Iola Leroy by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (books you need to read .txt) 📕

the place, she took the precaution to inform her employer that she was colored. It made no difference to him; but he said:⁠—

“Don’t say anything about it to the girls. They might not be willing to work with you.”

Iola smiled, did not promise, and accepted the situation. She entered upon her duties, and proved quite acceptable as a saleswoman.

One day, during an interval in business, the girls began to talk of their respective churches, and the question was put to Iola:⁠—

“Where do you go to church?”

“I go,” she replied, “to Rev. River’s church, corner of Eighth and L Streets.”

“Oh, no; you must be mistaken. There is no church there except a colored one.”

“That is where I go.”

“Why do you go there?”

“Because I liked it when I came here, and joined it.”

“A member of a colored church? What under heaven possessed you to do such a thing?”

“Because I wished to be with my own people.”

Here the interrogator stopped, and looked surprised and pained, and almost instinctively moved a little farther from her. After the store was closed, the girls had an animated discussion, which resulted in the information being sent to Mr. Cohen that Iola was a colored girl, and that they protested against her being continued in his employ. Mr. Cohen yielded to the pressure, and informed Iola that her services were no longer needed.

When Robert came home in the evening, he found that Iola had lost her situation, and was looking somewhat discouraged.

“Well, uncle,” she said, “I feel out of heart. It seems as if the prejudice pursues us through every avenue of life, and assigns us the lowest places.”

“That is so,” replied Robert, thoughtfully.

“And yet I am determined,” said Iola, “to win for myself a place in the fields of labor. I have heard of a place in New England, and I mean to try for it, even if I only stay a few months.”

“Well, if you will go, say nothing about your color.”

“Uncle Robert, I see no necessity for proclaiming that fact on the housetop. Yet I am resolved that nothing shall tempt me to deny it. The best blood in my veins is African blood, and I am not ashamed of it.”

“Hurrah for you!” exclaimed Robert, laughing heartily.

As Iola wished to try the world for herself, and so be prepared for any emergency, her uncle and grandmother were content to have her go to New England. The town to which she journeyed was only a few hours’ ride from the city of P⁠⸺, and Robert, knowing that there is no teacher like experience, was willing that Iola should have the benefit of her teaching.

Iola, on arriving in H⁠⸺, sought the firm, and was informed that her services were needed. She found it a pleasant and lucrative position. There was only one drawback⁠—her boarding place was too far from her work. There was an institution conducted by professed Christian women, which was for the special use of respectable young working girls. This was in such a desirable location that she called at the house to engage board.

The matron conducted her over the house, and grew so friendly in the interview that she put her arm around her, and seemed to look upon Iola as a desirable accession to the home. But, just as Iola was leaving, she said to the matron: “I must be honest with you; I am a colored woman.”

Swift as light a change passed over the face of the matron. She withdrew her arm from Iola, and said: “I must see the board of managers about it.”

When the board met, Iola’s case was put before them, but they decided not to receive her. And these women, professors of a religion which taught, “If ye have respect to persons ye commit sin,” virtually shut the door in her face because of the outcast blood in her veins.

Considerable feeling was aroused by the action of these women, who, to say the least, had not put their religion in the most favorable light.

Iola continued to work for the firm until she received letters from her mother and uncle, which informed her that her mother, having arranged her affairs in the South, was ready to come North. She then resolved to return, to the city of P⁠⸺, to be ready to welcome her mother on her arrival.

Iola arrived in time to see that everything was in order for her mother’s reception. Her room was furnished neatly, but with those touches of beauty that womanly hands are such adepts in giving. A few charming pictures adorned the walls, and an easy chair stood waiting to receive the travel-worn mother. Robert and Iola met her at the depot; and grandma was on her feet at the first sound of the bell, opened the door, clasped Marie to her heart, and nearly fainted for joy.

“Can it be possible dat dis is my little Marie?” she exclaimed.

It did seem almost impossible to realize that this faded woman, with pale cheeks and prematurely whitened hair, was the rosy-cheeked child from whom she had been parted more than thirty years.

“Well,” said Robert, after the first joyous greeting was over, “love is a very good thing, but Marie has had a long journey and needs something that will stick by the ribs. How about dinner, mother?”

“It’s all ready,” said Mrs. Johnson.

After Marie had gone to her room and changed her dress, she came down and partook of the delicious repast which her mother and Iola had prepared for her.

In a few days Marie was settled in the home, and was well pleased with the change. The only drawback to her happiness was the absence of her son, and she expected him to come North after the closing of his school.

“Uncle Robert,” said Iola, after her mother had been with them several weeks, “I am tired of being idle.”

“What’s the matter now?” asked Robert. “You are surely not going East again, and leave your mother?”

“Oh, I hope not,” said Marie, anxiously. “I have been so long without you.”

“No, mamma,