Title:  Trial and Triumph

Author:  Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Release Date:  February 12, 2004 [EBook #11056]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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Transcriber’s Note:  This document is the text of Trial and Triumph.  Any
                    bracketed notations such as [?], and those inserting
                    letters or other comments are from the original text.

Transcriber’s Note About the Author:  Francis Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was born to free parents in Baltimore, Maryland.  Orphaned at three, she was raised by her uncle, a teacher and radical advocate for civil rights.  She attended the Academy for Negro Youth and was educated as a teacher.  She became a professional lecturer, activist, suffragette, poet, essayist, novelist, and the author of the first published short story written by an African-American.  Her work spanned more than sixty years.

TRIAL AND TRIUMPH

A Rediscovered Novel by

Frances E.W.  Harper

Edited by Frances Smith Foster

Chapter I

“Oh, that child!  She is the very torment of my life.  I have been the mother of six children, and all of them put together, never gave me as much trouble as that girl.  I don’t know what will ever become of her.”

“What is the matter now, Aunt Susan?  What has Annette been doing?”

“Doing!  She is always doing something; everlastingly getting herself into trouble with some of the neighbors.  She is the most mischievous and hard-headed child I ever saw.”

“Well what has she been doing this morning which has so upset you?”

“Why, I sent her to the grocery to have the oil can filled, and after she came back she had not been in the house five minutes before there came such an uproar from Mrs. Larkins’, my next door neighbor, that I thought her house was on fire, but——­”

“Instead of that her tongue was on fire, and I know what that means.”

“Yes, that’s just it, and I don’t wonder.  That little minx sitting up there in the corner looking so innocent, stopped to pour oil on her clean steps.  Now you know yourself what an aggravating thing that must have been.”

“Yes, it must have been, especially as Mrs. Larkins is such a nice housekeeper and takes such pride in having everything neat and nice about her.  How did you fix up matters with her.”