he whites, he becomes a
stranger to his own kind, and he has really no friends. The white man
says 'Come here to us,' and when the black man comes as near as he can,
there is still a gulf that he cannot pass. I am a lonely man, Miss
Elizabeth; I have left my own people, and there is no one that I can
call a friend. Even you only tolerate me because you think it pleasing
to God that you should do so; but you would never be my friend or let
me be yours."

"There you are wrong, Samuel," replied the girl, moved by a sense of
great pity; "I have the warmest friendship and regard for you, and I
like you as well as if you were white."

Samuel then did an unusual thing--he held out his hand to the girl, who
took it and pressed it cordially.

"Good night. Miss Elizabeth," he said. "I will do my duty better, and
try to be worthy of your friendship. You have lightened my heart."

Miss Blake went in to the empty class-room and arranged the morrow's
work. She was filled with a vague sense of uneasiness, and she felt
that in her conversation with Samuel she had not been quite ingenuous;
especially in her closing remark.

Samuel went to his room, and, as was his wont, read several chapters of
the Bible before going to bed. On this occasion his choice fell upon
the Song of Solomon. This he read right through. He began it again, and
read until he reached the words, "I am black but comely." He went to
sleep with these words on his lips, and with a strange dream at his
heart.

IV.

The mission was perplexed by another change in Samuel. He bought a new
suit of clothes; he parted his hair on the left side, teasing it up
into two high, unequal ridges; he became redolent of cheap scent; he
applied himself anew to his studies, with feverish activity, and he
pulled his disorderly class together so effectively, that when the
school inspector again came to the mission, that official dealt out
almost unstinted praise instead of the censure which was usually
Samuel's well-deserved portion.

Moreover, Samuel notified his intention of qualifying forthwith for his
next step towards the ministry. In the choir, his voice rang out with
an almost birdlike rapture that astonished all hearers.

It was then noticed that Martha Kawa began to lose her place at the top
of the class. It should be mentioned that all the boarders, as well as
the senior day pupils, were taught by Miss Blake, and that Samuel
taught the second class. The very small pupil