"Let him wait," whispered she; "I'm not going to eat
with niggers."
"Oh! he's such a nice little fellow," replied Eliza, in an undertone; "let
him eat with us."
Betsey here suggested to Charlie that he had better go up to the maple
chamber, wash his face, and take his things out of his trunk, and that when
his breakfast was ready she would call him.
"What on earth can induce you to want to eat with a nigger?" asked Betsey,
as soon as Charlie was out of hearing. "I couldn't do it; my victuals would
turn on my stomach. I never ate at the same table with a nigger in my
life."
"Nor I neither," rejoined Eliza; "but I see no reason why I should not. The
child appears to have good manners, he is neat and good-looking, and
because God has curled his hair more than he has ours, and made his skin a
little darker than yours or mine, that is no reason we should treat him as
if he was not a human being." Alfred, the gardener, had set down his
saucer and appeared very much astonished at this declaration of sentiment
on the part of Eliza, and sneeringly remarked, "You're an Abolitionist, I
suppose."
"No, I am not," replied she, reddening; "but I've been taught that God made
all alike; one no better than the other. You know the Bible says God is no
respecter of persons.
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