When we came near the grove, Doctor Borrow took his way toward it, and we followed him. He sat down on a bench; I took my place beside him, and Harry his, as usual, on the grass near us. The Doctor, refreshed by the little interval of solitude, was ready to talk again.
"Do not make me out an advocate of slavery. I am not fonder of it than you are, Harry. It has brought trouble enough upon us, and will bring us worse still."
"It can never bring upon us anything worse than itself."
"When you have disposed of slavery, what are you going to do with the slaves?"
"Slavery disposed of, there are no slaves. The men I would leave where they are, to till the ground as they till it now, only better. There has never been a time or a place in which men did not work for their family, their community, their State. The black man will work for his family, as soon as he has one,—for his community, as soon as he is a member of one,—for the State, as soon as we admit him to a share in it."
"You will not dare to say of these poor beings that they are capable of self-government?"
"Which of us would dare to say it of himself?" replied Harry, reverently; "and yet God trusts us."
"If He intends for them what He has bestowed on us, He will grant it to them."
"Through us, I hope."