition."
+
+"I do wish, Brother Lomax, those costly buildings which you erect will
+cover more needs and wants of our people than some of them do now."
+
+"What would you have in them?"
+
+"I would have a parish building to every church, and I would have in
+them an evening home for boys. I would have some persons come in and
+teach them different handicrafts, so as at least to give them an
+opportunity to be more expert in learning how to use their hands. I
+would have that building a well warmed and well lighted room in winter,
+where all should be welcome to come and get a sandwich and a warm cup
+of tea or coffee and a hot bowl of soup, and if the grogshops were
+selling liquor for five cents, I would sell the soup for three or four
+cents, with a roll. I would have a room reserved for such ladies as Mrs.
+Lasette, who are so willing to help, for the purpose of holding mother's
+meetings. I would try to have the church the great centre of moral,
+spiritual and intellectual life for the young, and try to present
+counter attractions to the debasing influence of the low grogshops,
+gambling dens and houses of ill fame."
+
+"Part of our city (ought I confine myself to saying part of the city)
+has not the whole city been cursed by rum? But I now refer to a special
+part. I have seen church after church move out of that part of the city
+where the nuisance and curse were so rife, but I never, to my knowledge,
+heard of one of those churches offering to build a reading room and
+evening home for boys, or to send out paid and sustained by their
+efforts, a single woman to go into rum-cursed homes and teach their
+inmates a more excellent way. I would have in that parish building the
+most earnest men and women to come together and consult and counsel
+with each other on the best means to open for ourselves, doors which
+are still closed against us."
+
+"I am sure," said the minister, "I am willing to do what I can for the
+temporal and spiritual welfare of our people, and in this I have the
+example of the great Physician who did not consider it beneath him to
+attend to physical maladies as well as spiritual needs, and who did not
+consider the synagogue too holy, nor the Sabbath day too sacred to
+administer to the destitute and suffering."
+
+"I was very sorry when I found out, Brother Thomas, that I could not
+have you employed on my church, but I do not see what else I could have
+done except submit."
+
+"That was all you could have done in that stage of the work when I
+applied, and I do not wish to bestow the slightest censure on you or the
+trustees of your church, but I think, if when you were about to build
+had you advertised for competent master-builders in the South, that you
+could have gotten enough to have built the church without having
+employed Mr. Hoog the master-builder. Had you been able to have gone to
+him and said, 'we are about to build a church and it is more convenient
+for us to have it done by our citizens than to send abroad for laborers.
+We are in communication with a colored master builder in Kentucky, who
+is known as an efficient workman and who would be glad to get the job,
+and if your men refuse to work with a colored man our only alternative
+will be to send for colored carpenters and put the building in their
+hands.' Do you think he would have refused a thirty thousand dollar job
+just because some of his men refused to work with colored men? I think
+the greater portion of his workmen would have held their prejudices in
+abeyance rather than let a thirty thousand dollar job slip out of their
+hands. Now here is another thing in which I think united effort could
+have effected something. Now, here is my friend Mr. Thurman; he was a
+saddler versed in both branches of harness making. For awhile he got
+steady work in a saddler's shop, but the prejudice against him was so
+great that his employer was forced to dismiss him. He took work home,
+but that did not heal the dissatisfaction, and at last he gave it up
+and went to well-digging. Now, there were colored men in that place
+who could have, as I think, invested some money in buying material
+and helped him, not as a charity, but as a mere business operation
+to set up a place for himself; he had the skill; they had the money,
+and had they united both perhaps to-day there would be a flourishing
+business carried on by the man who is now digging wells for a living.
+I do hope that some time there will be some better modes of
+communication between us than we now possess; that a labor bureau
+will be established not as a charity among us, but as a business
+with capable and efficient men who will try to find out the different
+industries that will employ men irrespective of color and advertise
+and find steady and reliable colored men to fill them. Colored men
+in the South are largely employed in raising cotton and other produce;
+why should there not be more openings in the South for colored men
+to handle the merchandize and profit by it?"
+
+"What hinders?" said Rev. Lomax.
+
+"I will not say what hinders, but I will say what I think you can try
+to do to help. Teach our young to dedicate their young lives to the
+noble service of devoting them to the service of our common cause; to
+throw away their cigars, dash down the foaming beer and sparkling wine
+and strive to be more like those of whom it was said, 'I write unto you,
+young men, because you are strong.'"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV
+
+
+Grandmother Harcourt was failing. Annette was rising towards life's
+summit. Her grandmother was sinking to death's vale.
+
+  The hours are rifting day by day
+  Strength from the walls of living clay.
+
+Her two children who were living in A.P. wished her to break up her home
+and come and live with them. They had room in their hearts and homes for
+her, but not for Annette. There was something in Annette's temperament
+with which other members of the family could not harmonize. They were
+not considerate enough to take into account her antenatal history, and
+to pity where they were so ready to condemn. Had Annette been born
+deficient in any of her bodily organs, they could have made allowance
+for her, and would have deemed it cruel to have demanded that she should
+have performed the same amount of labor with one hand that she could
+have done with both. They knew nothing of heredity, except its effects,
+which they were not thoughtful enough to trace back to the causes over
+which Annette had no control, and instead of trying to counteract them
+as one might strive to do in a case of inherited physical tendencies,
+they only aggravated, and constantly strengthened all the unlovely
+features in Annette's character, and Annette really seemed like an
+anomalous contradiction. There was a duality about her nature as if
+the blood of two races were mingling in her veins. To some persons
+Annette was loving and love-able, bright, intelligent, obliging and
+companionable; to others, unsociable, unamiable and repelling. Her heart
+was like a harp which sent out its harmonious discords in accordance
+with the moods of the player who touched its chords. To some who swept
+them it gave out tender and touching melody, to others its harshest and
+saddest discords. Did not the Psalmist look beneath the mechanism of the
+body to the constitution of the soul when he said that "We are fearfully
+and wonderfully made?"
+
+But the hour came when all discussion was ended as to who was to shelter
+the dear old grandmother in her declining years. Mrs. Harcourt was
+suddenly paralyzed, and in a few days Annette stood doubly orphaned.
+Grandmother Harcourt's children gathered around the bedside of their
+dying mother. She was conscious but unable to speak. Occasionally her
+eyes would rest lovingly upon Annette and then turn wistfully to her
+children. Several times she assayed to speak, but the words died upon
+her lips. Her eldest son entered the room just as life was trembling on
+its faintest chords. She recognized him, and gathering up her remaining
+strength she placed his hand on Annette's, and tried again to speak. He
+understood her and said very tenderly,
+
+"Mother, I will look after Annette."
+
+All the care faded from the dear old face. Amid the shadows that never
+deceive flitted a smile of peace and contentment. The fading eye lit up
+with a sudden gaze of joy and wonder. She reached out her hand as if to
+meet a welcome and precious friend, and then the radiant face grew
+deathly pale; the outstretched hands relaxed their position, and with a
+smile, just such a smile as might greet a welcoming angel, her spirit
+passed out into the eternities, and Annette felt as she had never felt
+before, that she was all alone. The love that had surrounded and watched
+over her, born with her perverseness, and sheltered her in its warm
+clasp, was gone; it had faded suddenly from her vision, and left in its
+stead a dull and heavy pain. After the funeral, Mrs. Harcourt's children
+returned to the house where they quietly but earnestly discussed the
+question what shall be done with Annette. Mrs. Hanson's house was rather
+small; that is, it was rather small for Annette. She would have found
+room in her house if she only had room in her heart for her. She had
+nursed her mother through her sickness, and said with unnatural
+coldness, "I have got rid of one trouble and I do not want another."
+Another sister who lived some distance from A.P., would have taken
+Annette, but she knew that other members of her family would object, as
+they would be fearful that Annette would be an apple of discord among
+them. At length, her uncle Thomas decided that she should go with him.
+He felt that his mother had died with the assurance on her mind that he
+would care for Annette, and he resolved to be faithful in accepting what
+was to him the imposition of a new burden on his shoulders. His wife was
+a cold and unsympathizing woman. She was comfortably situated but did
+not wish that comfort invaded by her husband's relations. In household
+matters her husband generally deferred to her judgment, but here was no
+other alternative than that of taking Annette under the shadow of his
+home, or leaving her unprotected in the wide world, and he was too
+merciful and honorable to desert Annette in her saddest hour of need.
