"
With regard to the teachers, he ventured only this comment:
"Captain, it's a mighty pity them gals are teaching a nigger school.
They're too likely for such work--too likely by half."
The man whom he addressed only gave a low, quiet laugh at this
remark, which the other found it difficult to interpret.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE SHADOW OF THE FLAG.
As soon as it became known that the plan of having a polling-place
at Red Wing had been abandoned, there was an almost universal
expression of discontent among the colored people. Never before had
the authority or wisdom of the teachers been questioned. The purity
of their motives and the devotion they had displayed in advancing
every interest of those to whom they had come as the missionaries
of light and freedom, had hitherto protected them from all jealousy
or suspicion on the part of the beneficiaries of their devotion.
Mollie Ainslie had readily and naturally fallen into the habit
of controlling and directing almost everything about her, simply
because she had been accustomed to self-control and self-direction,
and was by nature quick to decide and resolute to act. Conscious
of her own rectitude, and fully realizing the dangers which might
result from the experiment proposed, she had had no hesitation
about withholding her consent, without which the school-house could
not be used, and had not deemed it necessary to consult the general
wish of the villagers in regard to it.
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