On the back seats of the end gallery, behind the
tenors and altos respectively sat the negro freedmen and freedwomen,
the Pomps and Cudjos, the Dinahs and Blossoms. Sitting by Prudence,
among the treble singers, Perez noticed a young Indian girl of very
uncommon beauty, and refinement of features, her dark olive complexion
furnishing a most perfect foil to the blooming face of the white girl.
"Who's that girl by Prudence Fennell?" he whispered to Abe Konkapot,
who sat beside him. The young Indian's bronze face flushed darkly, as
he replied:
"That's Lucretia Nimham."
Perez was about to make further inquiries, when it flashed on him that
this was the girl, whom Obadiah had jokingly alluded to as the reason
why Abe had lingered in Stockbridge, instead of moving out to York
State with his tribe. She certainly was a very sufficient reason for a
man's doing or not doing almost anything.
From his position in the gallery, Perez could look down on the main
body of the congregation below, and his cheek flushed with anger as he
saw his father and mother occupying one of the seats in the back part
of the room, in the locality considered least in honor, according to
the distinctions followed by the parish committee, in periodically
reseating the congregation, or "dignifying the seats," as the people
called it.
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