+Having determined that Annette should share his home, he knew that it
+was advisable to tell his wife about his decision, and to prepare her
+for Annette's coming.
+
+"Well," said Dr. Harcourt's wife after her husband's return from the
+funeral, "what are you going to do with Annette?"
+
+"She is coming here," said Dr. Harcourt quietly and firmly.
+
+"Coming here?" said Mrs. Harcourt, looking aghast. "I think at least you
+might have consulted me."
+
+"That is true, my dear, I would have gladly done so had you been present
+when the decision was made."
+
+"But where are her aunts, and where was your brother, John; why didn't
+they take her?"
+
+"John was at home sick with the rheumatism and sister Jane did not
+appear to be willing to have her come."
+
+"I guess Jane is like I am; got enough to do to look after her own
+family."
+
+"And sister Eliza said she hadn't any room."
+
+"No room; when she has eight rooms in her house and only two children?
+She could have made room for her had she chosen."
+
+"May be her husband wasn't willing."
+
+"Oh, it is no such thing. I know John Hanson[15] better than that; Liza
+is the head man of that house, and just leads him by the nose wherever
+she wants him to go, and besides, Mrs. Lord's daughter is there
+pretending to pay board, but I don't believe that she pays it one-half
+the time."
+
+"She is company for Alice and they all seem very fond of her."
+
+"I do get so sick of that girl, mambying and jambying about that family;
+calling Liza and her husband 'Ma and Pa,' I haven't a bit of faith in
+her."
+
+"Well, I confess that I am not very much preposessed in her favor. She
+just puts me in mind of a pussy cat purring around you."
+
+"Well, now as to Annette. You do not want her here?"
+
+"Not if I can help it."
+
+"But can't she help you to work?"
+
+"She could if she knew how. If wishes were horses beggars might ride.
+Your mother made a great mistake in bringing Annette up. Annette has a
+good education, but when that is said, all is said."
+
+"Why, my dear mother was an excellent housekeeper. Did she not teach
+Annette?"
+
+"Your mother was out a great deal as a sick nurse, and when she went
+away from home she generally boarded Annette with a friend, who did not,
+as your mother paid her good board, exact any service from Annette, and
+while with her she never learned to make a loaf of bread or to cook a
+beefsteak, and when your mother was at home when she set Annette to do
+any work, if she did it awkwardly and clumsily she would take it out of
+her hand and do it herself rather than bother with her, and now I
+suppose I am to have all the bother and worry with her."
+
+"Well my dear."
+
+"Oh don't come dearing me, and bringing me all this trouble."
+
+"Well my dear, I don't see how it could be helped. I could not leave
+Annette in the house all by herself. I couldn't afford to make myself
+the town's talk. May be things will turn out better than you expect.
+We've got children of our own, and we don't know when we are gone, how
+they will fare."
+
+"That is true, but I never mean to bring my children up in such a way
+that they will be no use anywhere, and no one will want them."
+
+"Well, I don't see any other way than bringing Annette here."
+
+"Well, if I must, I must," she said with an air of despondency.
+
+Dr. Harcourt rode over to his sister's where Annette was spending the
+day and brought the doubly orphaned girl to his home. As she entered the
+room, it seemed as though a chill struck to her heart when her Aunt bade
+her good morning. There was no warm pressure in the extended hand. No
+loving light in the cold unsympathizing eyes which seemed to stab her
+through and through. The children eyed her inquisitively, as if wishing
+to understand her status with their parents before they became sociable
+with her. After supper Annette's uncle went out and her aunt sat quietly
+and sewed till bed time, and then showed Annette to her room and left
+the lonely girl to herself and her great sorrow. Annette sat silent,
+tearless, and alone. Grief had benumbed her faculties. She had sometimes
+said when grandmother had scolded her that "she was growing cross and
+cold." But oh, what would she not have given to have had the
+death-created silence broken by that dear departed voice, to have felt
+the touch of a vanished hand, to have seen again the loving glance of
+the death darkened eye. But it was all over; no tears dimmed her eye, as
+she sat thinking so mournfully of her great sorrow, till she unfastened
+from her neck a little keepsake containing a lock of grandmother's hair,
+then all the floodgates of her soul were opened and she threw herself
+upon her bed and sobbed herself to sleep. In the morning she awoke with
+that sense of loss and dull agony which only they know, who have seen
+the grave close over all they have held dearest on earth. The beautiful
+home of her uncle was very different from the humble apartments; here
+she missed all the freedom and sunshine that she had enjoyed beneath the
+shelter of her grandmother's roof.
+
+"Can you sew?" said her aunt to Annette, as she laid on the table a
+package of handkerchiefs.
+
+"Yes ma'm."
+
+"Let me see how you can do this," handing her one to hem. Annette hemmed
+the handkerchief nicely; her aunt examined it, put it down and gave her
+some others to hem, but there was no word of encouragement for her, not
+even a pleasant, "well done." They both relapsed into silence; between
+them there was no pleasant interchange of thought. Annette was tolerated
+and endured, but she did not feel that she was loved and welcomed. It
+was no place to which she could invite her young friends to spend a
+pleasant evening. Once she invited some of her young friends to her
+home, but she soon found that it was a liberty which she should be
+careful never to repeat. Soon after Annette came to live with her aunt
+her aunt's mother had a social gathering and reunion of the members of
+her family. All Dr. Harcourt's children were invited, from the least to
+the greatest, but poor Annette was left behind. Mrs. Lasette, who
+happened in the house the evening before the entertainment, asked, "Is
+not Annette going?" when Mrs. Harcourt replied, very coldly, "She is not
+one of the family," referring to her mother's family circle.
+
+A shadow flitted over the face of Mrs. Lasette; she thought of her own
+daughter and how sad it would be to have her live in such a chilly
+atmosphere of social repression and neglect at a period of life when
+there was so much danger that false friendship might spread their lures
+for her inexperienced feet. I will criticize, she said to herself, by
+creation. I, too, have some social influence, if not among the careless,
+wine-bibbing, ease-loving votaries of fashion, among some of the most
+substantial people of A.P., and as long as Annette preserves her
+rectitude at my house she shall be a welcome guest and into that
+saddened life I will bring all the sunshine that I can.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV
+
+
+"Well mama," said Mrs. Lasette's daughter to her mother, "I cannot
+understand why you take so much interest in Annette. She is very
+unpopular. Scarcely any of the girls ever go with her, and even her
+cousin never calls for her to go to church or anywhere else, and I
+sometimes feel so sorry to see her so much by herself, and some of the
+girls when I went with her to the exposition, said that they wouldn't
+have asked her to have gone with them, that she isn't our set."
+
+"Poor child," Mrs. Lasette replied; "I am sorry for her. I hope that you
+will never treat her unkindly, and I do not think if you knew the sad
+story connected with her life that you would ever be unkind enough to
+add to the burden she has been forced to bear."
+
+"But mamma, Annette is so touchy. Her aunt says that her tear bags must
+lay near her eyes and that she will cry if you look at her, and that she
+is the strangest, oddest creature she ever saw, and I heard she did not
+wish her to come."
+
+"Why, my dear child, who has been gossipping to you about your
+neighbors?"
+
+"Why, Julia Thomas."
+
+"Well, my daughter, don't talk after her; gossip is liable to degenerate
+into evil speaking and then I think it tends to degrade and belittle the
+mind to dwell on the defects and imperfections of our neighbors. Learn
+to dwell on the things that are just and true and of good report, but I
+am sorry for Annette, poor child."
+
+"What makes her so strange, do you know?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Lasette somewhat absently.
+
+"If you do, won't you tell me?"
+
+Again Mrs. Lasette answered in the same absent manner.
+
+"Why mama, what is the matter with you; you say yes to everything and
+yet you are not paying any attention to anything that I say. You seem
+like someone who hears, but does not listen; who sees, but does not
+look. Your face reminds me of the time when I showed you the picture of
+a shipwreck and you said, 'My brother's boat went down in just such a
+fearful storm.'"
