. Oh, there are
lessons of life that we never learn in the bowers of ease. They must be
learned in the fire. For months life seemed to me a dull, sad thing, and
for a while I did not care whether I lived or died, the sunshine had
suddenly faded from my path, and the future looked so dark and
cheerless. But now, when I look back upon those days of gloom and
suffering, I think they were among the most fruitful of my life, for in
those days of pain and sorrow my resolution was formed to join the
fortunes of my mother's race, and I resolved to brighten her old age
with a joy, with a gladness she had never known in her youth. And how
could I have done that had I left her unrecognized and palmed myself
upon society as a white woman? And to tell you the truth, having passed
most of my life in white society, I did not feel that the advantages of
that society would have ever paid me for the loss of my self-respect, by
passing as white, when I knew that I was colored; when I knew that any
society, however cultivated, wealthy or refined, would not be a social
gain to me, if my color and not my character must be my passport of
admission. So, when I found out that I was colored, I made up my mind
that I would neither be pitied nor patronized by my former friends; but
that I would live out my own individuality and do for my race, as a
colored woman, what I never could accomplish as a white woman."

"I think I understand you," said Camilla; "and although I tremble for
you in the present state, yet you cannot do better than live out the
earnest purpose of your life. I feel that we owe a great debt to the
colored race, and I would aid and not hinder any hand that is ready to
help do the needed work. I have felt for many years that slavery was
wrong, and I am glad, from the bottom of my heart, that it has at last
been destroyed. And what are your plans, Louis?"

"We are going to open a school, and devote our lives to the upbuilding
of the future race. I intend entering into some plan to facilitate the
freedmen in obtaining homes of their own. I want to see this newly
enfranchised race adding its quota to the civilization of the land. I
believe there is power and capacity, only let it have room for exercise
and development. We demand no social equality, no supremacy of power.
All we ask is that the American people will take their Christless,
Godless prejudices out of the way, and give us a chance to grow, an
opportunity to accept life, n