“No; I don’t want her to call me anything of the kind, neither negro nor nigger.  She shan’t even call me black.”

“But, Annette, are you not black?”

“I don’t care if I am, she shan’t call me so.”

“But suppose you were to say to Miss Joseph, ‘How white your face is,’ do you suppose she would get angry because you said that she looked white?”

“No, of course not.”

“But suppose you met her hurrying to school, and you said to her, how red and rosy you look this morning, would that make her angry?”

“I don’t suppose that it would.”

“But suppose she would say to you, ’Annette, how black your face is this morning,’ how would you feel?”

“I should feel like slapping her.”

“Why so; do you think because Miss Joseph——­”

“Don’t call her Miss, she is so mean and hateful.”

“But that don’t hinder her from being Miss Joseph; If she is rude and coarse, that is no reason why I should not have good manners.”

“Oh, Mrs. Lasette you are too sweet for anything.  I wish I was like you.”

“Never mind my sweetness; that is not to the point.  Will you listen to me, my dear?”

“Of course I will.  I could listen to you all night.”

“Well, if it were not for signs there’s no mistaking I should think you had a lot of Irish blood in your veins, and had kissed the blarney stone.”

“No I haven’t and if I had I would try to let——­”

“Hush, my child; how you do rattle on.  Do you think because Miss Joseph is white that she is any better than you are.”

“No, of course not.”

“But don’t you think that she can see and hear a little better than you can?”

“Why, no; what makes you ask such a funny question?”

“Never mind, just answer me a few more questions.  Don’t you think if you and she had got to fighting that she would have whipped you because she is white?”

“Why, of course not.  Didn’t she try to get the ruler out of my hand and didn’t because I was stronger.”

“But don’t you think she is smarter than you are and gets her lessons better.”

“Now you are shouting.”

“Why, Annette, where in the world did you get that slang?”

“Why, Mrs. Lasette, I hear the boys saying it in the street, and the girls in Tennis Court all say it, too.  Is there any harm in it?”

“It is slang, my child, and a young lady should never use slang.  Don’t use it in private and you will not be apt to use it in public.  However humble or poor a person may be, there is no use in being coarse and unrefined.”

“But what harm is there in it?”

“I don’t say that there is any, but I don’t think it nice for young ladies to pick up all sorts of phrases in the street and bring them into the home.  The words may be innocent in themselves, but they may not have the best associations, and it is safer not to use them.  But let us return to Miss Joseph.  You do not think that she can see or hear any better than you can, learn her lessons any quicker than you can, and when it comes to a trial of strength that she is stronger than you are, now let me ask you one more question.  Who made Miss Joseph?”