+
+"My dear child," said Mrs. Lasette, rousing up from a mournful reverie,
+"I was thinking of a wreck sadder, far sadder than the picture you
+showed me. It was the mournful wreck of a blighted life."
+
+"Whose life, mama?"
+
+"The life of Annette's [grand]mother. We were girls together and I loved
+her dearly," Mrs. Lasette replied as tears gathered in her eyes when she
+recalled one of the saddest memories of her life.
+
+"Do tell me all about it, for I am full of curiosity."
+
+"My child, I want this story to be more than food for your curiosity; I
+want it to be a lesson and a warning to you. Annette's grandmother was
+left to struggle as breadwinner for a half dozen children when her
+husband died. Then there were not as many openings for colored girls as
+there are now. Our chief resource was the field of domestic service, and
+circumstances compelled Annette's mother to live out, as we called it.
+In those days we did not look down upon a girl and try to ostracize her
+from our social life if she was forced to be a servant. If she was poor
+and respectable we valued her for what she was rather than for what she
+possessed. Of course we girls liked to dress nicely, but fine clothes
+was not the chief passport to our society, and yet I think on the whole
+that our social life would compare favorably with yours in good
+character, if not in intellectual attainments. Our dear old mothers were
+generally ignorant of books, but they did try to teach good manners and
+good behavior; but I do not think they saw the danger around the paths
+of the inexperienced with the same clearness of vision we now do. Mrs.
+Harcourt had unbounded confidence in her children, and as my mother
+thought, gave her girls too much rein in their own hands. Our mother was
+more strict with her daughters and when we saw Mrs. Harcourt's daughters
+having what we considered such good times, I used to say, 'O, I wish
+mother wasn't so particular!' Other girls could go unattended to
+excursions, moonlight drives and parties of pleasure, but we never went
+to any such pleasure unless we were attended by our father, brother or
+some trusted friend of the family. We were young and foolish then and
+used to chafe against her restrictions; but to-day, when I think of my
+own good and noble husband, my little bright and happy home, and my
+dear, loving daughter, I look back with gratitude to her thoughtful care
+and honor and bless her memory in her grave. Poor Lucy Harcourt was not
+so favored; she was pretty and attractive and had quite a number of
+admirers. At length she became deeply interested in a young man who came
+as a stranger to our city. He was a fine looking man, but there was
+something about him from which I instinctively shrank. My mother felt
+the same way and warned us to be careful how we accepted any attention
+from him; but poor Lucy became perfectly infatuated with him and it was
+rumored that they were to be shortly married. Soon after the rumor he
+left the city and there was a big change in Lucy's manner. I could not
+tell what was the matter, but my mother forbade me associating with her,
+and for several months I scarcely saw her, but I could hear from others
+that she was sadly changed. Instead of being one of the most
+light-hearted girls, I heard that she used to sit day after day in her
+mother's house and wring her hands and weep and that her mother's heart
+was almost broken. Friends feared that Lucy was losing her mind and
+might do some desperate deed, but she did not. I left about that time to
+teach school in a distant village, and when I returned home I heard sad
+tidings of poor Lucy. She was a mother, but not a wife. Her brothers had
+grown angry with her for tarnishing their family name, of which they
+were so proud; her mother's head was bowed with agony and shame. The
+father of Lucy's child had deserted her in her hour of trial and left
+her to bear her burden alone with the child like a millstone around her
+neck. Poor Lucy; I seldom saw her after that, but one day I met her in
+the Park. I went up to her and kissed her, she threw her arms around me
+and burst into a flood of tears. I tried to restrain her from giving
+such vent to her feelings. It was a lack of self-control which had
+placed her where she was."
+
+"'Oh Anna!' she said, 'it does me so much good to hold your hand in mine
+once more. I reminds me of the days when we used to be together. Oh,
+what would I give to recall those days.'"
+
+"I said to her, Lucy, you can never recall the past, but you can try to
+redeem the future. Try to be a faithful mother. Men may build over the
+wreck and ruin of their young lives a better and brighter future, why
+should not a woman? Let the dead past bury its dead and live in the
+future for the sake of your child. She seemed so grateful for what I had
+said. Others had treated her with scorn. Her brother Thomas had refused
+to speak to her; her betrayer had forsaken her; all the joyousness had
+faded from her life and, poor girl, I was glad that I was able to say a
+helpful and hopeful word to her. Mother, of course, would not let us
+associate with her, but she always treated her kindly when she came and
+did what she could to lighten the burden which was pressing her down to
+the grave. But, poor child, she was never again the same light-hearted
+girl. She grew pale and thin and in the hectic flush and faltering
+tread I read the death sign of early decay, and I felt that my misguided
+young friend was slowly dying of a broken heart. Then there came a day
+when we were summoned to her dying bed. Her brothers and sisters were
+present; all their resentment against her had vanished in the presence
+of death. She was their dear sister about to leave them and they bent in
+tearful sorrow around her couch. As one of her brothers, who was a good
+singer, entered the room, she asked him to sing 'Vital spark of heavenly
+flame.' He attempted to sing, but there were tremors in his voice and he
+faltered in the midst of the hymn. 'Won't you sing for your dying
+sister.'"
+
+"Again he essayed to sing, but [his?] voice became choked with emotion,
+and he ceased, and burst into tears. Her brother Thomas who had been so
+hard and cold, and had refused to speak to her, now wept and sobbed like
+a child, but Lucy smiled as she bade them good bye, and exclaimed,
+'Welcome death, the end of fear. I am prepared to die.' A sweet peace
+settled down on her face, and Lucy had exchanged, I hope, the sorrow and
+pain of life for the peace and rest of heaven, and left Annette too
+young to know her loss. Do you wonder then my child that I feel such an
+interest in Annette and that knowing as I do her antenatal history that
+I am ever ready to pity where others condemn, and that I want to do what
+I can to help round out in beauty and usefulness the character of that
+sinned against and disinherited child, whose restlessness and
+sensitiveness I trace back to causes over which she had no control."
+
+"What became of Frank Miller? You say that when he returned to A.P. that
+society opened its doors to him while they were closed to Annette's
+mother. I don't understand it. Was he not as guilty as she was?"
+
+"Guiltier, I think. If poor Lucy failed as a woman, she tried to be
+faithful as a mother, while he, faithless as a man, left her to bear her
+burden alone. She was frail as a woman, but he was base, mean, and
+selfish as a man."
+
+"How was it that society received him so readily?"
+
+"All did not receive him so readily, but with some his money, like
+charity, covered a multitude of sins. But from the depths of my heart I
+despised him. I had not then learned to hate the sin with all my heart,
+and yet the sinner love. To me he was the incarnation of social meanness
+and vice. And just as I felt I acted. We young folks had met at a social
+gathering, and were engaged in a pastime in which we occasionally
+clasped hands together. Some of these plays I heartily disliked,
+especially when there was romping and promiscuous kissing. During the
+play Frank Miller's hand came in contact with mine and he pressed it. I
+can hardly describe my feelings. It seemed as if my very veins were on
+fire, and that every nerve was thrilling with repulsion and indignation.
+Had I seen him murder Lucy and then turn with blood dripping hands to
+grasp mine, I do not think that I should have felt more loathing than I
+did when his hand clasped mine. I felt that his very touch was
+pollution; I immediately left the play, tore off my glove, and threw it
+in the fire."
+
+"Oh, mother, how could you have done so? You are so good and gentle."
+
+Mrs. Lasette replied, "I was not always so. I do not hate his sin any
+less now than I did then but I think that I have learned a Christian
+charity which would induce me to pluck such as he out of the fire while
+I hated the garments spotted by his sins. I sat down trembling with
+emotion. I heard a murmur of disapprobation. There was a check to the
+gayety of the evening. Frank Miller, bold and bad as he was looked
+crestfallen and uneasy. Some who appeared to be more careful of the
+manners of society than its morals, said that I was very rude. Others
+said that I was too prudish, and would be an old maid, that I was
+looking for perfection in young men, and would not find it. That young
+men sow their wild oats, and that I was more nice than wise, and that I
+would frighten the gentlemen away from me. I told them if the young men
+were so easily frightened, that I did not wish to clasp hands for life
+with any such timid set, and that I was determined that I would have a
+moral husband or none; that I was not obliged to be married, but that I
+was obliged to be true to my conscience. That when I married I expected
+to lay the foundation of a new home, and that I would never trust my
+future happiness in the hands of a libertine, or lay its foundations
+over the reeling brain of a drunkard, and I determined that I would
+never marry a man for whose vices I must blush, and whose crimes I must
+condone; that while I might bend to grief I would not bow to shame; that
+if I brought him character and virtue, he should give me true manhood
+and honor in return."
