;
"oh, how Misc Somers will say, 'I found it out first!'"

Tom kept up a whistling, self-gratulating little cry, as if he had his
own thoughts:

"Sweety! sweety! sweet! Vesty, see! see! see!"

Vesta felt a chain of happy thoughts arise in her mind, which she
expressed as frankly as the girl of forest product had spoken, that she
might not retard the welcome of these homely friendships:

"Yes, Rhoda, I am thankful to find a social life open to me where there
seemed no way, and brooks and playmates where everything looked dry. You
come here like a sunbeam, God bless you! I can hear you talk, and teach
you what little I know, and we will relieve each other, watching him."

She felt a slight modification of her joy at this reminder, but the bird
seemed to teach her patience, as he suggested, hopping and flying in the
air,

"Come see! come see! come see!"

"Yes," thought Vesta, "_come and see!_ It is good counsel. I begin to
feel the breaking of a new sense,--curiosity about the poor and lowly.
My education seems to have closed my observation on people of my own
race, who daily trode almost upon my skirts, and whom I never saw--whom
it was considered respectable not to see--while even my colored servants
enjoyed my whole confidence because they were my slaves. Yet, in
misfortune, to these plain white people I must have dropped; and then
Roxy and Virgie, sold to some temporary rich man, would have been above
me, slaves as they would continue! How false, how fatal, both slavery
and proud riches to the republicans we pretend to be! Compelled 'to see'
at last, I shall not close my eyes nor harden my heart."

The maid from Newark had meantime quietly inspected the rag carpet, the
cloth hangings, the fairy rocker, and all the acquisitions of her
uncle's abode, and Vesta again observed that she was of slender and
willowy shape and motion, unaffected in anything, not forward nor
excited, and with the shrewd look so near ready wit that she could make
Vesta laugh almost at will. Vesta showed her how to administer cool
drink and the sponging to the sufferer, and he saw them together with a
look of inquiry which the febrile action soon drove away.

"Are your parents living, Rhoda?"

"No'm; they're both dead. My mother was Uncle Meshach's sister, and she
married a rich man, who biled salt and had vessels an' kept tavern.
Father Hullin died of the pilmonary; mar died next. Misc Somers brought
me up whar the tavern used to be.