want to be white?"

"You know that's a foolish question," and Ellen looked sadly at her
sister. "You know as well, better than I, the handicap of color. Haven't
I seen you have to bear it? But still it's great to belong to a rising
race, not to one that's on top and likely to fall."

"To fall? How silly."

"Is it? Well, perhaps it's improbable. But, anyway, that isn't what I
started to talk about. I didn't mean to talk of myself, but of you. I'm
afraid this isn't the right place for you."

"I love it here, too!" Hertha cried, showing more animation than was
usual with her. "I like the country; you know I do. Why, I love
everything about the place, all the flowers in our yard, the pigs, the
chickens, the pines. I think it's the most beautiful spot in the world,
and so does Tom."

She drew in a long breath and threw out her arms as though to take in
the whole of Merryvale.

"That's all right, but you can't live just on flowers and views; you
need people."

Hertha made no response, and they walked on for a time in silence.

"It's like this," Ellen continued. "You're a generation ahead of these
cabins, and you don't enjoy the people socially who live in them. It
isn't snobbish to say this; it's just true. You haven't a single friend
here. I can't think what it would mean if you went away. It would be
like losing the color out of the sky; everything would be dull gray. But
if you ought to go, you ought, and I should help you."

"Haven't you made unhappiness enough, Ellen, with your plans, making Tom
go, but you must get rid of me too?"

"That isn't fair."

"That's what it seems like."

"Let's talk reasonably. Of course it isn't the same with you as with
Tom; you're not a child."

"I'm glad you realize that."

"Why, Hertha, you're almost cross. Please let me explain what I mean.
I'm glad you like it here, but we all have to look ahead, and I can't
look ahead and see you a servant in a white man's home."

"Why not?"

"You're too refined, too delicate. You ought to enter the front door,
and if you can't enter there, isn't it better not to enter at all?"

There was no answer.

"I know I've talked this way before, and I'll try not to do so again,
but I want to make myself quite clear. It isn't as though I didn't
believe in colored girls going into domestic service; I do. There are
lots of people who belong at the back door, and it would be silly to
deny it and to put them at work beyond their ability; but