+
+"And I think mother that you got it when you married father."
+
+"I am satisfied that I did, and the respect and appreciation my daughter
+has for her father is only part of my life's reward, but it was my dear
+mother who taught me to distinguish between the true and the false, and
+although she was [not?] what you call educated, she taught me that no
+magnificence of fortune would atone for meanness of spirit, that without
+character the most wealthy and talented man is a bankrupt in soul. And
+she taught me how to be worthy of a true man's love."
+
+"And I think you have succeeded splendidly."
+
+"Thank you, my darling. But mother has become used to compliments."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI
+
+
+"I do not think she gets any more than she deserves," said Mr. Lasette,
+entering the room. "She is one of whom it may be said, 'Her children
+arise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her;
+many daughters have done virtuously but thou excellest them all.'"
+
+"I do not think you will say that I am excelling if I do not haste
+about your supper; you were not home to dinner and must be hungry by
+this time, and it has been said that the way to a man's heart is through
+his stomach."
+
+"Oh, isn't that a libel on my sex!"
+
+"Papa," said Laura Lasette, after her mother had left the room, "did you
+know Frank Miller? Mother was telling me about him but she did not
+finish; what became of him?"
+
+"Now, you ask me two questions in one breath; let me answer one at a
+time."
+
+"Well, papa, I am all attention."
+
+"Do I know Frank Miller, the saloon keeper? Yes; he is connected with a
+turning point in my life. How so? Well, just be patient a minute and I
+will tell you. I was almost a stranger in A.P. when I first met your
+mother. It was at a social where Frank Miller was a guest. I had heard
+some very damaging reports concerning his reputation, but from the
+manner in which he was received in society, I concluded that I had been
+misinformed. Surely, I thought, if the man is as vicious as he has been
+represented, good women, while they pity him, will shrink instinctively
+from him, but I saw to my surprise, that with a confident and unblushing
+manner, he moved among what was called the elite of the place, and that
+instead of being withheld, attentions were lavished upon him. I had
+lived most of my life in a small inland town, where people were old
+fashioned enough to believe in honor and upright conduct, and from what
+I had heard of Frank Miller I was led to despise his vices and detest
+his character, and yet here were women whom I believed to be good and
+virtuous, smiling in his face, and graciously receiving his attentions.
+I cannot help thinking that in their case,
+
+  "Evil is wrought by want of thought"
+   As well as want of heart.
+
+They were not conscious of the influence they might exert by being true
+to their own womanhood. Men like Frank Miller are the deadliest foes of
+women. One of the best and strongest safe guards of the home is the
+integrity of its women, and he who undermines that, strikes a fearful
+blow at the highest and best interests of society. Society is woman's
+realm and I never could understand how, if a woman really loves purity
+for its own worth and loveliness, she can socially tolerate men whose
+lives are a shame, and whose conduct in society is a blasting, withering
+curse."
+
+"But, papa, tell me how you came to love my mother; but I don't see how
+you could have helped it."
+
+"That's just it, my daughter. I loved her because I could not help it;
+and respected her because I knew that she was worthy of respect. I was
+present at a social gathering where Frank was a guest, and was watching
+your mother attentively when I saw her shrink instinctively from his
+touch and leave the play in which she was engaged and throw her glove in
+the fire. Public opinion was divided about her conduct. Some censured,
+others commended her, but from that hour I learned to love her, and I
+became her defender. Other women would tolerate Frank Miller, but here
+was a young and gracious girl, strong enough and brave enough to pour on
+the head of that guilty culprit her social disapprobation and I gloried
+in her courage. I resolved she should be my wife if she would accept me,
+which she did, and I have never regretted my choice and I think that I
+have had as happy a life as usually falls to the lot of mortals."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII
+
+
+"Papa," said Laura Lasette, "all the girls have had graduating parties
+except Annette and myself. Would it not be nice for me to have a party
+and lots of fun, and then my birthday comes next week; now wouldn't it
+be just the thing for me to have a party?"
+
+"It might be, darling, for you, but how would it be for me who would
+have to foot the bill?"
+
+"Well, papa, could you not just give me a check like you do mama
+sometimes?"
+
+"But mama knows how to use it."
+
+"But papa, don't I know how also?"
+
+"I have my doubts on that score, but let me refer you to your mother.
+She is queen of this realm, and in household matters I as a loyal
+subject, abide by her decisions."
+
+"Well, I guess mama is all right on this subject."
+
+Mrs. Lasette was perfectly willing to gratify her daughter, and it was
+decided to have an entertainment on Laura's birthday.
+
+The evening of Mrs. Lasette's entertainment came bringing with it into
+her pleasant parlors a bright and merry throng of young people. It was
+more than a mere pleasure party. It was here that rising talent was
+encouraged, no matter how humble the garb of the possessor, and Mrs.
+Lasette was a model hostess who would have thought her entertainment a
+failure had any one gone from it smarting under a sense of social
+neglect. Shy and easily embarrassed Annette who was very seldom invited
+anywhere, found herself almost alone in that gay and chattering throng.
+Annette was seated next to several girls who laughed and chatted
+incessantly with each other without deigning to notice her. Mrs. Lasette
+entering the room with Mr. Luzerne whom she presented to the company,
+and noticing the loneliness and social isolation of Annette, gave him a
+seat beside her, and was greatly gratified that she had found the means
+to relieve the tedium of Annette's position. Mrs. Lasette had known him
+as a light hearted boy, full of generous impulses, with laughing eyes
+and a buoyant step, but he had been absent a number of years, and had
+developed into a handsome man with a magnificent physique, elegant in
+his attire, polished in his manners and brilliant in conversation. Just
+such a man as is desirable as a companion and valuable as a friend,
+staunch, honorable and true, and it was rumored that he was quite
+wealthy. He was generally cheerful, but it seemed at times as if some
+sad memories came over him, dashing all the sunshine from his face and
+leaving in its stead, a sadness which it was touching to behold. Some
+mystery seemed to surround his life, but being reticent in reference to
+his past history, there was a dignity in his manner which repelled all
+intrusion into the secrecy over which he choose to cast a veil. Annette
+was not beautiful, but her face was full of expression and her manner
+winsome at times. Lacking social influence and social adaptation, she
+had been ignored in society, her faults of temper made prominent her
+most promising traits of character left unnoticed, but this treatment
+was not without some benefit to Annette. It threw her more entirely on
+her own resources. At first she read when she had leisure, to beguile
+her lonely hours, and fortunately for her, she was directed in her
+reading by Mrs. Lasette, who gave and lent her books, which appealed to
+all that was highest and best in her nature, and kindled within her a
+lofty enthusiasm to make her life a blessing to the world. With such an
+earnest purpose, she was not prepared to be a social favorite in any
+society whose chief amusement was gossip, and whose keenest weapon was
+ridicule.
+
+Mr. Luzerne had gone to Mrs. Lasette's with the hope of meeting some of
+the best talent in A.P., and had come to the conclusion that there was
+more lulliancy than depth in the intellectual life with which he came in
+contact; he felt that it lacked earnestness, purpose and grand
+enthusiasms and he was astonished to see the social isolation of
+Annette, whose society had interested and delighted him, and after
+parting with her he found his mind constantly reverting to her and felt
+grateful to Mrs. Lasette for affording him a rare and charming pleasure.
