Flora held the parrot up to the cage, and said, "_Bon jour, jolie Manon_!"
"_Bon jour_!" repeated the bird, and hopped upon her perch.
After they had entered the carriage, Flora said: "How melancholy it seems that everybody is gone, except _Jolie Manon_! How glad the poor thing seemed to be to see me! I wish I could take her home."
"I will send to inquire whether the lady will sell her," replied her friend.
"O Mamita, you will spoil me, you indulge me so much," rejoined Flora.
Mrs. Delano smiled affectionately, as she answered: "If you were very spoilable, dear, I think that would have been done already."
"But it will be such a bother to take care of Manon," said Flora.
"Our new servant Chloe can do that," replied Mrs. Delano. "But I really hope we shall get home without any further increase of our retinue."
From the clerk information was obtained that he heard Mr. Duroy tell Mr. Bruteman that a lady named Rosabella Royal had sailed to Europe with Signor and Madame Papanti in the ship Mermaid. He added that news afterward arrived that the vessel foundered at sea, and all on board were lost.
With this sorrow on her heart, Flora returned to Boston. Mr. Percival was immediately informed of their arrival, and hastened to meet them.
When the result of their researches was told, he said: "I shouldn"t be disheartened yet. Perhaps they didn"t sail in the Mermaid. I will send to the New York Custom-House for a list of the pa.s.sengers."
Flora eagerly caught at that suggestion; and Mrs. Delano said, with a smile: "We have some other business in which we need your help. You must know that I am involved in another slave case. If ever a quiet and peace-loving individual was caught up and whirled about by a tempest of events, I am surely that individual. Before I met this dear little Flora, I had a fair prospect of living and dying a respectable and respected old fogy, as you irreverent reformers call discreet people. But now I find myself drawn into the vortex of abolition to the extent of helping off four fugitive slaves. In Flora"s case, I acted deliberately, from affection and a sense of duty; but in this second instance I was taken by storm, as it were. The poor woman was aboard before I knew it, and I found myself too weak to withstand her imploring looks and Flora"s pleading tones." She went on to describe the services Chloe had rendered to Rosa, and added: "I will pay any expenses necessary for conveying this woman to a place of safety, and supplying all that is necessary for her and her children, until she can support them; but I do not feel as if she were safe here."
"If you will order a carriage, I will take them directly to the house of Francis Jackson, in Hollis Street," said Mr. Percival. "They will be safe enough under the protection of that honest, st.u.r.dy friend of freedom. His house is the depot of various subterranean railroads; and I pity the slaveholder who tries to get on any of his tracks. He finds himself "like a toad under a harrow, where ilka tooth gies him a tug,"
as the Scotch say."
While waiting for the carriage, Chloe and her children were brought in. Flora took the little ones under her care, and soon had their ap.r.o.ns filled with cakes and sugarplums. Chloe, unable to restrain her feelings, dropped down on her knees in the midst of the questions they were asking her, and poured forth an eloquent prayer that the Lord would bless these good friends of her down-trodden people.
When the carriage arrived, she rose, and, taking Mrs. Delano"s hand, said solemnly: "De Lord bress yer, Missis! De Lord bress yer! I seed yer once fore ebber I knowed yer. I seed yer in a vision, when I war prayin" to de Lord to open de free door fur me an" my chillen. Ye war an angel wid white shiny wings. Bress de Lord! "T war Him dat sent yer.--An" now, Missy Flory, de Lord bress yer! Ye war allers good to poor Chloe, down dar in de prison-house. Let me gib yer a kiss, little Missy."
Flora threw her arms round the bended neck, and promised to go and see her wherever she was.
When the carriage rolled away, emotion kept them both silent for a few minutes. "How strange it seems to me now," said Mrs. Delano, "that I lived so many years without thinking of the wrongs of these poor people! I used to think prayer-meetings for slaves were very fanatical and foolish. It seemed to me enough that they were included in our prayer for "all cla.s.ses and conditions of men"; but after listening to poor Chloe"s eloquent outpouring, I am afraid such generalizing will sound rather cold."
"Mamita," said Flora, "you know you gave me some money to buy a silk dress. Are you willing I should use it to buy clothes for Chloe and her children?"
"More than willing, my child," she replied. "There is no clothing so beautiful as the raiment of righteousness."
The next morning, Flora went out to make her purchases. Some time after, Mrs. Delano, hearing voices near the door, looked out, and saw her in earnest conversation with Florimond Blumenthal, who had a large parcel in his arms. When she came in, Mrs. Delano said, "So you had an escort home?"
"Yes, Mamita," she replied; "Florimond would bring the parcel, and so we walked together."
"He was very polite," said Mrs. Delano; "but ladies are not accustomed to stand on the doorstep talking with clerks who bring bundles for them."
"I didn"t think anything about that," rejoined Flora. "He wanted to know about Rosa, and I wanted to tell him. Florimond seems just like a piece of my old home, because he loved papa so much. Mamita Lila, didn"t you say papa was a poor clerk when you and he first began to love one another?"
"Yes, my child," she replied; and she kissed the bright, innocent face that came bending over her, looking so frankly into hers.
When she had gone out of the room, Mrs. Delano said to herself, "That darling child, with her strange history and unworldly ways, is educating me more than I can educate her."
A week later, Mr. and Mrs. Percival came, with tidings that no such persons as Signor and Madame Papanti were on board the Mermaid; and they proposed writing letters of inquiry forthwith to consuls in various parts of Italy and France.
Flora began to hop and skip and clap her hands. But she soon paused, and said, laughingly: "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. Mamita often tells me I was brought up in a bird-cage; and I ask her how then can she expect me to do anything but hop and sing. Excuse me. I forgot Mamita and I were not alone."
"You pay us the greatest possible compliment," rejoined Mr. Percival.
