“I know your minister,” said the young lady, smiling, “and he asked me to come to see you.”
Hazel’s heart swelled with pride. The young lady dismounted, tied her horse, and then, declining to go indoors, sat on the steps with them.
“I am afraid you won’t like my errand, Mrs. Tyler,” the new-comer said, “but I have come to ask Hazel if she wishes to go home with me.”
“You couldn’t have come on a less welcome errand to me,” said Granny sadly, “but the hot days is coming, and I suppose the child must go North again.”
The young lady, whose name was Miss Davis, then explained that she came from Boston, that she taught in the Jonesville school, and that she should return to her home the middle of May. “And if that will be convenient for Hazel,” she concluded, “she can go by rail all the way with me.”
“If my mother tells me it is what she wants me to do,” Hazel said, “of course I would love to travel with you.”
“I think from your minister’s letter, that you will hear shortly from your mother,” answered Miss Davis, and went into the details of the journey.
Hazel learned that if she were in company with a white person she might ride in the Pullman car and sleep in the fascinating bed that pulled down from the top. She would only be traveling two days, and her mother would be at the end of the journey. But Granny! She did not want to look in her direction as she talked with Miss Davis.
“Wasn’t she pretty?” she asked the old woman as their visitor trotted down the road.
“I didn’t see as she was well-favored,” Granny answered.