+Annette sat alone in her humble room with a new light in her eyes and a
+sense of deep enjoyment flooding her soul. Never before had she met
+with such an interesting and congenial gentleman. He seemed to
+understand as scarcely as any one else had done or cared to do. In the
+eyes of other guests she had been treated as if too insignificant for
+notice, but he had loosened her lips and awakened within her a dawning
+sense of her own ability, which others had chilled and depressed. He had
+fingered the keys of her soul and they had vibrated in music to his
+touch. Do not smile, gentle reader, and say that she was very easily
+impressed, it may be that you have never known what it is to be hungry,
+not for bread, but for human sympathy, to live with those who were never
+interested in your joys, nor sympathized in your sorrows. To whom your
+coming gave no joy and your absence no pain. Since Annette had lost her
+grandmother, she had lived in an atmosphere of coldness and repression
+and was growing prematurely cold. Her heart was like a sealed fountain
+beneath whose covering the bright waters dashed and leaped in imprisoned
+boundary. Oh, blessed power of human love to lighten human suffering,
+well may we thank the giver of every good and perfect gift for the love
+which gladdens hearts, brightens homes and sets the solitary in the
+midst of families. Mr. Luzerne frequently saw Annette at the house of
+Mrs. Lasette and occasionally called at her uncle's, but there was an
+air of restraint in the social atmosphere which repressed and chilled
+him. In that home he missed the cordial freedom and genial companionship
+which he always found at Mrs. Lasette's but Annette's apparent
+loneliness and social isolation awakened his sympathy, and her bright
+intelligence and good character commanded his admiration and respect,
+which developed within him a deep interest for the lovely girl. He often
+spoke admiringly of her and never met her at church, or among her
+friends that he did not gladly avail himself of the opportunity of
+accompanying her home. Madame rumor soon got tidings of Mr. Luzerne's
+attentions to Annette and in a shout the tongues of the gossips of A.P.
+began to wag. Mrs. Larkins who had fallen heir to some money, moved out
+of Tennis court, and often gave pleasant little teas to her young
+friends, and as a well spread table was quite a social attraction in
+A.P., her gatherings were always well attended. After rumor had caught
+the news of Mr. Luzerne's interest in Annette, Mrs. Larkins had a social
+at her house to which she invited him, and a number of her young
+friends, but took pains to leave Annette out in the cold. Mr. Luzerne on
+hearing that Annette was slighted, refused to attend. At the supper
+table Annette's prospects were freely discussed.
+
+"I expected that Mr. Luzerne would have been here this evening, but he
+sent an apology in which he declined to come."
+
+"Did you invite Annette?" said Miss Croker.
+
+"No, I did not. I got enough of her when I lived next door to her."
+
+"Well that accounts for Mr. Luzerne's absence. They remind me of the
+Siamese twins; if you see one, you see the other."
+
+"How did she get in with him?"
+
+"She met him at Mrs. Lasette's party, and he seemed so taken up with her
+that for a while he had neither eyes nor ears for any one else."
+
+"That girl, as quiet as she looks, is just as deep as the sea."
+
+"It is not that she's so deep, but we are so shallow. Miss Booker and
+Miss Croker were sitting near Annette and not noticing her, and we girls
+were having a good time in the corner to ourselves, and Annette was
+looking so lonely and embarrassed I think Mr. Luzerne just took pity on
+her and took especial pains to entertain her. I just think we stepped
+our feet into it by slighting Annette, and of course, as soon as we saw
+him paying attention to her, we wouldn't change and begin to make much
+of her."
+
+"I don't know what he sees in Annette with her big nose and plain face."
+
+"My father," said Laura Lasette, "says that Annette is a credit to her
+race and my mother is just delighted because Mr. Luzerne is attracted
+to her, but, girls, had we not better be careful how we talk about her?
+People might say that we are jealous of her and we know that we are
+taught that jealousy is as cruel as the grave."
+
+"We don't see anything to be jealous about her. She is neither pretty
+nor stylish."
+
+"But my mother says she is a remarkable girl," persisted Laura.
+
+"Your mother," said Mrs. Larkins, "always had funny notions about
+Annette, and saw in her what nobody else did."
+
+"Well, for my part, I hope it will be a match."
+
+"It is easy enough for you to say so, Laura. You think it is a sure
+thing between you and Charley Cooper, but don't be too sure; there's
+many a slip between the cup and the lip."
+
+There was a flush on Laura's cheek as she replied, "If there are a
+thousand slips between the cup and the lip and Charlie and I should
+never marry, let me tell you that I would almost as soon court another's
+husband as a girl's affianced lover. I can better afford to be an old
+maid than to do a dishonorable thing."
+
+"Well, Laura, you are a chip off the old block; just like your mother,
+always ready to take Annette's part."
+
+"I think, Mrs. Larkins, it is the finest compliment you can pay me, to
+tell me that I am like my dear mother."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII
+
+
+"Good morning," said Mr. Luzerne, entering Mr. Thomas' office. "Are you
+busy?"
+
+"Not very; I had just given some directions to my foreman concerning a
+job I have undertaken, and had just settled down to read the paper. Well
+how does your acquaintance with Miss Harcourt prosper? Have you popped
+the question yet?"
+
+"No, not exactly; I had been thinking very seriously of the matter, but
+I have been somewhat shaken in my intention."
+
+"How so," said Mr. Thomas, laying down his paper and becoming suddenly
+interested.
+
+"You know that I have had an unhappy marriage which has overshadowed all
+my subsequent life, and I cannot help feeling very cautious how I risk,
+not only my own, but another's happiness in a second marriage. It is
+true that I have been thinking of proposing to Miss Harcourt and I do
+prefer her to any young lady I have ever known; but there is a
+depreciatory manner in which people speak of her, that sorely puzzles
+me. For instance, when I ask some young ladies if they know Annette,
+they shrug their shoulders, look significantly at each other and say,
+'Oh, yes, we know her; but she don't care for anything but books; oh she
+is so self conceited and thinks she knows more than any one else.' But
+when I spoke to Mrs. Larkins about her, she said Annette makes a fine
+appearance, but all is not gold that glitters. By this time my curiosity
+was excited, and I asked, 'What is the matter with Miss Harcourt? I had
+no idea that people were so ready to pick at her.' She replied, 'No
+wonder; she is such a spitfire.'"
+
+"Well," said Mr. Thomas, a little hotly, "if Annette is a spitfire, Mrs.
+Larkins is a lot of combustion. I think of all the women I know, she has
+the greatest genius for aggravation. I used to board with her, but as I
+did not wish to be talked to death I took refuge in flight."
+
+"And so you showed the white feather that time."
+
+"Yes, I did, and I could show it again. I don't wonder that people have
+nick-named her 'Aunty talk forever.' I have known Annette for years and
+I known that she is naturally quick tempered and impulsive, but she is
+not malicious and implacable and if I were going to marry to-morrow I
+would rather have a quick, hot-tempered woman than a cold, selfish one,
+who never thought or cared about anyone but herself. Mrs. Larkins' mouth
+is not a prayer-book; don't be uneasy about anything she says against
+Annette."
+
+Reassured by Mr. Thomas, Clarence Luzerne decided that he would ask Dr.
+Harcourt's permission to visit his niece, a request which was readily
+granted and he determined if she would consent that she should be his
+wife. He was wealthy, handsome and intelligent; Annette was poor and
+plain, but upright in character and richly endowed in intellect, and no
+one imagined that he would pass by the handsome and stylish girls of
+A.P. to bestow his affections on plain, neglected Annette. Some of the
+girls who knew of his friendship for Annette, but who never dreamed of
+its termination in marriage would say to Annette, "Speak a good word for
+me to Mr. Luzerne;" but Annette kept her counsel and would smile and
+think: I will speak a good word for myself. Very pleasant was the
+growing friendship between Annette and Mr. Luzerne. Together they read
+and discussed books and authors and agreed with wonderful unanimity,
+which often expressed itself in the words:
+
+"I think as you do." Not that there was any weak compliance for the sake
+of agreement, but a unison of thought and feeling between them which
+gave a pleasurable zest to their companionship.
+
+"Miss Annette," said Luzerne, "do you believe that matches are made in
+heaven?"
+
+"I never thought anything about it."
+
+"But have you no theory on the subject?"
+
+"Not the least; have you?"
+
+"Yes; I think that every human soul has its counterpart, and is never
+satisfied till soul has met with soul and recognized its spiritual
+affinity."
