Natalie arose the next morning, refreshed by the sweet repose which innocence only knows, and although the day was ushered in with clouds, and an occasional rain-drop, she proceeded to put into execution the plans of yesterday; she had made no one a confidant of her designs, not even Winnie; and when that little lady met her in the hall, all armed and equipped as the weather directed, she exclaimed,--"where now? Miss Snow-wreath! are you going to temper your indissolvable charms to an April shower? or is it to hunt up some poor little refugee; who is so unfortunate as to be minus an umbrella, that you are so bereft of your senses, as to venture out, afoot and alone, this disagreeable morning?"
"Neither the one, nor yet the other, my fair sister," joyously replied the Sea-flower, and she tripped down the steps, smiling upon the little frightened rain-drops, which fell lightly upon her, from the skies, not offering to treat them with such indecorum, as the spreading of her umbrella, and, when Winnie called to her to come back, or if she would venture forth, to take the carriage, she was far out of hearing. Arrived at her point of destination, Natalie was so lost in admiration of the noble illustrations of the infinite mind of man, that she had lost sight of her object, in visiting the unknown artist, until she was awakened from her revery, by a voice near her, and looking 'round, she discovered a poor, dejected looking old negro woman, kneeling with her hands clasped together, and her eyes fixed upon--Natalie followed in the direction--it must be the beautiful Madonna! of which she had heard. Involuntarily she assumed the position of the negress! What visions filled her soul! flitting to and fro. The past, the present, and the future rushed in mingled indistinctness through her mind! and over the chaos there floated a calm, which gradually took the form of recollections which now caused her heart to beat loudly with the uncertainty, fraught with reality. That night! came fresh again to her memory, when she had overheard her brother's words,--"she is not my sister by birth!" The same holy passions filled her soul, and she gazed upon that face, the semblance of which, she had many a time, ere now, looked upon in dreams! might they not have been waking dreams?
"God grant dat such as she, neber know what it am to be torn from her childer!" groaned the black woman, with a deep-drawn sigh.
"Ah, my poor woman," said Natalie, her eyes still fixed upon that spiritual face, "I trust such has never been your lot."
"Bress you! missy, dem is de only kind words I hear dis many a day, since dey take me way from my poor ole man, and de young uns! but I's not sure now but you's de spirit ob dat pure cretur, (pointing to the Madonna) dat's speakin a few words, jus to cheer me like."
"And where are your children now? and your poor old man?"
"O! missy," said the woman, drawing a parcel from her bosom, carefully unfolding it, and holding a large red handkerchief up to view,--"if I tinks I eber find de mate to dat, I'specks I die wid de joy! but it am a long story, missy, it begins way back, a long fore your sweet eyes see de light ob dis wicked world."
"Do not call it a wicked world; it is a beautiful world, which God has given us to live in!"
"Ah, missy, if oder white folks like you, I 'specks it be jus no world at all; it be all one great heaben!"
"But what is this mark upon the handkerchief?" asked Natalie, for she had seen a fac-simile of the little device, upon old Vingo's bandanna, which he used to lend her when she was a child, and she had handled it so carefully, because he had told her that it was the most valuable thing he owned in the world, beside his Bible, and she had looked up into his face, with her great blue eyes, and asked him what the two little crooked marks were made to represent; and he had told her they were to represent himself and his poor Phillis, for they were bent with the sorrows of the world; and now, here were the same crooked marks, wrought upon the corner of this black woman's handkerchief, which she seemed to treasure so much! What could it mean? Natalie looked upon it in astonishment.