"Our mother a slave!" exclaimed Rosa, coloring vehemently. "Whose slave could she be, when she was Papasito's wife, and he loved her so? It is impossible, Madame."
"Your father bought her when she was very young, my dear; but I know very well that no wife was ever loved better than she was."
"But she always lived with her own father till she married papa," said
Floracita. "How then could she be his slave?"
"Her father got into trouble about money, my dear; and he sold her."
"Our Grandpapa Gonsalez sold his daughter!" exclaimed Rosa. "How incredible! Dear friend, I wonder you can believe such things."
"The world is full of strange things, my child,—stranger than anything you ever read in story-books."
"If she was only Papasito's slave," said Flora, "I don't think Mamita found that any great hardship."
"She did not, my dear. I don't suppose she ever thought of it; but a great misfortune has grown out of it."
"What is it?" they both asked at once.
Their friend hesitated. "Remember, you have promised to be calm," said she. "I presume you don't know that, by the laws of Louisiana, 'the child follows the condition of the mother.' The consequence is, that you are slaves, and your father's creditors claim a right to sell you."