+
+"Affinity! I hate the word."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I think it has been so wrongly used, and added to the social
+misery of the world."
+
+"What do you think marriage ought to be?"
+
+"I think it should be a blending of hearts, an intercommunion of souls,
+a tie that only love and truth should weave, and nothing but death
+should part."
+
+Luzerne listened eagerly and said, "Why, Miss Annette, you speak as if
+you had either loved or were using your fine imaginative powers on the
+subject with good effect. Have you ever loved any one?"
+
+Annette blushed and stammered, and said, "I hardly know, but I think I
+have a fine idea of what love should be. I think the love of a woman for
+the companion of her future life should go out to him just as naturally
+as the waves leap to the strand, or the fire ascends to the sun."
+
+"And this," said Luzerne, taking her hand in his, "is the way I feel
+towards you. Surely our souls have met at last. Annette," said he, in a
+voice full of emotion, "is it not so? May I not look on your hand as a
+precious possession, to hold till death us do part?"
+
+"Why, Mr. Luzerne," said Annette, recovering from her surprise, "this is
+so sudden, I hardly know what to say. I have enjoyed your companionship
+and I confess have been pleased with your attentions, but I did not
+dream that you had any intentions beyond the enjoyment of the hour."
+
+"No, Annette, I never seek amusement in toying with human hearts. I
+should deem myself a villain if I came into your house and stole your
+purse, and I should think myself no better if I entered the citadel of a
+woman's heart to steal her affections only to waste their wealth. Her
+stolen money I might restore, but what reparation could I make for
+wasted love and blighted affections? Annette, let there be truth between
+us. I will give you time to think on my proposal, hoping at the same
+time that I shall find favor in your eyes."
+
+After Mr. Luzerne left, Annette, sat alone by the fireside, a delicious
+sense of happiness filling her soul with sudden joy. Could it be that
+this handsome and dignified man had honored her above all the girls in
+A.P., by laying his heart at her feet, or was it only a dream from
+which would come a rude awakening? Annette looked in the glass, but no
+stretch of imagination could make her conceive that she was beautiful in
+either form or feature. She turned from the glass with a faint sigh,
+wishing for his sake that she was as beautiful as some of the other
+girls in A.P., whom he had overlooked, not thinking for one moment that
+in loving her for what she was in intellect and character he had paid
+her a far greater compliment than if she had been magnificently
+beautiful and he had only been attracted by an exquisite form and lovely
+face. In a few days after Mr. Luzerne's proposal to Annette he came for
+the answer, to which he looked with hope and suspense.
+
+"I am glad," he said, "to find you at home."
+
+"Yes; all the rest of the family are out."
+
+"Then the coast is clear for me?" There was tenderness and decision in
+his voice as he said, "Now, Annette, I have come for the answer which
+cannot fail to influence all my future life." He clasped the little hand
+which lay limp and passive in his own. His dark, handsome eyes were bent
+eagerly upon her as if scanning every nook and corner of her soul. Her
+eye fell beneath his gaze, her hand trembled in his, tears of joy were
+springing to her eyes, but she restrained them. She withdrew her hand
+from his clasp; he looked pained and disappointed. "Have I been too
+hasty and presumptuous?"
+
+Annette said no rather faintly, while her face was an enigma he did not
+know how to solve.
+
+"Why did you release your hand and avert your eyes?"
+
+"I felt that my will was succumbing to yours, and I want to give you an
+answer untrammeled and uncontrolled by your will."
+
+Mr. Luzerne smiled, and thought what rare thoughtfulness and judgment
+she has evinced. How few women older than herself would have thought as
+quickly and as clearly, and yet she is no less womanly, although she
+seems so wise.
+
+"What say you, my dear Annette, since I have released your hand. May I
+not hope to hold this hand as the most precious of all my earthly
+possessions until death us do part?"
+
+Annette fixed her eyes upon the floor as if she were scanning the
+figures on the carpet. Her heart beat quickly as she timidly repeated
+the words, "Until death us do part," and placed her hand again in his,
+while an expression of love and tender trust lit up the mobile and
+expressive face, and Annette felt that his love was hers; the most
+precious thing on earth that she could call her own. The engagement
+being completed, the next event in the drama was preparation for the
+wedding. It was intended that the engagement should not be long.
+Together they visited different stores in purchasing supplies for their
+new home. How pleasant was that word to the girl, who had spent such
+lonely hours in the home of her uncle. To her it meant one of the
+brightest spots on earth and one of the fairest types of heaven. In the
+evening they often took pleasant strolls together or sat and chatted in
+a beautiful park near their future home. One evening as they sat quietly
+enjoying themselves Annette said, "How happened it that you preferred me
+to all the other girls in A. P.? There are lots of girls more stylish
+and better looking; what did you see in poor, plain me?" He laughingly
+replied:
+
+  "I chose you out from all the rest,
+  The reason was I loved you best."
+
+"And why did you prefer me?" She answered quite archly:
+
+  "The rose is red, the violet's blue,
+  Sugar is sweet and so are you."
+
+"I chose you because of your worth. When I was young, I married for
+beauty and I pierced my heart through with many sorrows."
+
+"You been married?" said Annette with a tremor in her tones. "Why, I
+never heard of it before."
+
+"Did not Mr. Thomas or Mrs. Lasette tell you of it? They knew it, but it
+is one of the saddest passages of my life, to which I scarcely ever
+refer. She, my wife, drifted from me, and was drowned in a freshet near
+Orleans."
+
+"Oh, how dreadful, and I never knew it."
+
+"Does it pain you?"
+
+"No, but it astonishes me."
+
+"Well, Annette, it is not a pleasant subject, let us talk of something
+else. I have not spoken of it to you before, but to-day, when it pressed
+so painfully upon my mind, it was a relief to me to tell you about it,
+but now darling dismiss it from your mind and let the dead past bury its
+dead."
+
+Just then there came along where they were sitting a woman whose face
+bore traces of great beauty, but dimmed and impaired by lines of sorrow
+and disappointment. Just as she reached the seat where they were
+sitting, she threw up her hands in sudden anguish, gasped out,
+"Clarence! my long lost Clarence," and fell at his feet in a dead faint.
+
+As Mr. Luzerne looked on the wretched woman lying at his feet, his face
+grew deathly pale. He trembled like an aspen and murmured in a
+bewildered tone, "has the grave restored its dead?"
+
+But with Annette there was no time for delay. She chaffed, the rigid
+hands, unloosed the closely fitting dress, sent for a cab and had her
+conveyed as quickly as possible to the home for the homeless. Then
+turning to Luzerne, she said bitterly, "Mr. Luzerne, will you explain
+your encounter with that unfortunate woman?" She spoke as calmly as she
+could, for a fierce and bitter anguish was biting at her heartstrings.
+"What claim has that woman on you?"
+
+"She has the claim of being my wife and until this hour I firmly
+believed she was in her grave." Annette lifted her eyes sadly to his;
+he calmly met her gaze, but there was no deception in his glance; his
+eyes were clear and sad and she was more puzzled than ever.
+
+"Annette," said he, "I have only one favor to ask; let this scene be a
+secret between us as deep as the sea. Time will explain all. Do not
+judge me too harshly."
+
+"Clarence," she said, "I have faith in you, but I do not understand you;
+but here is the carriage, my work at present is with this poor,
+unfortunate woman, whose place I was about to unconsciously supplant."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX
+
+
+And thus they parted. All their air castles and beautiful chambers of
+imagery, blown to the ground by one sad cyclone of fate. In the city of
+A.P., a resting place was found for the stranger who had suddenly dashed
+from their lips the scarcely tasted cup of happiness. Mr. Luzerne
+employed for her the best medical skill he could obtain. She was
+suffering from nervous prostration and brain fever. Annette was constant
+in her attentions to the sufferer, and day after day listened to her
+delirious ravings. Sometimes she would speak of a diamond necklace, and
+say so beseechingly, "Clarence, don't look at me so. You surely can't
+think that I am guilty. I will go away and hide myself from you.
+Clarence, you never loved me or you would not believe me guilty."
