Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/410

Rh of the republican people of America, especially in the South, isa little possessed of the devil; and but little in harmony with the aim of this community. The old Adam in the old uniform is going about still!

Yesterday I went out alone on a ramble of discovery through wood and field. I came to a pretty little house in the midst of a wood, and there stood at its door, and apparently its owner, a fat Mulatto-woman. With the excuse of obtaining a glass of water I went into the house and fell into discourse with the old couple, a negro and his wife, to whom the house and a little garden belonged. The Mulatto-woman was talkative and showed me the whole house, which the master of herself and her husband had built for them and given them for their life-time. It showed throughout that the old couple had a love of order and excellence, not only in the house but the garden. Their children were all dead, and some dark words accompanied by dark glances escaped the old woman in the bitter feeling of the loss of her children through the fault of others, which made me aware of a dark background to this bright picture. But I would not seek to know more. The old negro, I thought, looked anxious when his wife talked gloomily.

At another place in the wood I saw, at a very little residence, two elderly white ladies, evidently sisters, and meanly clad, sitting enjoying the shade of a live-oak. I asked permission to sit down with them in the shade. They consented, and thus I fell into discourse with them, was shown their house, and made acquainted with their circumstances. These were narrow. The sisters had seen better days, but had, since the death of their father, fallen into need; they were now supported by the product of their place and by dressmaking. But they were contented, and piety and labour made life serene and the days short. If only the health of one of the sisters were a little better; and the summers and the sand a little