“Every mite and morsel, every bit and grain. Everybody don’t think so? That’s natural; every race thinks it is better than another, and every man thinks he is superior to others; and so does every woman. They think their children the best and handsomest. A bear thinks her nasty, dirty, shapeless, tailless cubs the most beautiful things in all creation.”
She laughed at that, but as suddenly relapsed into a fixed gloom. “If red and white men are both equal, and have the same nature,” she said, “what becomes of those who are neither red nor white, who have no country, no nation, no tribe, scorned by each, and the tents and the houses of both closed against them. Are they equal? what does nature say?”
“There is no difference,” I said; “in the eye of God they are all alike.”
“God may think and treat them so,” she replied, rising with much emotion, “but man does not.”
I thought it was as well to change the conversation, and leave her to ponder over the idea of the races which seemed so new to her. “So,” sais I, “I wonder the doctor hasn’t arrived; it’s past four. There he is, Jessie; see, he is on the beach; he has returned by water. Come, put on your bonnet and let you and I go and meet him.”
“Who, me!” she said, her face expressing both surprise and pleasure.
“To be sure,” said I. “You are not afraid of me, Miss, I hope.”
“I warn’t sure I heard you right,” she said, and away she went for her bonnet.
Poor thing! it was evident her position was a very painful one to her, and that her natural pride was deeply injured. Poor dear old Minister! if you was now alive and could read this Journal, I know what you would say as well as possible. “Sam,” you would say, “this is a fulfilment of Scripture. The sins of the fathers are visited on the children, the effects of which are visible in the second and third generation.”