preparatory to going to their rooms for the night.
Suddenly Catherine Holloway spoke.

"Listen, girls," she said; "Miss Smith says we are to have a real
Debating Club, with officers and regular club nights, and all sorts of
interesting subjects. Won't it be fun? And what do you suppose the
first topic is to be?"

Books were dropped on the table, and several voices exclaimed in eager
question, "What?"

"'Resolved: That Slavery be abolished.' And Betty Van Lew is to take
the negative side!"

There was a chorus of suppressed "Oh-h-hs!" around the table, then
some one asked, "Who is going to take the other side?"

The speaker shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "I hope it will
be me. My, but it would be exciting to debate that question against
Betty!"

"You would get the worst of it," said a positive voice. "There isn't a
girl in school who knows what she thinks on any subject as clearly as
Betty knows what she believes about slavery."

The speaker tossed her head. "You don't know much about it, if you
think that!" she declared. "We Massachusetts colonists are just as
sure on our side as she is on hers--and you all ought to be if you are
not! Father says it is only in the cotton-raising States that they
think the way Betty does, and we Northerners must stand firm against
having human beings bought and sold like merchandise. I just hope I
will be chosen on that debate against Betty."

She was, but she came off vanquished by the verbal gymnastics of her
opponent, to whom the arguments in favor of slavery were as familiar
as the principles of arithmetic, for Betty had heard the subject
discussed by eloquent and interested men ever since she was able to
understand what they were talking about.

Never did two opponents argue with greater fire and determination for
a cause than did those two school-girls, pitted against each other in
a discussion of a subject far beyond their understanding. So cleverly
did the Virginia girl hold up her end of the debate against her New
England opponent, and so shrewdly did she repeat all the arguments she
had heard fall from Southern lips, that she sat down amid a burst of
applause, having won her case, proudly sure that from that moment
there would be no more argument against slavery among her schoolmates,
for who could know more about it than the daughter of one of
Richmond's leading inhabitants? And who could appreciate the great
advantages of slavery to the slaves themselves