"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."

"And did she leave you in the street to walk with a Nigger?" said a
coarse, rough-looking girl.

"Yes, and so I left her. I wasn't going to walk down the street with
them!"

"Well, did I ever?" said a pale and interesting-looking girl.

"That is just as strange as a romance I have been reading!"

"Well, they say truth is stranger than fiction. A deceitful thing to try
to pass for white when she is colored! If she comes back to this school
I shan't stay!" said the coarse rough girl, twirling her gold pencil. "I
ain't a going to sit alongside of niggers."

"How you talk! I don't see that if the woman is Minnie's mother, and
_is_ colored, it makes any difference in her. I am sure it does not to
me," said one of Minnie's friends.

"Well, it does to me," said another; "you may put yourself on an
equality with niggers, but I won't." "And I neither," chimed in another