The frank, good face of the negro, and the attractive appearance of her wares, secured the attention of the ladies, and they purchased largely. Encouraged by their kindness, Daph said, “If de ladies would jus speak for Daph to some ob de great folks, to buy from her Tuesdays and Fridays, Daph would try to please dem.” “I like the woman, mother,” said Rose Stuyvesant, “shall we engage her to come here always, and see what we can do for her?” The mother assented, and Daph, turning to express her gratitude, looked into the face of the youngest speaker. It was a sweet face for man or angel to look into. Nature had made it fair, and parted the golden hair above the soft blue eyes; but there was a sweetness round the expressive mouth, and a purity in every line of the oval face, that told of a soul at peace with God, and ruled by his holy law. Daph long remembered that face, and as she visited the Stuyvesant mansion, week after week, she deemed that a bright day when she caught even a glimpse of her, whom she called “the sweet young lady.” Time passed on, and Daph thrived in her little traffic, until her cakes were well known, and her form eagerly looked for in many a splendid home; but the best triumphs of her skill she ever reserved for the Stuyvesant mansion, where she had first found a welcome. VIII. News. As the honest efforts of poor Daph were crowned with success, she found herself abundantly able to provide for the physical wants of her master’s children. Three years of toil had rolled quickly away. Charlie had passed his fourth birth-day, and become a strong-willed, sturdy boy, while the slender figure of the fair Louise had grown and rounded, and the Rose had learned to bloom on the cheek of Captain Jones’s “Water-lily.” Daph looked at her little ones with affectionate pride, and watched over them with the most tender care. She encouraged them to play in the small garden in the rear of their humble home, but in the street they were never seen. The garments she fashioned for them were neat and tidy, and the snowy aprons they always wore, were monuments of her skill as a laundress; but she was conscious of a something in their external appearance, which was not as it should be. About the manners of her charge, Daph was still more troubled. “Why you eat so, Miss Lou?” she would sometimes say. “How shall I eat, Daffy?” the child would reply. “Well, I jus don’t know,” poor Daph would answer, “but dere’s somewhat bout de way you childen do be, at de table, dat Daph don’t jus know how to spress it.” More serious troubles than these by degrees came upon Daph, in her management. Charlie, though an affectionate, generous child, was hot-tempered and wilful, and when he resisted Daph’s authority, or raised his little hand to give an angry blow, the poor creature knew not what to do. In these scenes she generally triumphed, by the look of real distress which clouded her usually pleasant face, and brought Charlie, repentant to her arms.