A GLAD GOOD-BY.
A few days after her departure from Mulberry Hill, Mollie Ainslie
wrote to Mrs. Le Moyne:
"MY DEAR MADAM: You have no doubt heard of the terrible events which
have occurred at Red Wing. I had an intimation of trouble just as
I set out on my ride, but had no idea of the horror which awaited
me upon my arrival here, made all the more fearful by contrast with
your pleasant home.
"I cannot at such a time leave the people with whom I have labored
so long, especially as their only other trusted adviser, the
preacher, Eliab Hill, is missing. With the utmost exertion we have
been able to learn nothing of him or of Nimbus since the night of
the fire. There is no doubt that they are dead. Of course, there
is great excitement, and I have had a very anxious time. I am glad
to say, however, that my health continues to improve. I left some
articles scattered about in the room I occupied, which I would be
pleased if you would have a servant collect and give to the bearer.
"With the best wishes for the happiness of yourself and Mr. Hesden,
and with pleasant memories of your delightful home, I remain,
"Yours very truly,
"MOLLIE AINSLIE."
To this she received the following reply:
"Miss MOLLIE AINSLIE: I very much regret the unfortunate events
which occasioned your hasty departure from Mulberry Hill. It is
greatly to be hoped that all occasion for such violence will soon
pass away. It is a great calamity that the colored people cannot be
made to see that their old masters and mistresses are their best
friends, and induced to follow their advice and leadership, instead
of going after strangers and ignorant persons of their own color,
or low-down white men, who only wish to use them for their own
advantage. I am very sorry for Eliab and the others, but I must say
I think they have brought it all on themselves. I am told they have
been mighty impudent and obstreperous, until really the people in
the neighborhood did not feel safe, expecting every day that their
houses or barns would be burned down, or their wives or daughters
insulted, or perhaps worse, by the lazy, saucy crowd they had
gathered about them. "Eliab was a good boy, but I never did like
that fellow Nimbus. He was that stubborn and headstrong, even in
his young days, that I can believe anything of him. Then he was in
the Yankee army during the war, you know, and I have no doubt that
he is a desperate character. I learn he has been indicted once or
twice, and the general belief is that he set the church on fire,
and, with a crowd of his understrappers, fixed up to represent Ku
Klux, attacked his own house, abused his wife and took Eliab off
and killed him, in order to make the North believe that the people
of Horsford are only a set of savages, and so get the Government
to send soldiers here to carry the election, in order that a
filthy negro and a low-down, dirty, no-account poor-white man may
_mis_represent this grand old county in the Legislature again.
"I declare, Miss Ainslie, I don't see how you endure such things.
You seemed while here very much of a lady, for one in your sphere
of life, and I cannot understand how you can reconcile it with your
conscience to encourage and live with such a terrible gang.
"My son has been very busy since you left. He did not find time
to inquire for you yesterday, and seemed annoyed that you had not
apprised him of your intention to leave. I suppose he is afraid that
his old horse might be injured if there should be more trouble at
Red Wing.
"Yours truly,
"HESTER RICHARDS LE MOYNE."
"P.S.--I understand that they are going to hunt the fellow Nimbus
with dogs to-morrow. I hope they will catch him and hang him to
the nearest tree. I have no doubt he killed poor Eliab, and did all
the rest of the bad things laid to his charge. He is a desperate
negro, and I don't see how you can stand up for him. I hope you
will let the people of the North know the truth of this affair, and
make them understand that Southern gentlemen are not such savages
and brutes as they are represented."
The letter was full of arrows designed to pierce her breast;
but Mollie Ainslie did not feel one of them. After what she had
suffered, no ungenerous flings from such a source could cause her
any pain. On the contrary, it was an object of interest to her,
in that it disclosed how deep down in the heart of the highest and
best, as well as the lowest and meanest, was that prejudice which
had originally instigated such acts as had been perpetrated at Red
Wing. The credulous animosity displayed by this woman to whom she
had looked for sympathy and encouragement in what she deemed a holy
work, revealed to her for the first time how deep and impassable
was the channel which time had cut between the people of the North
and those of the South.
She did not lose her respect or regard for Mrs. Le Moyne. She did
not even see that any word which had been written was intended
to stab her, as a woman. She only saw that the prejudice-blinded
eyes had led a good, kind heart to endorse and excuse cruelty and
outrage. The letter saddened but did not enrage her. She saw and
pitied the pride of the sick lady whom she had learned to love in
fancy too well to regard with anger on account of what was but the
natural result of her life and training.