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died," said Mrs. Gray. "It is small, and never could have been very stylish; but if every field about it was cultivated to the very utmost, if all the fences were in perfect order, and all the paths smooth, it would seem quite in keeping with Mrs. Washington's 'brocades,' and Miss Custis's egrets.""

"Would it, mamma?" said Patty, doubtfully; "but I suppose it was warm weather a great deal of the time, and they came out and looked at the river, and perhaps they played graces with those little French rings on the lawn-or ball. I wonder if it was Washington who painted the house yellow?"

"I don't know," said Mrs. Gray. "It has been so ever since I can recollect."

CHAPTER XI.

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ON THE WAY TO THE NORTH ROOM.

S the wagon wound in among the trees,

Patty came upon a group of houses which had been lately built. The "Quarter," as the home of the slaves on a farm is always called, was well built at Mount Vernon; but the cabins were also close to the family house. These new huts had been put up in the woods by the freed people; and Minnie's hut, built for the old soldier by Washington himself, was best of all. It was made of slabs of concrete, which looked like solid stone, and had three rooms in it, beside the kitchen. Concrete is a mixture of lime and pebbles, which is very strong. The Spaniards built all their forts of it, when they first came to the country.

Minnie was a bright little mulatto woman, almost as pretty as Judy herself. She knew

Mrs. Gray was coming, and stood in the warm sun, on her door-stone, looking out for the carriage. Her best room had been warmed with a wood fire on the open hearth, and there was a nice white quilt on her bed. The fire was very needful, and so indeed was a good lamp; for there was no glass in the window, and it was necessary to shut the thick oaken shutter over it to keep out the cold.

They came up behind the house, over the grass; and Patty saw Minnie before Minnie caught a glimpse of the wagon. She had her hand over her eyes, shading them from the sun; and, as she tilted her body back and forth to the music of her own voice, Patty heard her sing,

"We'se gwine to de Ferry—

De bell done ringing, done ringing, done ringing!

Trust to de believer

De bell done ringing!

"Tis a misty morning

Oh, de bell done ringing!

Satan is ahind me

De bell done ringing, done ringing, done ringing!"

Minnie's voice was sweet and sad. It was the first time Patty had heard a negro sing, when nobody was by. This chant sounded very

different from the songs the children sang in the school-houses to amuse her. Before she knew it there were tears in her eyes.

They drew up to the house, and although Minnie had never seen Mrs. Gray, she came forward to meet her with a smiling face; for she knew how much Tony and Judy loved her.

The black bags were carried into the warm room, and Mrs. Gray said, with a smile, —

"I am afraid you have been very hard at work for me, Minnie. We shall stay so little while you need not have done much."

"Not hard," said Minnie, waving a white napkin that she took off the water-pitcher. "Not hard, only jes enough for stretch; but when you have washed your hand, lady, there's an early dinner waiting."

Neither Patty nor her mother were hungry; but they could not refuse the fried chicken, the white bread, the sweet pickles, nor the hot sponge-cake, with a frothy sauce, which Minnie made ready. Minnie was not poor; her husband was a smart workman, and always fully employed, and as she had no little babies to keep her busy, it gave her great pleasure to

entertain Tony's friends. The bear-skin was taken out of the wagon, and laid under Mrs. Gray's feet, to keep them off the clay floor. When Patty had eaten all she wanted, she went to the door to look out while she was waiting for her mother. Just outside, on the old soldier's bench, was a rough-looking white man. "Where are you going, little girl?" said he, somewhat astonished to see a little white child in Minnie's cabin.

"I am not going anywhere," said Patty. "I've just come here to see where George Washington lived.”

"That's what I came for," said the man. "I've been working in the ile region off west, and when I saw a G. W. on the trees I always knew it stood for good work. Virginia gave him thirty thousand acres of land out there, and most every bit of it he'd surveyed himself aforehand."

"I did not know Washington ever went to the oil region," said Patty.

"No more did I," said the man, cutting a quid of tobacco. "Never dreamed of such a thing till I see it. They say he was only

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