If you were here, dear mama, I would sing, "Oh, Wake and Call Me Early,
Call Me Early, Mother Dear," for I am to dance the quadrille on the
"Green" on Class Day. To be asked by a Harvard graduate to be one of the
four girls to dance is a great compliment. All the college windows are
full of people gazing at you, and just think of the other girls, who are
filled with envy fuller than the windows!
Aunty is "pestered" (as she calls it) to death by people wanting me to
sing for their charities. Every one has a pet charity, which it seems must
be attended to just at this time, and they clamor for help from me, and
aunty has not the courage to say "no." Therefore, about once a week I am
dressed in the white muslin and the black shoes, which is my gala get-up,
and a carriage is sent for me. Then aunty and I are driven to the Concert
Hall, where, when my turn comes, I go on the platform and sing, "Casta
Diva," "Ah, non Credea," etc., and if I am encored then I sing, "Coming
Thro' the Rye."
I am sure every one says that it is a shame to make me sing, but they make
me sing, all the same. I enjoy the applause and the excitement--who would
not? What I do _not_ enjoy is being obliged to sing in church every
Sunday. Dr. Hoppin has persuaded aunty to let me help in the choir; that
is, to sing the Anthem and the "Te Deum," but it amounts to my doing about
all the singing. Don't you think this is cruel? However, there is one hymn
I love to sing, and that is, "Shout the Glad Tidings, Exultingly Sing." I
put my whole heart and soul in this, and soon find myself shouting the
"glad tidings" all alone, my companions having left me in the lurch.
We laughed very much at aunty's efforts in the Anti-slavery movement (just
now at its height), when all Massachusetts has risen up with a bound in
order to prove that the blacks are as good as the whites (if not better),
and should have all their privileges. She, wishing to demonstrate this
point, introduced Joshua Green, a little colored boy (the washerwoman's
son), into the Sunday-school class. The general indignation among the
white boys did not dismay her, as she hoped that Joshua would come up to
the mark. The answer to the first question in the catechism (what is your
name?), he knew, and answered boldly, "Joshua Green." But the second
question, "Who made you?" was the stumbling-block. He sometimes answered,
"Father," and sometimes, "Mother." Aunty, being afraid that he would
answer, "Miss Fay," had him come to the house during the week, where she
could din into him that it was God who made him and all creation. "Now,
Joshua, when Dr. Hoppin says to you, 'Who made you?' you must answer,
'God, who made everything on earth and in heaven'--you understand?" "Yes,
ma'am," and repeated the phrase until aunty thought him ripe to appear at
Sunday-school, which he did on the following Sunday. You may imagine
aunty's consternation when Dr. Hoppin asked Joshua, "Who made you?" and
Joshua looked at aunty with a broad grin, showing all his teeth, and said,
"Lor', Miss Fay, I forget who you said it was." This was aunty's last
effort to teach the blacks. She repeated this episode to Mr. Phillips
Brooks, who, in return, told her an amusing story of a colored man who had
been converted to the Catholic religion, and went one day to confession
(he seems not to have been very sure about this function). The priest said
to him, "Israel, what have you to confess? Have you been perfectly honest
since the last time? No thefts?"
"No, sir."
"None at all? Stolen no chickens?"
"No, sir."
"No watermelons?"
"No, sir."
"No eggs?"
"No, sir."
"No turkeys?"
"No, sir; not one."
Then the priest gave absolution. Outside the church Israel found the
companions whom he had left waiting for him.
"Well, how did you get on?" they asked.
"Bully!" answered Israel. "But if he'd said ducks he'd have got me."
Cousin James Lowell said: "See how a negro appreciates the advantages of
the confession."
DEAR L.,--A family council was held yesterday, and it is now quite decided
that mama is to take me to Europe, and that I shall study singing with the
best masters. We will first go to New York for a visit of ten days with
Mr. and Mrs. Cooley. I shall see New York and hear a little music; and
then we start for Europe on the 17th in the _Commodore Vanderbilt_.