And Mrs. Percival added, "I hope you will always forget it when we are here."
"Do you really wish it?" asked Flora, earnestly. "Then I will."
And so, with a few genial friends, an ever-deepening attachment between her and her adopted mother, a hopeful feeling at her heart about Rosa, Tulee"s likeness by her bedside, and Madame"s parrot to wish her _Bon jour_! Boston came to seem to her like a happy home.
CHAPTER XXIII.
About two months after their return from the South, Mr. Percival called one evening, and said: "Do you know Mr. Brick, the police-officer? I met him just now, and he stopped me. "There"s plenty of work for you Abolitionists now-a-days," said he. "There are five Southerners at the Tremont, inquiring for runaways, and cursing Garrison. An agent arrived last night from Fitzgerald"s plantation,--he that married Bell"s daughter, you know. He sent for me to give me a description of a n.i.g.g.e.r that had gone off in a mysterious way to parts unknown. He wanted me to try to find the fellow, and, of course, I did; for I always calculate to do my duty, as the law directs. So I went immediately to Father Snowdon, and described the black man, and informed him that his master had sent for him, in a great hurry. I told him I thought it very likely he was lurking somewhere in Belknap Street; and if he would have the goodness to hunt him up, I would call, in the course of an hour or two, to see what luck he had.""
"Who is Father Snowdon?" inquired Mrs. Delano.
"He is the colored preacher in Belknap Street Church," replied Mr.
Percival, "and a remarkable man in his way. He fully equals Chloe in prayer; and he is apt to command the ship Buzzard to the especial attention of the Lord. The first time I entered his meeting, he was saying, in a loud voice, "We pray thee, O Lord, to bless her Majesty"s good ship, the Buzzard; and if there"s a slave-trader now on the coast of Africa, we pray thee, O Lord, to blow her straight under the lee of the Buzzard." He has been a slave himself, and he has perhaps helped off more slaves than any man in the country. I doubt whether Garrick himself had greater power to disguise his countenance. If a slaveholder asks him about a slave, he is the most stolid-looking creature imaginable. You wouldn"t suppose he understood anything, or ever _could_ understand anything. But if he meets an Abolitionist a minute after, his black face laughs all over, and his roguish eyes twinkle like diamonds, while he recounts how he "come it" over the Southern gentleman. That bright soul of his is a jewel set in ebony."
"It seems odd that the police-officer should apply to _him_ to catch a runaway," said Mrs. Delano.
"That"s the fun of it," responded Mr. Percival. "The extinguishers are themselves taking fire. The fact is, Boston policemen don"t feel exactly in their element as slave-hunters. They are too near Bunker Hill; and on the Fourth of July they are reminded of the Declaration of Independence, which, though it is going out of fashion, is still regarded by a majority of the people as a venerable doc.u.ment. Then they have Whittier"s trumpet-tones ringing in their ears,--
""No slave hunt in _our_ borders! no pirate on _our_ strand!
No fetters in the Bay State! no slave upon _our_ land!""
"How did Mr. Brick describe Mr. Fitzgerald"s runaway slave?" inquired Flora.
"He said he was tall and very black, with a white scar over his right eye."
"That"s Tom!" exclaimed she. "How glad Chloe will be! But I wonder he didn"t come here the first thing. We could have told him how well she was getting on in New Bedford."
"Father Snowdon will tell him all about that," rejoined Mr. Percival.
"If Tom was in the city, he probably kept him closely hidden, on account of the number of Southerners who have recently arrived; and after the hint the police-officer gave him, he doubtless hustled him out of town in the quickest manner."
"I want to hurrah for that policeman," said Flora; "but Mamita would think I was a very rude young lady, or rather that I was no lady at all. But perhaps you"ll let me _sing_ hurrah, Mamita?"
Receiving a smile for answer, she flew to the piano, and, improvising an accompaniment to herself, she began to sing hurrah! through all manner of variations, high and low, rapidly trilled and slowly prolonged, now bursting full upon the ear, now receding in the distance. It was such a lively fantasia, that it made Mr. Percival laugh, while Mrs. Delano"s face was illuminated by a quiet smile.
In the midst of the merriment, the door-bell rang. Flora started from the piano, seized her worsted-work, and said, "Now, Mamita, I"m ready to receive company like a pink of propriety." But the change was so sudden, that her eyes were still laughing when Mr. Green entered an instant after; and he again caught that archly demure expression which seemed to him so fascinating. The earnestness of his salutation was so different from his usual formal politeness, that Mrs. Delano could not fail to observe it. The conversation turned upon incidents of travel after they had parted so suddenly. "I shall never cease to regret,"
said he, "that you missed hearing La Senorita Campaneo. She was a most extraordinary creature. Superbly handsome; and do you know, Miss Delano, I now and then caught a look that reminded me very much of you. Unfortunately, you have lost your chance to hear her. For Mr.
King, the son of our Boston millionnaire, who has lately been piling up money in the East, persuaded her to quit the stage when she had but just started in her grand career. All the musical world in Rome were vexed with him for preventing her re-engagement. As for Fitzgerald, I believe he would have shot him if he could have found him. It was a purely musical disappointment, for he was never introduced to the fascinating Senorita; but he fairly pined upon it. I told him the best way to drive off the blue devils would be to go with me and a few friends to the Grotta Azzura. So off we started to Naples, and thence to Capri. The grotto was one of the few novelties remaining for me in Italy. I had heard much of it, but the reality exceeded all descriptions. We seemed to be actually under the sea in a palace of gems. Our boat glided over a lake of glowing sapphire, and our oars dropped rubies. High above our heads were great rocks of sapphire, deepening to lapis-lazuli at the base, with here and there a streak of malachite."
"It seems like Aladdin"s Cave," remarked Flora.