eg the white one's pardon."
"Well," said Mrs. West, "we held a meeting the other night, and I told
the few who had the courage to venture out that I was going. Give me
liberty or give me death! I would rather be a beggar in a land of
liberty than a Croesus where my wealth will not purchase toleration. The
colored citizens who own property are the very ones who have been forced
to leave the city." "I have also made up my mind to do the same,"
answered Mrs. Sikes. "William is so disgusted that he wants to go even
if he has to sell our property for half its value. Then he thinks that
in New York he can go under treatment in one of the many great hospitals
there. He has improved so much that he believes final recovery possible.
To tell you the truth, I did not believe that I could become so
disgusted with my own home, in which I was born and loved so well." "It
may all be for the best," said Mrs. West. "Some one hath sinned--there
is an Achan in the camp, and when the sin is punished innocent and
guilty suffer alike. In our prosperity we have strayed away from Him who
hath redeemed us, and these broken down aristocrats and poor white
indentured slaves are the Philistines sent to scourge us. And, then, we
have been slaves to the idea that there is no place on earth for us to
live but here in our home. The eagle hath stirred up her nest that her
young may scatter abroad. Old as I am, I will leave Wilmington, trusting
in God and feeling that the world is mine, and if I can't live in peace
in one place I can go to another. But the most important thing is, Molly
has consented to go." "Brave girl!" said Mrs. Sikes. "I heard of her
wonderful deeds during the massacre; I didn't believe it was in her. In
her new surroundings, away from old associate, she will keep straight. I
have made up my mind to go finally to Cleveland, Ohio, my old home.
Colored women are not so much annoyed by white men in the North and West
as in the South, and Molly may there be enabled to quit her old habits.
We will see each other before we start away, as I shall take a steamer,
for we may stay a while in New York," concluded Mrs. West, rising to go.
"It matters not where on earth we may roam, there are twelve gates to
the City up there. There is no more parting, no more persecution, no
more separation, no tears. So long, till I see you again."

The usurping Mayor of Wilmington had just disposed of the last case upon
docket, dismissed the court and had sett