She was, naturally, of an excellent disposition, kind, gentle and cheerful.

The supercilious contempt for the rights and feelings of the slave, and the petulance and bad humor which generally characterize slaveholding ladies, were all quite absent from kind "Miss" Sophia's manner and bearing toward me.

She had, in truth, never been a slaveholder, but had--a thing quite unusual in the south--depended almost entirely upon her own industry for a living.

To this fact the dear lady, no doubt, owed the excellent preservation of her natural goodness of heart, for slavery can change a saint into a sinner, and an angel into a demon.

I hardly knew how to behave toward "Miss Sopha," as I used to call Mrs.Hugh Auld.