circumstances were indeed more embarrassed than she had expressed to Natalie, yet she had sufficient left, wherewith they might by retrenching a little, live very comfortably.  Accordingly, that Natalie might not feel this change, she had dismissed her only servant (if we may do honor to old Vingo, by dubbing him with a more elevated appellation), making some other restrictions in her domestic affairs, for the sake of the child, whom she knew was not her own by kindred, doing away with what she persuaded herself were but unnecessary indulgences.  Faithful mother! thou wilt have thy reward.

Natalie arose the next morning, refreshed by the sweet repose which innocence only knows, and although the day was ushered in with clouds, and an occasional rain-drop, she proceeded to put into execution the plans of yesterday; she had made no one a confidant of her designs, not even Winnie; and when that little lady met her in the hall, all armed and equipped as the weather directed, she exclaimed,—­“where now?  Miss Snow-wreath! are you going to temper your indissolvable charms to an April shower? or is it to hunt up some poor little refugee; who is so unfortunate as to be minus an umbrella, that you are so bereft of your senses, as to venture out, afoot and alone, this disagreeable morning?”

“Neither the one, nor yet the other, my fair sister,” joyously replied the Sea-flower, and she tripped down the steps, smiling upon the little frightened rain-drops, which fell lightly upon her, from the skies, not offering to treat them with such indecorum, as the spreading of her umbrella, and, when Winnie called to her to come back, or if she would venture forth, to take the carriage, she was far out of hearing.  Arrived at her point of destination, Natalie was so lost in admiration of the noble illustrations of the infinite mind of man, that she had lost sight of her object, in visiting the unknown artist, until she was awakened from her revery, by a voice near her, and looking ’round, she discovered a poor, dejected looking old negro woman, kneeling with her hands clasped together, and her eyes fixed upon—­Natalie followed in the direction—­it must be the beautiful Madonna! of which she had heard.  Involuntarily she assumed the position of the negress!  What visions filled her soul! flitting to and fro.  The past, the present, and the future rushed in mingled indistinctness through her mind! and over the chaos there floated a calm, which gradually took the form of recollections which now caused her heart to beat loudly with the uncertainty, fraught with reality. That night! came fresh again to her memory, when she had overheard her brother’s words,—­“she is not my sister by birth!” The same holy passions filled her soul, and she gazed upon that face, the semblance of which, she had many a time, ere now, looked upon in dreams! might they not have been waking dreams?

“God grant dat such as she, neber know what it am to be torn from her childer!” groaned the black woman, with a deep-drawn sigh.