PHANTASMAGORIA.
The day after the election a colored lad rode up to the school-house,
delivered a letter for Miss Ainslie to one of the scholars, and
rode away. The letter was written in an even, delicate hand, which
was yet full of feminine strength, and read as follows:
"MISS AINSLIE:
"My son Hesden has told me of your courage in preventing what must
otherwise have resulted in a most terrible conflict yesterday, and
I feel it to be my duty, in behalf of many ladies whose husbands and
sons were present on that occasion, to express to you our gratitude.
It is seldom that such opportunity presents itself to our sex, and
still more seldom that we are able to improve it when presented.
Your courage in exerting the power you have over the peculiar people
toward whom you hold such important relations, commands my utmost
admiration. It is a matter of the utmost congratulation to the good
people of Horsford that one of such courage and prudence occupies
the position which you hold. I am afraid that the people whom you
are teaching can never be made to understand and appreciate the
position into which they have been thrust by the terrible events
of the past few years. I am sure, however, that you will do all
in your power to secure that result, and most earnestly pray for
your success. Could I leave my house I should do myself the pleasure
to visit your school and express my gratitude in person. As it is,
I can only send the good wishes of a weak old woman, who, though
once a slave-mistress, was most sincerely rejoiced at the down-fall
of a system she had always regarded with regret, despite the
humiliation it brought to her countrymen.
"HESTER LE MOYNE."
This was the first word of commendation which had been received
from any Southern white woman, and the two lonely teachers were
greatly cheered by it. When we come to analyze its sentences there
seems to be a sort of patronizing coolness in it, hardly calculated
to awaken enthusiasm. The young girls who had given themselves
to what they deemed a missionary work of peculiar urgency and
sacredness, did not stop to read between the lines, however, but
perused with tears of joy this first epistle from one of their own
sex in that strange country where they had been treated as leprous
outcasts by all the families who belonged to the race of which
they were unconscious ornaments. They jumped to the conclusion that
a new day was dawning, and that henceforth they would have that
companionship and sympathy which they felt that they deserved from
the Christian women by whom they were surrounded.
"What a dear, good old lady she must be!" exclaimed the pretty
and gushing Lucy Ellison. "I should like to kiss her for that sweet
letter."
So they took heart of grace, talked with the old "Mammy" who had
charge of their household arrangements about the gentle invalid
woman, whom she had served as a slave, and pronounced "jes de
bestest woman in de worl', nex' to my young ladies," and then they
went on with their work with renewed zeal.
Two other results followed this affair, which tended greatly to
relieve the monotony of their lives. A good many gentlemen called
in to see the school, most of them young men who were anxious for
a sight of the brave lady who had it in charge, and others merely
desirous to see the pretty Yankee "nigger teachers." Many would, no
doubt, have become more intimate with them, but there was something
in the terms of respectful equality on which they associated with
their pupils, and especially with their co-worker, Eliab Hill, which
they could not abide or understand. The fame of the adventure had
extended even beyond the county, however, and raised them very
greatly in the esteem of all the people.
Miss Ainslie soon noticed that the gentlemen she met in her rides,
instead of passing her with a rude or impudent stare began to greet
her with polite respect. Besides this, some of the officers of
the post at Boyleston, hearing of the gallant conduct of their
country-woman, rode over to pay their respects, and brought back
such glowing reports of the beauty and refinement of the teachers
at Red Wing that the distance could not prevent others of the garrison
from following their example; and the old Ordinary thereafter
witnessed many a pleasant gathering under the grand old oak which
shaded it. Both of the teachers found admirers in the gallant
company, and it soon became known that Lucy Ellison would leave
her present situation erelong to brighten the life of a young
lieutenant. It was rumored, too, that another uniform covered the
sad heart of a cavalier who asked an exchange into a regiment on
frontier duty, because Mollie Ainslie had failed to respond favorably
to his passionate addresses.
So they taught, read, sang, wandered along the wood-paths in
search of new beauties to charm their Northern eyes; rode together
whenever Lucy could be persuaded to mount Nimbus' mule, which, despite
its hybrid nature, was an excellent saddle-beast; entertained with
unaffected pleasure the officers who came to cheer their loneliness;
and under the care of their faithful old "Mammy" and the oversight
of a kind-hearted, serious-faced Superintendent, who never missed
Red Wing in his monthly rounds, they kept their oddly transformed
home bright and cheerful, their hearts light and pure, and their
faith clear, daily thanking God that they were permitted to do what
they thought to be His will.
All of their experiences were not so pleasant. By their own sex
they were still regarded with that calm, unobserving indifference
with which the modern lady treats the sister who stands without
the pale of reputable society. So far as the "ladies" of Horsford
were concerned, the "nigger teachers" at Red Wing stood on the plane
of the courtesan--they were _seen_ but not _known._ The
recognition which they received from the gentlemen of Southern
birth had in it not a little of the shame-faced curiosity which
characterizes the intercourse of men with women whose reputations
have been questioned but not entirely destroyed. They were treated
with apparent respect, in the school-room, upon the highway, or
at the market, by men who would not think of recognizing them when
in the company of their mothers, sisters, or wives. Such treatment
would have been too galling to be borne had it not been that the
spotless-minded girls were all too pure to realize its significance.