+
+But at length a good constitution and careful nursing overmastered
+disease, and she showed signs of recovery. Annette watched over her when
+her wild ravings sounded in her ears like requiems for the loved and
+cherished dead. Between her and the happiness she had so fondly
+anticipated, stood that one blighted life, but she watched that life
+just as carefully as if it had been the dearest life on earth she knew.
+
+One day, as Annette sat by her bedside, she surmised from the look on
+her face that the wandering reason of the sufferer had returned.
+Beckoning to Annette she said "Who are you and where am I?"
+
+Annette answered, "I am your friend and you are with friends."
+
+"Poor Clarence," she murmured to herself; "more sinned against than
+sinning."
+
+"My dear friend," Annette said very tenderly, "you have been very ill,
+and I am afraid that if you do not be very quiet you will be very sick
+again." Annette gently smoothed her beautiful hair and tried to soothe
+her into quietness. Rest and careful nursing soon wrought a wondrous
+change in Marie Luzerne, but Annette thoughtfully refrained from all
+reference to her past history and waited for time to unravel the mystery
+she could not understand, and with this unsolved mystery the match
+between her and Luzerne was broken off. At length, one day when Marie's
+health was nearly restored, she asked for writing materials, and said,
+"I mean to advertise for my mother in a Southern paper. It seems like a
+horrid dream that all I knew or loved, even my husband, whom I deserted,
+believed that I was dead, till I came suddenly on him in the park with a
+young lady by his side. She looked like you. Was it you?"
+
+"Yes," said Annette, as a sigh of relief came to her lips. If Clarence
+had wooed and won her he had not willfully deceived her. "Oh, how I
+would like to see him. I was wayward and young when I left him in anger.
+Oh, if I have sinned I have suffered; but I think that I could die
+content if I could only see him once more." Annette related the strange
+sad story to her physician, who decided that it was safe and desirable
+that there should be an interview between them. Luzerne visited his long
+lost wife and after a private interview, he called Annette to the room,
+who listened sadly while she told her story, which exonerated Luzerne
+from all intent to deceive Annette by a false marriage while she had a
+legal claim upon him.
+
+"I was born," she said, "in New Orleans. My father was a Spaniard and
+my mother a French Creole. She was very beautiful and my father met her
+at a French ball and wished her for his companion for life, but as she
+was an intelligent girl and a devout Catholic she would not consent to
+live a life by which she would be denied the Sacrament of her Church; so
+while she could not contract a civil marriage, which would give her the
+legal claims of a wife, she could enter into an ecclesiastical marriage
+by which she would not forfeit her claim to the rights and privileges of
+the Church as a good Catholic. I was her only child, loved and petted by
+my father, and almost worshipped by my mother, and I never knew what it
+was to have a wish unfilled if it was in her power to gratify it. When I
+was about 16 I met Clarence Luzerne. People then said that I was very
+beautiful. You would scarcely think so now, but I suppose he thought so,
+too. In a short time we were married, and soon saw that we were utterly
+unfitted to each other; he was grave and I was gay; he was careful and
+industrious, I was careless and extravagant; he loved the quiet of his
+home and books; I loved the excitements of pleasure and the ball room,
+and yet I think he loved me, but it was as a father might love a wayward
+child whom he vainly tried to restrain. I had a cousin who had been
+absent from New Orleans a number of years, of whose antecedents I knew
+not scarcely anything. He was lively, handsome and dashing. My husband
+did not like his society, and objected to my associating with him. I did
+not care particularly for him, but I chafed against the restraint, and
+in sheer waywardness I continued the association. One day he brought me
+a beautiful diamond necklace which he said he had obtained in a distant
+land. I laid it aside intending to show it to my husband; in the
+meantime, a number of burglaries had been committed in the city of B.,
+and among them was a diamond necklace. My heart stood still with sudden
+fear while I read of the account and while I was resolving what to do,
+my husband entered the house followed by two officers, who demanded the
+necklace. My husband interfered and with a large sum of money obtained
+my freedom from arrest. My husband was very proud of the honor of his
+family and blamed me for staining its record. From that day my husband
+seemed changed in his feelings towards me. He grew cold, distant and
+abstracted, and I felt that my presence was distasteful to him. I could
+not enter into his life and I saw that he had no sympathy with mine, and
+so in a fit of desperation I packed my trunk and took with me some money
+I had inherited from my father and left, as I said in a note, forever. I
+entered a convent and resolved that I would devote myself to the service
+of the poor and needy, for life had lost its charms for me. I had
+scarcely entered the convent before the yellow fever broke out and raged
+with fearful intensity. I was reckless of my life and engaged myself as
+a nurse. One day there came to our hospital a beautiful girl with a
+wealth of raven hair just like mine was before I became a nurse. I
+nursed her through a tedious illness and when she went out from the
+hospital, as I had an abundance of clothing, I supplied her from my
+wardrobe with all she needed, even to the dress she wore away. The
+clothing was all marked with my name. Soon after I saw in the paper that
+a young woman who was supposed from the marks on her clothing and the
+general description of her person to be myself was found drowned in a
+freshet. I was taken ill immediately afterwards and learned on
+recovering that I had been sick and delirious for several weeks. I
+sought for my mother, inquired about my husband, but lost all trace of
+them both till I suddenly came across my husband in Brightside Park. But
+Clarence, if you have formed other ties don't let me come between you
+and the sunshine. You are free to apply for a divorce; you can make the
+plea of willful desertion. I will not raise the least straw in your way.
+I will go back to the convent and spend the rest of my life in penitence
+and prayer. I have sinned; it is right that I should suffer." Clarence
+looked eagerly into the face of Annette; it was calm and peaceful, but
+in it he read no hope of a future reunion.
+
+"What say you, Annette, would you blame me if I accepted this release?"
+
+"I certainly would. She is your lawful wife. In the church of her father
+you pledged your faith to her, and I do not think any human law can
+absolve you from being faithful to your marriage vows. I do not say it
+lightly. I do not think any mother ever laid her first born in the grave
+with any more sorrow than I do to-day when I make my heart the sepulchre
+in which I bury my first and only love. This, Clarence, is the saddest
+trial of my life. I am sadder to-day than when I stood a lonely orphan
+over my grandmother's grave, and heard the clods fall on her coffin and
+stood lonely and heart-stricken in my uncle's house, and felt that I was
+unwelcome there. But, Clarence, the great end of life is not the
+attainment of happiness but the performance of duty and the development
+of character. The great question is not what is pleasant but what is
+right."
+
+"Annette, I feel that you are right; but I am too wretched to realize
+the force of what you say. I only know that we must part, and that means
+binding my heart as a bleeding sacrifice on the altar of duty."
+
+"Do you not know who drank the cup of human suffering to its bitter
+dregs before you? Arm yourself with the same mind, learn to suffer and
+be strong. Yes, we must part; but if we are faithful till death heaven
+will bring us sweeter rest." And thus they parted. If Luzerne had felt
+any faltering in his allegiance to duty he was too honorable and upright
+when that duty was plainly shown to him to weakly shrink from its
+performance, and as soon as his wife was able to travel he left A.P.,
+for a home in the sunny South. After Luzerne had gone Annette thought,
+"I must have some active work which will engross my mind and use every
+faculty of my soul. I will consult with my dear friend Mrs. Lasette."
+
+All unnerved by her great trial, Annette rang Mrs. Lasette's front door
+bell somewhat hesitatingly and walked wearily into the sitting-room,
+where she found Mrs. Lasette resting in the interval between twilight
+and dark. "Why Annette!" she said with pleased surprise, "I am so glad
+to see you. How is Clarence? I thought you would have been married
+before now. I have your wedding present all ready for you."
+
+"Mrs. Lasette," Annette said, while her voice trembled with
+inexpressible sorrow, "it is all over."
+
+Mrs. Lasette was lighting the lamp and had not seen Annette's face in
+the dusk of the evening, but she turned suddenly around at the sound of
+her voice and noticed the wan face so pitiful in its expression of
+intense suffering.
+
+"What is the matter, my dear; have you and Luzerne had a lover's
+quarrel?"
