![]() ![]() Sarny is a noble character who carries Paulsen's message of the power of literacy (e.g., she can read the auction papers that lead her to her children, and she starts a school to teach others to read). ![]() In the fairy-tale ending, Miss Laura offers Sarny and Lucy refuge and employment in her stately home, then leaves all her money to Sarny when she ""passes on."" Miss Laura, an ""octoroon"" who ""passes"" for white, is an intriguing figure with a shadowy past: ""There's some to say later that Miss Laura wasn't a moral person."" Paulsen never clarifies, however, how she makes her money or developed her connections with generals and bankers, although he hints at prostitution. A series of unlikely coincidences follows: the wealthy ""Miss Laura,"" who offers Sarny and her friend Lucy a ride, just happens to know the owner of Sarny's children, who arrive at the party she throws upon returning to New Orleans. On the day the plantation master is killed by a Union soldier, Sarny heads to New Orleans to find her two sold children. In this somewhat contrived sequel to Nightjohn, set in post-Civil War New Orleans, 94-year-old Sarny reflects on her first few years as an emancipated slave. ![]()
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