as a Southerner you don't believe that slavery was right."

"No, ma'm, for slavery must dwarf the soul and the Book teaches that the
Ethiopian had a soul to save."

"But some of the slaves must have been kindly treated."

"Yes, ma'm, but the true way to be kind to ignorance is to enlighten
it."

"The old man who preached had known enlightenment and yet he holds no
bitterness against the people who kept his race in the dark."

"Ma'm, as a general thing the negro is not revengeful. Sometimes he is a
beast and he commits terrible crimes, but he is often like an animal--a
dog. Kindness makes him forget an injury. With his strong animal nature
his affection is warm, and sometimes when he forgets revenge he has also
forgotten gratitude."

He fell into silence and they walked slowly along, now far behind the
others. She strove to lead him back into a discussion, but he would not
talk, and when they reached the house, she sat down alone, and he stood
out at the fence, looking up and down the road. A man came along and
asked him how much longer he expected to remain in the neighborhood,
and glancing round at the house, at the woman who sat near the door, he
replied: "Don't think I'm going to stay much longer. Have you had any
news from over my way?"

"None except they are anxious for you to come on back."

"Well, you may tell them that they may expect me soon."

That night the household went early to bed, with the exception of Old
Jasper who, with a candle, sat at his table, not reading the story
paper, but attempting to write.

CHAPTER XV.

THE GIRL AND THE CHURN.

The next morning Lou was churning out in the yard and near her Mrs.
Mayfield sat, sewing. The scene was inspiring. Off to the right flowed
the blue creek, and everywhere were the hills, softly purple in the
distance.

"Things look so lonesome since poor mammy died," said the girl.

"But her passing away was beautiful," the city woman made reply, sewing,
thinking, glancing up with a sigh and then permitting her gaze to wander
off among the hills. "You were very fond of her, weren't you?"

"Yes. Her black face was one of the first I ever saw. She nursed father
and me, too; and she was like a mother. I--I wish you would stay here a
long time, Mrs. Mayfield."

"I don't like to think of returning to what people almost senselessly
call the world. This is the world as God made it. And amid these
heart-throbs of genuine nature I am beginning to li