ldiers, and that she had come from
Louisiana, and then Minnie told her to come with her, and she would find
a place for her to stop."

"And did she leave you in the street to walk with a Nigger?" said a
coarse, rough-looking girl.

"Yes, and so I left her. I wasn't going to walk down the street with
them!"

"Well, did I ever?" said a pale and interesting-looking girl.

"That is just as strange as a romance I have been reading!"

"Well, they say truth is stranger than fiction. A deceitful thing to try
to pass for white when she is colored! If she comes back to this school
I shan't stay!" said the coarse rough girl, twirling her gold pencil. "I
ain't a going to sit alongside of niggers."

"How you talk! I don't see that if the woman is Minnie's mother, and
_is_ colored, it makes any difference in her. I am sure it does not to
me," said one of Minnie's friends.

"Well, it does to me," said another; "you may put yourself on an
equality with niggers, but I won't." "And I neither," chimed in another
voice. "There are plenty of colored schools; let her go to them."

"Oh, girls, I think it real cruel the way you talk!"

"How would you like any one to treat you so?" "Can't help it, I ain't a
coming to school with a nigger." "She is just as good as you are, Mary
Patuck, and a great deal smarter." "I don't care, she's a nigger, and
that's enough for me."

And so the sentiment of the school was divided. Some were in favor of
treating her just as well as usual, and others felt like complaining to
their parents that a Negro was in school.

At last the news reached the teacher, and he, poor, weak, and
vacillating man, had not manhood enough to defend her, but acted
according to the prejudices of society, and wrote Thomas a note telling
him that circumstances made it desirable that she should not again come
to school.

In the meantime the news had reached their quiet little village, and of
course it offered food for gossip; it was discussed over tea-tables and
in the sewing circle. Some concluded that Thomas should have brought her
up among the colored people, and others that he did perfectly right.

Still there was a change in Minnie's social relations. Some were just
as kind as ever. Others grew distant, and some avoided having anything
to say to her, and stopped visiting the house. Anna and Thomas, although
superior people, were human, and could not help feeling the difference,
but some business of importance connect