+
+"No," said Annette, sadly, and then in the ears of her sympathizing
+friend she poured her tale of bitter disappointment. Mrs. Lasette folded
+the stricken girl to her heart in tenderest manner.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Lasette," she said, "you make me feel how good it is for girls
+to have a mother."
+
+"Annette, my brave, my noble girl, I am so glad."
+
+"Glad of what, Mrs. Lasette?"
+
+"Glad that you have been so true to conscience and to duty; glad that
+you have come through your trial like gold tried in the fiercest fire;
+glad that my interest in you has not been in vain, and that I have been
+able to see the blessed fruitage of my love and labors. And now, my dear
+child, what next?"
+
+"I must have a change; I must find relief in action. I feel so weak and
+bruised in heart."
+
+"A bruised reed will not break," murmured Mrs. Lasette to herself.
+
+"Annette," said Mrs. Lasette, "this has been a fearful trial, but it
+must not be in vain; let it bring you more than happiness; let it bring
+you peace and blessedness. There is only one place for us to bring our
+sins and our sorrows, and that is the mercy seat. Let us both kneel
+there to-night and ask for grace to help in this your time of need. We
+are taught to cast our care upon Him for he careth for us. Come, my
+child, with the spirit of submission and full surrender, and consecrate
+your life to his service, body, soul and spirit, not as a dead offering,
+but a living sacrifice."
+
+Together they mingled their prayers and tears, and when Annette rose
+from her knees there was a look of calmness on her face, and a deep
+peace had entered her soul. The strange trial was destined to bring joy
+and gladness and yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness in the
+future. Mrs. Lasette wrote to some friends in a distant Southern town
+where she obtained a situation for Annette as a teacher. Here she soon
+found work to enlist her interest and sympathy and bring out all the
+activity of her soul. She had found her work and the people among whom
+she labored had found their faithful friend.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XX
+
+
+Luzerne's failure to marry Annette and re-instatement of his wife was
+the sensation of the season. Some pitied Annette; others blamed Luzerne,
+but Annette found, as a teacher, opportunity among the freedmen to be a
+friend and sister to those whose advantages had been less than hers.
+Life had once opened before her like a fair vision enchanted with
+delight, but her beautiful dream had faded like sun rays mingling with
+the shadows of night. It was the great disappointment of her life, but
+she roused up her soul to bear suffering and to be true to duty, and
+into her soul came a joy which was her strength. Little children learned
+to love her, the street gamins knew her as their friend, aged women
+blessed the dear child as they called her, who planned for their comfort
+when the blasts of winter were raging around their homes. Before her
+great trial she had found her enjoyment more in her intellectual than
+spiritual life, but when every earthly prop was torn away, she learned
+to lean her fainting head on Christ the corner-stone and the language of
+her heart was "Nearer to thee, e'en though it be a cross that raiseth
+me." In surrendering her life she found a new life and more abundant
+life in every power and faculty of her soul.
+
+Luzerne went South and found Marie's mother who had mourned her child as
+dead. Tenderly they watched over her, but the seeds of death were sown
+too deeply in her wasted frame for recovery, and she wasted away and
+sank into a premature grave, leaving Luzerne the peaceful satisfaction
+of having smoothed her passage to the grave, and lengthened with his
+care, her declining days. Turning from her grave he plunged into active
+life. It was during the days of reconstruction when tricksters and
+demagogues were taking advantage of the ignorance and inexperience of
+the newly enfranchised citizens. Honorable and upright, Luzerne
+preserved his integrity among the corruptions of political life. Men
+respected him too much to attempt to swerve him from duty for personal
+advantage. No bribes ever polluted his hands, nor fraud, nor political
+chicanery ever stained his record.
+
+He was the friend and benefactor of his race, giving them what gold is
+ever too poor to buy--the benefit of a good example and a noble life,
+and earned for himself the sobriquet by which he was called, "honest
+Luzerne." And yet at times he would turn wistfully to Annette and the
+memory of those glad, bright days when he expected to clasp hands with
+her for life. At length his yearning had become insatiable and he
+returned to A. P.
+
+Laura Lasette had married Charley Cooper who by patience and industry
+had obtained a good position in the store of a merchant who was manly
+enough to let it be known that he had Negro blood in his veins, but that
+he intended to give him a desk and place in his establishment and he
+told his employees that he intended to employ him, and if they were not
+willing to work with him they could leave. Charley was promoted just the
+same as others according to his merits. Time had dealt kindly with Mrs.
+Lasette, as he scattered his silvery crystals amid her hair, and of her
+it might be said,
+
+  Each silver hair, each wrinkle there
+    Records some good deed done,
+  Some flower she scattered by the way
+    Some spark from love's bright sun.
+
+Mrs. Larkins had grown kinder and more considerate as the years passed
+by. Mr. Thomas had been happily married for several years. Annette was
+still in her Southern home doing what she could to teach, help and
+befriend those on whose chains the rust of ages had gathered. Mr.
+Luzerne found out Annette's location and started Southward with a fresh
+hope springing up in his heart.
+
+It was a balmy day in the early spring when he reached the city where
+Annette was teaching. Her home was a beautiful place of fragrance and
+flowers. Groups of young people were gathered around their teacher
+listening eagerly to a beautiful story she was telling them. Elderly
+women were scattered in little companies listening to or relating some
+story of Annette's kindness to them and their children.
+
+"I told her," said one, "that I had a vision that some one who was fair,
+was coming to help us. She smiled and said she was not fair. I told her
+she was fair to me."
+
+"I wish she had been here fifteen years ago," said another one. "Before
+she came my boy was just as wild as a colt, but now he is jist as stiddy
+as a judge."
+
+"I just think," said another one, "that she has been the making of my
+Lucy. She's just wrapped up in Miss Annette, thinks the sun rises and
+sets in her." Old mothers whose wants had been relieved, came with the
+children and younger men too, to celebrate Annette's 31st birthday.
+Happy and smiling, like one who had passed through suffering into peace
+she stood, the beloved friend of old and young, when suddenly she heard
+a footstep on the veranda which sent the blood bounding in swift
+currents back to her heart and left her cheek very pale. It was years
+since she had heard the welcome rebound of that step, but it seemed as
+familiar to her as the voice of a loved and long lost friend, or a
+precious household word, and before her stood, with slightly bowed form
+and hair tinged with gray, Luzerne. Purified through suffering, which to
+him had been an evangel of good, he had come to claim the love of his
+spirit. He had come not to separate her from her cherished life work,
+but to help her in uplifting and helping those among whom her lot was
+cast as a holy benediction, and so after years of trial and pain, their
+souls had met at last, strengthened by duty, purified by that faith
+which works by love, and fitted for life's highest and holiest truths.
+
+And now, in conclusion, permit me to say under the guise of fiction, I
+have essayed to weave a story which I hope will subserve a deeper
+purpose than the mere amusement of the hour, that it will quicken and
+invigorate human hearts and not fail to impart a lesson of usefulness
+and value.
+
+
+
+Notes
+
+
+1. In the original, this sentence reads: "After she became a wife and
+mother, instead of becoming entirely absorbed in a round of household
+cares and duties, and she often said, that the moment the crown of
+motherhood fell upon her how that she had poured a new interest in the
+welfare of her race."
+
+2. The original reads "But Mr. Thompson."
+
+3. The original reads "but during her short sojourn in the South."
+
+4. In the original this sentence reads: "Young men anxious for places in
+the gift of government found that by winking at Frank Miller's vices and
+conforming to the demoralizing customs of his place, were the passports
+to political favors, and lacking moral stamina, hushed their consciences
+and became partakers of his sins."
+
+5. The original reads "Mrs. Larking."
+
+6. The original reads "said Mrs. Larkins, seating herself beside Mrs.
+Larking."
+
+7. The original reads "continued Mr. Slocum."
+
+8. The original reads "'Isn't your name Benny?'"
+
+9. The original reads "said Charley Hastings."
+
+10. The original reads "scarcely on intellect."
+
+11. The original reads "expensive views."
+
+12. The original reads "Mrs. Harcourt."
+
+13. The original reads "Mrs. Hanson."
+
+14. The original reads "Mr. Thomas."
+
+15. The original reads "Tom Hanson."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Trial and Triumph, by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
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