320 Hills and Lakes. 



home for Christian men, and give to a portion of the 

 black people a country and a home, at least, on this 

 side of the great Ocean, in a climate fitted for 'em." 



" Well," said I, '' Tucker you have studied out, as 

 you say, a plausible theory. But if such were the 

 designs of Providence, could they not have been 

 brought about with less of what you call wickedness 

 and cruel wrong, and in a shorter period than will be 

 required to accomplish it all ? 



" Squire," he replied, "it is not for you and I to 

 sit in judgment upon the dealin's of Providence, in re- 

 gard to his management of the things he has made. 

 What to man's wisdom seems to be a mystery beyond 

 findin' out, ma}^ one day be made plain, and the things 

 that look crooked now, one day seem all straight and 

 right. I don't undertake to say my notions as to 

 this matter are correct all through, but you and I 

 know that the children of the men, that hard-hearted 

 and wicked people stole in Africa, and brought over 

 the ocean and sold into slavery here, have taken back 

 to that same Africa, civilization, and freedom, and the 

 Bible. We know, too, that the generations of the 

 colored people, as they come along, are creepin' up, 

 slowly, in knowledge, and in the ways of white folks ; 



