Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray Read Online Free PDF Page B

persons in America, their best hope is a new homeland.”
    Another man, with reddish-gold hair and a gingery beard, elbowed his way to the front of the small gathering. “It’s people like you who are making the slaves restless. They have taken up this talk of freedom, and most of ’em aren’t educated enough to even know the meaning of the word.”
    “And whose fault is that?” Mother asked.
    “Certainly not yours. Everybody knows you are breaking the law, teaching your slaves how to read, lettin’ them come and go as they please.”
    “What we do with our servants is no concern of yours,” Mother said.
    “Yes, it is. Increasing the desire for freedom only gives them false confidence and incites rebellion.” He spat a stream of tobacco, barely missing the toe of my shoe. “The trouble with the black man is that he don’t know how good a life he’s got. He don’t have to worry about food or shelter. He gets doctored when he’s sick and he’s got his church meetings on Sundays.” The interloper fixed me with his snakelike eyes. “They’s plenty of white folks in Virginia worse off than your slaves.”
    A team of oxen pulled a creaking dray down the street. Somewhere in the distance a church bell pealed.
    “Come along, Mary Anna.” Mother took my arm and attempted to press through the gathering.
    But I could not let the man’s comments pass unchallenged. “It’s easy for you to stand there and declare the advantages of the slaves’ lives. They may not be educated, but I can assure you they cherish the prospect of liberty, no matter how faint that hope may be.”
    The door opened and Mr. Pierce, who chaired our meetings, came out. He glared at the men and offered an arm to Mother and me. “I do apologize for the disturbance. Please allow me.”
    We went inside, and the meeting commenced at the appointed hour. The discussion was the usual mix of reports on the progress of fund-raising and the applications of freedmen hoping to emigrate. My mind wandered to Robert’s letter and plans for our wedding. Dozens of my friends and cousins were expecting to be bridesmaids. It would take the skills of a diplomat to make the final choices.
    When the meeting ended, Mother and I went out to our waiting carriage. The sun had disappeared and now a rainstorm threatened. Daniel urged the horses on, and we got home just as the first raindrops fell.
    Mother went upstairs for a nap, and I hurried along the back hall to the schoolroom where my scholars waited. Today only the Burke sisters and my two boys were waiting at the table where I kept slates and primers and the cast-off books I had brought from Kinloch three years before. The old volumes were well thumbed and falling apart, but the children loved the colorful illustrations and the stories I invented to go along with them.
    Selina peeked in, her eyes still swollen from the morning’s ordeal. I waved her to a seat and began the lesson. I was not trained as a teacher, but having suffered through years of dull recitations with my own tutors, I made up games to amuse the children while they learned to read and cipher. Today I asked them to write words that rhymed with bat . Chalk clicked on the slates as they bent to their task. Afterward they read the words aloud, then took turns reading from the primers I had obtained in the city.
    Just as we were closing the lesson with a song, I glimpsed the face of a young boy at the window. I sang louder, hoping to entice him inside, for I wanted to encourage more boys to learn to read. But by the time we finished and I went to the door, he had vanished into the woods, his blue flannel shirt flying out behind him.
    Mother met me in the hallway.
    “Was that Selina Norris I saw leaving just now?”
    “Yes. Why?”
    “I banned her from her lessons for the week as a consequence for ruining your dressing gown.”
    “Oh, Mother. You didn’t! It’s the very thing she looks forward to most.”
    “It’s only a token punishment,