Iola Leroy - Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (suggested reading txt) 📗

because he belonged to an unfashionable and unpopular race. At last he came across a landlord who was broad enough to rent him a good house, and he found a quiet resting place among a set of well-to-do and well-disposed people. XXII Further Lifting of the Veil

In one of those fearful conflicts by which the Mississippi was freed from Rebel intrusion and opened to commerce Harry was severely wounded, and forced to leave his place in the ranks for a bed in the hospital.

One day, as he lay in his bed, thinking of his former home in Mississippi and wondering if the chances of war would ever restore him to his loved ones, he fell into a quiet slumber. When he awoke he found a lady bending over him, holding in her hands some fruit and flowers. As she tenderly bent over Harry’s bed their eyes met, and with a thrill of gladness they recognized each other.

“Oh, my son, my son!” cried Marie, trying to repress her emotion, as she took his wasted hand in hers, and kissed the pale cheeks that sickness and suffering had blanched. Harry was very weak, but her presence was a call to life. He returned the pressure of her hand, kissed it, and his eyes grew full of sudden light, as he murmured faintly, but joyfully:⁠—

“Mamma; oh, mamma! have I found you at last?”

The effort was too much, and he immediately became unconscious.

Anxious, yet hopeful, Marie sat by the bedside of her son till consciousness was restored. Caressingly she bent over his couch, murmuring in her happiness the tenderest, sweetest words of motherly love. In Harry’s veins flowed new life and vigor, calming the restlessness of his nerves.

As soon as possible Harry was carried to his mother’s home; a home brought into the light of freedom by the victories of General Grant. Nursed by his mother’s tender, loving care, he rapidly recovered, but, being too disabled to re-enter the army, he was honorably discharged.

Lorraine had taken Marie to Vicksburg, and there allowed her to engage in confectionery and preserving for the wealthy ladies of the city. He had at first attempted to refugee with her in Texas, but, being foiled in the attempt, he was compelled to enlist in the Confederate Army, and met his fate by being killed just before the surrender of Vicksburg.

“My dear son,” Marie would say, as she bent fondly over him, “I am deeply sorry that you are wounded, but I am glad that the fortunes of war have brought us together. Poor Iola! I do wonder what has become of her? Just as soon as this war is over I want you to search the country all over. Poor child! How my heart has ached for her!”

Time passed on. Harry and his mother searched and inquired for Iola, but no tidings of her reached them.

Having fully recovered his health, and seeing the great need of education for the colored people, Harry turned his attention toward them, and joined the new army of Northern teachers.

He still continued his inquiries for his sister, not knowing whether or not she had succumbed to the cruel change in her life. He thought she might have passed into the white basis for the sake of bettering her fortunes. Hope deferred, which had sickened his mother’s heart, had only roused him to renewed diligence.

A school was offered him in Georgia, and thither he repaired, taking his mother with him. They were soon established in the city of A⁠⸺. In hope of finding Iola he visited all the conferences of the Methodist Church, but for a long time his search was in vain.

“Mamma,” said Harry, one day during his vacation, “there is to be a Methodist Conference in this State in the city of S⁠⸺, about one hundred and fifty miles from here. I intend to go and renew my search for Iola.”

“Poor child!” burst out Marie, as the tears gathered in her eyes, “I wonder if she is living.”

“I think so,” said Harry, kissing the pale cheek of his mother; “I don’t feel that Iola is dead. I believe we will find her before long.”

“It seems to me my heart would burst with joy to see my dear child just once more. I am glad that you are going. When will you leave?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Well, my son, go, and my prayers will go with you,” was Marie’s tender parting wish.

Early next morning Harry started for the conference, and reached the church before the morning session was over. Near him sat two ladies, one fair, the other considerably darker. There was something in the fairer one that reminded him forcibly of his sister, but she was much older and graver than he imagined his sister to be. Instantly he dismissed the thought that had forced itself into his mind, and began to listen attentively to the proceedings of the conference.

When the regular business of the morning session was over the bishop arose and said:⁠—

“I have an interesting duty to perform. I wish to introduce a young lady to the conference, who was the daughter of a Mississippi planter. She is now in search of her mother and brother, from whom she was sold a few months before the war. Her father married her mother in Ohio, where he had taken her to be educated. After his death they were robbed of their inheritance and enslaved by a distant relative named Lorraine. Miss Iola Leroy is the young lady’s name. If anyone can give the least information respecting the objects of her search it will be thankfully received.”

“I can,” exclaimed a young man, rising in the midst of the audience, and pressing eagerly, almost impetuously, forward. “I am her brother, and I came here to look for her.”

Iola raised her eyes to his face, so flushed and bright with the glow of recognition, rushed to him, threw her arms around his neck, kissed him again and again, crying: “O, Harry!” Then she