Midnight
Mollie , mounted upon Midnight , accompanied him . Of course , this fact and her unbounded delight at the quaint beauty of Red Wing was no part of the reason why Lieutenant Hamilton made a most glowing report on the location ; but it was owing to that report that the officer at the head of the `` Bureau '' in that district , the department-commander , and finally the head of the Bureau , General Howard himself , indorsed the scheme most warmly and aided it most liberally . So that soon afterward the building was furnished as a school-house , Mollie Ainslie , with Lucy Ellison , an old schoolmate , as her assistant , was installed at the old hostlery , and bore sway in the school of three hundred dusky pupils which assembled daily at Red Wing . Midnight was given royal quarters in the old log-stable , which had been re-covered and almost rebuilt for his especial delectation , the great square stall , with its bed of dry oak leaves , in which he stood knee-deep , being sufficient to satisfy even Miss Mollie 's fastidious demands for the comfort of her petted steed After a time Eliab Hill , to whose suggestion the whole plan was due , became also an assistant instructor . Mollie Ainslie did not at all realize the nature of the task she had undertaken , or the burden of infamy and shame which a Christian people would heap upon her because of this kindly-meant work done in their midst ! It was more than a year afterward . Quite a little village had grown up around the church and school-house at Red Wing , inhabited by colored men who had been attracted thither by the novelty of one of their own members being a proprietor .