Minnies Sacrifice | Page 9

know some who, I believe, are really
sincere, and who would do anything to help the colored people. I think
I know two or three families who would be willing to take the child,
and do a good part by her. If you say so, I will write to a friend whom I
have now in mind, and if they will consent I will take the child with me
when I go North, provided I can do it without having it discovered that
she is colored, for it would put me in an awkward fix to have it known
that I took a colored child away with me."
"Oh, never fear," said St. Pierre, slapping his friend on the shoulder.
"The child is whiter than you are, and you know you can pass for
white."
True to his promise, Josiah Collins wrote to a Quaker friend, whom he

knew in Pennsylvania, and told him the particulars of the child's history,
and the wishes of her father, and the compensation he would give. In a
few days he received a favorable response in which the friend told him
he was glad to have the privilege of rescuing one of that fated race from
a doom more cruel than the grave; that the compensation was no object;
that they had lost their only child, and hoped that she would in a
measure fill the void in their hearts.
Highly gratified with the kind letter of the friend, Le Grange gave the
child into the charge of Josiah Collins, and putting a check for five
hundred dollars in his hand, parted with them at the [station].
He went back into the country, and told his wife that he had found a
trader, who thought the child so beautiful, and that he had bought her to
raise as a fancy girl, and had given him five hundred dollars for her.
"And here," said he, handing her a set of beautiful pearls, "is my peace
offering."
Georgette's eyes glistened as she entertwined the pearls amid the wealth
of her raven hair, and clasped them upon her beautifully rounded arms.
What mattered it to her if every jewel cost a heart throb, and if the
whole set were bought with the price of blood? They suited her style of
beauty, and she cared not what they cost. Proud, imperious, and selfish,
she knew no law but her own will; no gratification but the enjoyment of
her own desires.
Passing from the boudoir of his wife, he sought the room where Ellen
sat, busily cutting and arranging the clothing for the field hands, and
gazing furtively around he said, "here is Minnie's likeness. I have
managed all right." "Thank Heaven!" said the sad hearted mother, as
she paused to dry her tears, and then resumed her needle. "Anything is
better--than Slavery."

Chapter V
Before I proceed any further with my story, let me tell the reader
something of the Le Granges, whom I have so unceremoniously
introduced.
Le Grange, like Le Croix, was of French and Spanish descent, and his
father had also been a Haytian refugee. But there the similitude ends;

unlike Le Croix, he had grown up a gay and reckless young man, fond
of sports, and living an aimless life.
His father had on his plantation a beautiful quadroon girl, named Ellen,
whom he had bought in Richmond because she begged him to buy her
when he had bought her mother, who had been recommended to him as
a first-rate cook. They had been servants in what was called one of the
first families of Virginia, and had been treated by their mistress with
more kindness and consideration than generally fell to the lot of
persons in their condition. As long as she lived, they had been well fed
and well clothed, and except the deprivation of their freedom, had
known but few of the hardships so incident to slave life; but a reverse
had fallen upon them.
Their mistress had intended to set them free, but, dying suddenly, she
had failed to carry out her intention. Her property fell into the hands of
distant heirs, who sold it all, and divided it among themselves. Ellen
and her mother were put up at auction, when a kindly looking old
Frenchman bought the mother. Ellen stood trembling by; but, when she
saw her mother's new master, she started forth, and kneeling at his feet,
she begged him to buy her. The mother joined in and said, "Do, Massa,
and I'll serve you faithful day and night; there is a heap of work in these
old bones yet."
Mr. Le Grange told her to be quiet, and he would buy her. And, true to
his word, although the bidding ran high, and the competition was fierce,
he