us toward any one of their race
who excelled them intellectually, and so there was little or no jealousy
of Annette in Tennis Court; in fact some of her neighbors felt a kind of
pride in the thought that Tennis Court would turn out a girl who could
stand on the same platform and graduate alongside of some of their
employers' daughters. If they could not stand there themselves they were
proud that one of their race could.

"I feel," said one, "like the boy when some one threatened to slap off
his face who said 'you can slap off my face, but I have a big brother
and you can't slap off his face;'" and strange as it may appear, Annette
received more encouragement from a class of honest-hearted but ignorant
and well meaning people who knew her, than she did from some of the most
cultured and intelligent people of A.P. Nor was it very strange; they
were living too near the poverty, ignorance and social debasement of the
past to have developed much race pride, and a glowing enthusiasm in its
progress and development. Although they were of African descent, they
were Americans whose thoughts were too much Americanized to be wholly
free from imbibing the social atmosphere with which they were in
constant contact in their sphere of enjoyments. The literature they read
was mostly from the hands of white men who would paint them in any
colors which suited their prejudices or predilections. The religious
ideas they had embraced came at first thought from the same sources,
though they may have undergone modifications in passing through their
channels of thought, and it must be a remarkable man or woman who thinks
an age ahead of the generation in which his or her lot is cast, and who
plans and works for the future on the basis of that clearer vision. Nor
is it to be wondered at, if under the circumstances, some of the more
cultured of A.P. thought it absurd to look for anything remarkable to
come out of the black Nazareth of Tennis court. Her neighbors had an
idea that Annette was very smart; that she had a great "head piece," but
unless she left A.P. to teach school elsewhere, they did not see what
good her education was going to do her. It wasn't going to put any meal
in the barrel nor any potatoes in the bin. Even Mrs. Larkins relaxed her
ancient hostility to Annette and opened her heart to present her with a
basket of flowers. Annette within the last year had become very much
changed in her conduct and character. She had become fri