Midnight
She did not repel their approaches , nor deny their claim to her attention . She recognized it as a duty that she should still minister to their wants , and do what she could for their elevation . And , strangely enough , the good people of Horsford did not rebel nor cast her off for so doing . The rich wife of Hesden Le Moyne , the queen of the growing Kansas town , driving in her carriage to the colored school-house , and sitting as lady patroness upon the platform , was an entirely different personage , in their eyes , from the Yankee girl who rode Midnight up and down the narrow streets , and who wielded the pedagogic sceptre in the log school-house that Nimbus had built . She could be allowed to patronize the colored school ; indeed , they rather admired her for doing so , and a few of them now and then went with her , especially on occasions of public interest , and wondered at the progress that had been made by that race whose capacity they had always denied . Every autumn Hesden and Mollie went to visit her Kansas home , to look after her interests there , help and advise her colored proteges , breathe the free air , and gather into their lives something of the busy , bustling spirit of the great North . The contrast did them good .