verse in the Bible: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love;
therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee"?


CHAPTER III.

SUNSHINE.

IF ever there was a sunshiny corner of slavery, it was that into
which a kind Providence dropped this little, helpless babe,
now but a little more than two years old.

It was a pleasant day in early spring when Colonel Lee alighted from
his gig before the family mansion at Rosevale, and laid the child,
as a present, at the feet of his daughter Matilda.

Miss Matilda Lee was about thirty years of age,--
as active and thrifty a little woman as could be found any
where within the domains of this cruel system of oppression.
Slavery is like a two-edged knife, cutting both ways. It not only
destroys the black, but demoralizes and ruins the white race.
Those who hold slaves are usually indolent, proud, and inefficient.
They think it a disgrace to work by the side of the negro,
and therefore will allow things to be left in a very careless,
untidy way, rather than put forth their energy to alter or improve them.
And as it is impossible for slaves, untaught and degraded as they are,
to give a neat and thrifty appearance to their homes, we, who have
been brought up at the North, accustomed to work ourselves,
assisted by well-trained domestics, can scarcely realize
the many discomforts often to be experienced in Southern houses.