After I've eaten my
breakfast, I am going to visit a friend, and I want you to accompany me;
don't be long."
"Can't I eat mine first, Mrs. Bird?" he asked, in reply.
"I thought you had had yours, long ago," rejoined she.
"The others hadn't finished theirs when you called me, and I don't get mine
until they have done," said Charlie.
"Until they have done; how happens that?" asked Mrs. Bird.
"I think they don't like to eat with me, because I'm coloured," was
Charlie's hesitating reply.
"That is too much," exclaimed Mrs. Bird; "if it were not so very
ridiculous, I should be angry. It remains for me, then," continued she, "to
set them an example. I've not eaten my breakfast yet--come, sit down with
me, and we'll have it together."
Charlie followed Mrs. Bird into the breakfast-room, and took the seat
pointed out by her. Eliza, when she entered with the tea-urn, opened her
eyes wide with astonishment at the singular spectacle she beheld. Her
mistress sitting down to breakfast _vis-a-vis_ to a little coloured boy!
Depositing the urn upon the table, she hastened back to the kitchen to
report upon the startling events that were occurring in the breakfast-room.
"Well, I never," said she; "that beats anything I ever did see; why, Mrs.
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