Trial and Triumph

lored people, but she has determined not to succumb to it. There is force in the character of that fiery, impetuous and impulsive girl, and her school experience is bringing

s view of the matter increases her determination and rouses up all the latent energies of her nature, and she labors day and night to be a living argument of the capability in her race. For other girls who will graduate in that school, there will be open doors, and unclosed avenues, while she knows that the color of her skin will bar against her the doors of workshops, factories and school rooms, and yet Mr. Thomas, knowing all the discouragements around her path, has done what he coul

try," said one of the m

.

thing remarkable abou

of an acknowledged poet, but I think that the girl has

th and grace which Mr. Thomas saw in these unripe, but promising effusions. It seemed perfectly absurd with the surroundings of Tennis Court to expect anything grand or beautiful [to] develop in its midst; but with Annette, poetry was a passion born in her soul, and it was as natural for her to speak in tropes and figures as it was for others to talk in plain, common prose. Mr. Thomas called her "our inveterate poet," a

pieces," said her aunt, careles

I could i

k that there must be something very great about you. I know where you want to get. You

writing a book, and she is always trying to make up what she calls poetry. I expect that she will go crazy some of these

to work; had she not b

g to let her g

e's through, if she wants to t

graduate, and I have promised that I would do so, and besides I thin

yourself almost to death to keep Annette in school

just now. When a good thing turns up if a perso

od husband will tu

d husband won't tu

nette is not very popular, and that some of

some colored as there is among them, only we do not get the same chance to show it; we are most too mixed up and dependent on one another for that." Just then Mrs. Lasette entered the room and Mrs. Hanson, addressing her, said, "We were just discussing Annette's prospects. Mother wants to keep Annette at school till she graduates,

company for me and she d

; always when I come home she h

to take her from school before she graduates. If Annette were indifferent about her lessons and showed no aptitude for improvement I should say as she does not appreciate education enough

she is something extra. You think, Mrs. Lasette, that there is something wonderful about

t understan

king glass. Why, Mrs. Miller's daughter just laughed till she was tired at the way Annette was dressed wh

ht have found better employmen

ing Annette was at my house, just next door, and when Mary Miller went to church

sks her to go anywhere with her, but may be in the long run Annette will come out better than some who now look

nette, and I do not think your set, as you call it, has such a monopoly of either virtue or intelligence that you can afford to ridicule and depress any young soul who does not happen to come up to your social standard. Where dress and style are passports Annette may be excluded, but where brain and character count Annette will gain admittance. I fear," said Mrs. Lasette, rising to go, "that many a young girl has gone down in the very depths who might have been saved if motherly women, when they saw them unloved

ou are rich and you can do as you ch

any lonely girl who is neglected, slighted and forgotten while she is tryi

son,[12] "has a champion

to. When my great trouble came, she was good as gold, and when my poor heart was almo

silk dress and a lovely hat which she got just a few weeks before her mother's death; as she has gone in black she wants to sell it, and if you say s

, I can't

occasion, and it will not cost any more than what you i

th. I saw Mrs. Hempstead's daughter last Sunday dressed up in a handsome light silk, and a beautiful spring hat, and if she or her mother would get sick to-morrow, they would, I suppose, soon be objects of public charity or dependent on her widowed sister, who is too proud to see her go to the poor house; and this is just the trouble with a lot of people; they not only have their own burdens to bear but somebody else's. You ma