Page 126 (1/1)

Mrs Vanderpool watched Zora as she came up the path beneath the oaks "She walks well," she observed And laying aside her book, she waited with awas brief, almost curt, but unintentionally so, as one could easily see, for back in her eyes lurked an is She ht and tall with her eyes squarely on the lady

In the depths of Mrs Vanderpool's heart soe--not new, but very old--stirred Before her stood this tall black girl, quietly returning her look Mrs Vanderpool had a hed,--and there arose within her an impulse to self-justification

She smiled and said sweetly, "Won't you sit?" But despite all this, herbackward a thousand years; back to a simpler, primal day when she herself, white, frail, and fettered, stood before the dusky ht to justify herself She shook off the phantasy,--and yet hoell the girl stood It was not every one that could stand still and well

"Please sit down," she repeated with her softest char that outside the school white persons did not ask this girl to sit in their presence But even this did not , sitting, a simple directness which Mrs Vanderpool sensed and met

"Zora, I need some one to help me--to do my hair and serve my coffee, and dress and take care of me The ill not be hard, and you can travel and see the world and live well Would you like it?"

"But I do not kno to do all these things," returned Zora, slowly She was thinking rapidly--Was this the Way? It sounded wonderful The World, the great mysterious World, that stretched beyond the swaone--did it lead to the Way? But if she went there ould she see and do, and would it be possible to become such a woman as Miss Smith pictured?

"What is the world like?" asked Zora

Mrs Vanderpool ss, hts"

"Yes--but back of it all, what is it really? What does it look like?"

"Heavens, child! Don't ask Really, it isn't worth while peering back of things One is sure to be disappointed"

"Then what's the use of seeing the world?"

"Why, one must live; and why not be happy?" answered Mrs Vanderpool, a from her chronic ennui