is sure to appear.'" And, thus speaking, she
turned from the window, and was soon deeply occupied in the important work
of preparing for the expected little stranger. Mrs. Garie was mistaken in
her supposition that Mrs. Stevens was unaware that Clarence and little Em
attended the same school to which her own little girl had been sent; for
the evening before the conversation we have just narrated, she had been
discussing the matter with her husband.

"Here," said she to him, "is Miss Jordan's bill for the last quarter. I
shall never pay her another; I am going to remove Lizzy from that school."

"Remove her! what for? I thought I heard you say, Jule, that the child got
on excellently well there,--that she improved very fast?"

"So she does, as far as learning is concerned; but she is sitting right
next to one of those Garie children, and that is an arrangement I don't at
all fancy. I don't relish the idea of my child attending the same school
that niggers do; so I've come to the determination to take her away."

"I should do no such thing," coolly remarked Mr. Stevens. "I should compel
the teacher to dismiss the Garies, or I should break up her school. Those
children have no right to be there whatever. I don't care a straw how light
their complexions are, they are niggers nevertheless, and ought to go to a
nigger school; they are no better than any other coloured children. I'll
tell you what you can do, Jule," continued he: "call on Mrs. Kinney, the
Roths, and one or two others, and induce them to say that if Miss Jordan
won't dismiss the Garies that they will withdraw their children; and you
know if they do, it will break up the school entirely. If it was any other
person's children but his, I would wink at it; but I want to give him a
fall for his confounded haughtiness. Just try that plan, Jule, and you will
be sure to succeed."

"I am not so certain about it, Stevens. Miss Jordan, I learn, is very fond
of their little Em. I must say I cannot wonder at it. She is the most
loveable little creature I ever saw. I will say that, if her mother is a
nigger."

"Yes, Jule, all that may be; but I know the world well enough to judge
that, when she becomes fully assured that it will conflict with her
interests to keep them, she will give them up. She is too poor to be
philanthropic, and, I believe, has sufficient good sense to know it."

"Well, I'll try your plan," said Mrs. Stevens; "I will put matters in train
to-morrow