e with sorrow. I have
come to direct your thoughts to that better world, where the
distinctions of caste do not exist."

"O, that I could die!" murmured Emily, as a feeling of despair crept to
her mind.

"Nay, child, you must not repine at the will of Heaven. In God's own
good time He will call you hence."

"I will not repine; but what a terrible life is before me!"

"The future is wisely concealed from us. It is in the keeping of the
Almighty. He may have many years of happiness and usefulness in store
for you."

"But I am an outcast now,--one whom all my former friends will
despise,--a slave!" replied Emily, covering her face with her hands, and
sobbing convulsively.

"Nay, be calm; do not give way to such bitter thoughts. This may be a
deception, though, to be candid, I can scarcely see any reason to think
so."

Emily caught at the slight hope thus extended to her; her eyes
brightened, and a little color returned to her pallid cheek.

"Heaven send that it may prove so!" said she; "for I cannot believe that
he who taught me to call him by the endearing name of father; who
watched so tenderly over my infancy, and guided my youthful heart so
faithfully; who, an hour before he died, called me daughter, and blessed
me with his dying breath,--I cannot believe he has been so cruel to me!"

"It seems scarcely possible; but, my child, the ways of Providence are
inscrutable. Whatever afflictions visit us, they are ordered for our
good. Trust in God, my dear one, and all will yet be well."

"I will, I will! My father's and your good instructions shall not be
lost upon me, slave though I am. _Dear_ father," said she, and the tears
blinded her,--"I love his memory still, though every word of this hated
will were true. I ought not to repine, whatever be my future lot. That
he loved me as a daughter, I can never doubt; that he never told me I am
a slave, I will forgive, for he meant it well."

"I am glad to witness your Christian faith and patience in this painful
event. But, Emily, had you no intimation or suspicion of this trial
before?"

"No, never, not the slightest," said Emily, wiping away the tears which
had gathered on her cheeks.

"See if you cannot call to mind some slight circumstance, which you can
now recognize as such."

Emily reflected a few moments, and then replied that she could not.

"And your house-servants are all too young to remember as long ago as
your birth?"

"All but Hatchie."

"Pe