endly in her
manner and considerate in her behavior to Mrs. Larkins since she had
entered the church, during a protracted meeting. Annette was rather
crude in her religious views but here again Mrs. Lasette became her
faithful friend and advisor. In dealing with a young convert she thought
more was needed than getting her into the church and making her feel
that the moment she rose from the altar with rejoicing on her lips, that
she was a full blown christian. That, to Mrs. Lasette was the initial
step in the narrow way left luminous by the bleeding feet of Christ, and
what the young convert needed was to be taught how to walk worthy of her
high calling, and to make her life a thing of usefulness and
faithfulness to God and man, a growth in grace and in the saving
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Simply attired in a dress which Mrs.
Lasette thought fitted for the occasion, Annette took her seat quietly
on the platform and calmly waited till her turn came. Her subject was
announced: "The Mission of the Negro." It was a remarkable production
for a girl of her age. At first she portrayed an African family seated
beneath their bamboo huts and spreading palms; the light steps of the
young men and maidens tripping to music, dance and song; their pastimes
suddenly broken upon by the tramp of the merchants of flesh and blood;
the capture of defenceless people suddenly surprised in the midst of
their sports, the cries of distress, the crackling of flames, the cruel
oaths of reckless men, eager for gold though they coined it from tears
and extracted it from blood; the crowding of the slaveships, the horrors
of the middle passage, the landing of the ill-fated captives were
vividly related, and the sad story of ages of bondage. It seemed as if
the sorrow of centuries was sobbing in her voice. Then the scene
changed, and like a grand triumphal march she recounted the deliverance
of the Negro, and the wondrous change which had come over his condition;
the slave pen exchanged for the free school, the fetters on his wrist
for the ballot in his right hand. Then her voice grew musical when she
began to speak of the mission of the Negro, "His mission," she said, "is
grandly constructive." Some races had been "architects of destruction,"
but their mission was to build over the ruins of the dead past, the most
valuable thing that a man or woman could possess on earth, and that is
good character. That mission should be to bless and not to c