"Why this morning, Minnie and I walked out shopping, and just as I came
out of Carruthers' I met an old friend of mother's, and stopped to speak
with her, and I said 'Minnie, just wait a minute.'"
"She passed on, and left me talking with Mrs. Jackson. When I joined
her, I found a colored woman talking to her, and she was trembling from
head to foot, and just as pale as a ghost; and I said, 'Why, Minnie,
what is the matter?'"
"She gasped for breath, and I thought she was going to faint, and I got
real scared. And what do you think Minnie said?"
"Why," she said, "Carrie, this woman says she's my mother!"
"Her mother!" cried a half dozen voices. "Why you said she was colored!"
"Well, so she was. She was quite light, but I knew she was colored."
"How did you know? Maybe she was only a very dark-complexioned white
woman."
"Oh no, she wasn't, I know white people from colored, I've seen enough
of them."
"A colored woman! well that is very strange; but do tell us what Minnie
said."
"She asked her where she came from, and where she lived. She said she
came in yesterday with the Union soldiers, and that she had come from
Louisiana, and then Minnie told her to come with her, and she would find
a place for her to stop.
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