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Nobody will try to, but I don't want the door to blow open," said Mrs. Gray, helping Patty to take off her sack. "Let us hang up our things, and then we will make the bed before we get supper."

The

There were some large nails driven into the whitewashed wall, and on these Mrs. Gray hung Patty's hat and her own bonnet. shawls and rugs that Lundy had brought she folded smoothly, and put under the head of the upper mattress, for there were no pillows.

Patty helped her mother to spread the sheets on the bed. Just as they were smoothing the upper one, a bright ray from the setting sun darted into Patty's eyes, and blinded her so ' that she started back.

"Go to the window," said her mother; "you will never see a prettier sight; I will finish the bed alone, for I do not see that we are to have any candles."

Patty went gladly. She could see the flametipped chimneys of the distant city, and the statue of Liberty gleaming in the light, as if it were of pure gold. Little sloops were drifting down the Potomac, and their white sails

were winged with flame. A few row-boats scattered showers of fire from their busy oars. Patty had never seen a sight exactly like this. er Oh, mamma, " she said, with a sigh, "if it were only summer!"

"If it only were!" said Mrs. Gray; "but you must imagine the green grass and the rustling trees.

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Mrs. Gray said this while she was spreading her own fur cloak over the blankets on the foot of the bed. Just then there came a rap at the door.

Patty reached up on tiptoe, and turned the button. A tall, black man came in with a pail of water for washing, and a large tin candlestick. In it lay two poor tallow candles.

"Anything else, missis?" he said, setting down what he brought.

Mrs. Gray was busy at that moment, and she hardly heeded him. "I think not,” she said, absently. Something in her voice startled the man ; he drew nearer, and looked at her steadily.

"Pears like young missis done forgit me," said he; and then Mrs. Gray looked up.

"Why, Tony," she said, "how did you ever remember me?"

Tony shook his head. "I mus' go right after Judy," said he. "I shan't eat no supper till Miss Sophie hab hers;" and before Mrs. Gray could say a word, he was gone.

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Mamma," said Patty, "do you know him?”

"I have not seen him for twenty years," said her mother, sitting down, where she, too, could watch the fading light upon the river.

"It was when your father and myself were trying to start a colored school on Capitol Hill," said Mrs. Gray, still gazing on the glowing sky. "We had had a hard day's work, and had just been to Duddington House to get a direction to some new families. We stopped a moment in front of a nice-looking place for your father to open his book and make a note. We were so busy that we did not see a bright little mulatto woman, who ought to have been sweeping some leaves away from the walk. The first thing I heard was,

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"It is bad to work alone, Judy,' spoken in a coaxing voice. I looked up, and saw a black man with a noble face. He had put his arm round the little woman's waist, and stopped the broom. 'What's the use of waiting for better

times?' he added, just as I stole a look at

them.

"What's the use of making times harder now, Tony?' returned the woman; or of bringing others to wish as I do, that they never'd been born?'

"Then your father and I moved on; but I knew the whole story. The woman was a slave, and all her children would be slaves also. The man was a free man; but that did not help his children. By the old law, the children followed the condition of their mother."

"Oh, mamma," said Patty, "what did a free man ever love a slave woman for?

he find a free woman to marry?"

Why didn't

"Colored men are very much like other men," "I used to

said Mrs. Gray, smiling sadly.

think, when I lived here, that the smartest men were free, and the prettiest and nicest women slaves. The smart free man wanted a bright and pretty wife. He could only find her among those who had been well trained in white families. The next day I went to see Judy's mistress. She put a reasonable price on her pretty little servant, and two or three of my friends

lent me the money to buy her. Tony was married before the month was out. He and his wife both went to work for themselves, and in less than a year they had paid me the price of Judy's freedom."

"Didn't you hate to pay money for a woman?" said Patty. "How could you?"

"It was the only way in which I could serve her," said Mrs. Gray. "I tried to forget all the rest."

At this moment there came a timid knock at the door, and Tony and Judy came in. Their arms were full. It did not seem a minute before a pair of comfortable pillows were on the bed, before a little black tea-pot was down on the hearth, a snowy cloth on the table, and a bright pine splint burning like a torch in one corner of the wide chimney. Patty saw that there would be no need of the greasy candles, and felt very glad.

Rapid words of welcome had passed between Tony, Judy, and her mother, from the first moment; but until the new-comers had emptied their arms, Patty could hardly see their faces, or understand their words.

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