The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-08-21

OF sending her away. 1t would nave been
a most revolutionary proceeding, for Flo
rinda's grandmother was an old family
servant-the only one who, undazzled by
the brilliant prospects opened to her race by
the war, had staid quietly in her Virginia
home and grown old with the ladies with
whom she had been young, in an exchange
of mutual good offices and affection very
charming to behold 1t was she who had
put into Florinda the handspring of all
her actions. 81 wuz bawn in dis here
fambly-Fse 'gwine die in dis here fam
bly," the faithful soul would say. ''Ez
fur you, bar dis in mind, fust an last.
Dey is POI, but dey is quality. Being POI,
dey can't go hirin' round all sorts er trash
like some. Bein' quality, dey warnt
brung up TO do fur themselves like some.
All dem oder triflin' black niggers done
lief 'em long ago. But OATS nothin'. Dey
got me to take care of 'em, honey" Bright,
active, as full of audacity as resources and
impressed with q sense of her own impor-
lance it is not surprising that the child
became power in the house, and indeed
out of it, for she could sew, sweep cook,
wash, milk, scrub, drive, and on occasion
even pillow little, had genius for every
day matters, and at her sauciest had only
the pert familiarity, or rather took only the
innocent liberties of child or savage
liberties to which Southerners are quite
accustomed and which have no root of
actual disrespect in them
But this is depression, our business be-
ing not with this original young African
but with Miss Roberta as she whirls along
at the local rate of speed, which is not that
of the "Flying Dutchman" between Liver
pool and London, but allows the curious
traveller to look about him Just as if he
were walking without the fatigue of that
exercise. All the same it was an eXhilara-
ting experience to Miss Roberta, whose life
of utter seclusion made any thing in the
shape of change or movement delightful.
She had not been out of her own county
| before for twenty years, or out of her own
State in all her life, so that to be going to
Ohio was a charming state of affairs some
what clouded by the unnecessary anXieties
and fears that haunt people unused to
travelling Long before Milford was reached
Miss Roberta had suffered many pangSthat
would have struck any one accustomed to
the rush and whirl of modern life as utterly
absurd. A cosmopolitan American would
not have felt such in a voyage around the
world, and though ridiculous from this
standpoint, they were very real. How
would they know when the train arrived
at Milford, when the stations were an
nounced in Choctaw, to all intents and
purposes! Suppose she were to get off at
the wrong station, or be carried off into
that wide world that teemed with dangers
to unprotected spinstersl Every time pas
sengers left the car she started up nervous
ly and tried to find out where she was or
sat still, ashamed to make inquiries and
dreading the result. Whenever the con-
ductor entered the car she looked at him
appealingly TO recall to him without furth-
err speech the fact that she was there that
she was going to change at Milford, that
some dreadful mistake would enSue unless
he bore in mind her entreaties that he
should see her safely into the western
train. Then her purse gave her the gravest
concern, it was so slenderly furnished, and
,NA al 1aC
that little. Her ticket was another burden,
though she put it back in her dress each
time after showing it; and, finally, what
was to be the fate of her trunk, which
wasn't hers, but sister Elizabeth's, who
didn't like lending her things?
She was still thinking uneasily of all
these perplexities when the train crawled
into Milford Her first fear was realized
The faithless conductor forgot her entire
ly. But this time the car was unanimous
ly deserted by the passengers, amidst
most confusing banging of doors and rush
of trains, and after having made satisfac
tory inquiry as to whether that was ''real-
ly Milford she followed the people near
her and soon found herself in a huge COW
cred station. There were trains to the
right of her and trains to the left of her
There was great crowd. She made some
more timia inquiries, and the busy officials
only half-heeding her sent her first to the
wrong gate, where, after fumbling for her
ticket and showing it, she was cursorily
waved off to another and finally reached
the proper train at the last moment She
saw the people from afar streaming in,
and Just caught up with the procession.
Hold on Here's anotberln said the con-
ductor in charge, and glad enough was she
to find herself in harbor once more after
the agitating fluctuations of the last few
hours. Now all was well! She had only
to get Off at Smithville where her aunt
lived and would see that she was welcomed
properly. In two hours more the journey
would be at an end.
With these reflections Miss Roberta
settled her wraps and parcels in the last
seat at the upper end of the car and took
the empty one facing it, Once or twice she
turned around to have look at the other
passengers as they took their places, and
then she sank back against the we'll
cushioned seat and as she would herself
have expressed it, addressed herself to
reading the excellent volume of Hannah
Moore provided by Miss Anastasia as a
certain preventive of possible dullness. 1t
was not the first time she had read it by
any means, but novelty in the atmosphere
in which she had been bred was not only
not essential, even in the matter of books,
| but considered vaguely dangerous. They
had always read Hannah Moore with pleas
ure, and that a time would come in which
| they would cease to be ''edified' and in
oUl ny HCl was d iicIS
giddy side issue without weight among
grave, superior people, would have struck
all the sisters as an almost indecent suppo-
sition.
And so it was with serious satisfaction
that Miss Roberta turned over page after
| page of the volume in her hand which she
was allowed to dwell upon quite undis
| turbed, for except to show her ticket when
| first seated her attention was not once dis
tracted. In the course of the next hour
and a half they passed good many
stations at which they stopped for few
minutes, but no one got into her car and
no one got out, neither was she annoyed
by having the names of the towns bawled
at her from afar as she had been on the
branch road. 1t is possible, though, to get
enough even of the most substantial re-
| past. and so when she had finished the
! twelfth chapter of moral reflections human
nature began to assert itself, and Miss
Roberta groaned twice and began to look
| about her again.
A glance behind showed her a pretty,
chubby boy of about four years old, who
was munching with evident relish large
slice of jelly cake. A unch-basket was
| open on the seat near him, from which the
| child had helped himself, and his mother
doZed in the corner.
Attracted by the situation Miss Roberta
continued to watch him. at first with
smiling approval and then, as cake fol
lowed cake, and apples, oranges, figs fol-
lowed t1e cakes, with decided disapproval
At last she determined to interfere, and in
. | n loud xroica aIArasaaI thn claaTU narant