obody, not even to me, because he didn't want to do
Rena no harm. Frank is the best friend I have got in town, because he
does so much for me and don't want nothing in return. (He tells me not
to put this in about him, but I want you to know it.)

And now about Rena. She come to see me, and I got better right away,
for it was longing for her as much as anything else that made me sick,
and I was mighty mizzable. When she had been here three days and was
going back next day, she went up town to see the doctor for me, and
while she was up there she fainted and fell down in the street, and Dr.
Green sent her home in his buggy and come down to see her. He couldn't
tell what was the matter with her, but she has been sick ever since and
out of her head some of the time, and keeps on calling on somebody by
the name of George, which was the young white man she told me she was
going to marry. It seems he was in town the day Rena was took sick,
for Frank saw him up street and run all the way down here to tell me,
so that she could keep out of his way, while she was still up town
waiting for the doctor and getting me some camphor gum for my camphor
bottle. Old Judge Straight must have knowed something about it, for he
sent me a note to keep Rena in the house, but the little boy he sent it
by didn't bring it till Rena was already gone up town, and, as I
couldn't read, of course I didn't know what it said. Dr. Green heard
Rena running on while she was out of her head, and I reckon he must
have suspicioned something, for he looked kind of queer and went away
without saying nothing. Frank says she met this man on the street, and
when he found out she wasn't white, he said or done something that
broke her heart and she fainted and fell down.

I am writing you this letter because I know you will be worrying about
Rena not coming back. If it wasn't for Frank, I hardly know how I
could write to you. Frank is not going to say nothing about Rena's
passing for white and meeting this man, and neither am I; and I don't
suppose Judge Straight will say nothing, because he is our good friend;
and Dr. Green won't say nothing about it, because Frank says Dr.
Green's cook Nancy says this young man named George stopped with him
and was some cousin or relation to the family, and they wouldn't want
people to know that any of their kin was thinking about marrying a
colored girl, and the white folks have all been mad since J. B.
Thompson marri