the far away homes
of the Mussulman, ten years to the little Althea, who has bloomed into a
beautiful girl of fourteen, beneath the roof of her loving guardians,
John and Juliet Temple.

Ten years! and the fiery war of words has been followed by the deadlier
fire of arms; civil war has raged over the sunny South, destroyed loving
homes, mutilated fair forms, blotted out countless lives, and sent
multitudes of souls unshriven before their Maker; but thanks be to God,
riveted bonds have been broken and the slave hath been set free! Grand
as was the sacrifice, infinite was the gain.

"I thought," said Amy, when she stood on her mount of Pisgah, rolling up
her melancholy eyes to the heaven, whence her deliverance had come, "I
thought it would come some time, to our children, or our children's
children, but not in my time, and to me! Moses was in de wilderness
forty years; for what should I tink dat de Lord would gib us our liberty
sooner'n to his own faithful servant? And we to have our'n in four
years! But I knew it would come some time, sure as was a God in heaven.
Hadn't we been prayin' and prayin', an' beseechin', an' how could de
Lord stan' de prayers of such 'pressed, trodden people as we? Bress de
Lord, O my soul, an' all dat is in me!"

Thousands like Amy sang their songs of deliverance. And like her, they
arose from the sad waters of their Babylon, took their harps from the
willows, seeking out joyfully new ways to lands of promise.

Those persons who had been kind, nay, even moderately just to their
servants, were not at once abandoned. Some for months, some for years,
were still faithfully served for hire. As a rule, however, the freed
people scattered; but they went not far from their life-long homes. An
innate love for early scenes and associations kept them where they might
occasionally visit familiar persons and places.

Duncan Lisle was now a grave man of fifty. Threads of silver shone in
his dark hair, but his tall form was erect and graceful as ever. He had
become, in manner and speech, exceedingly reserved; his countenance wore
almost habitually a melancholy, thoughtful expression. There were
times, however, when his still attractive face lighted up with the old
smile; and that smile revealed a gentle, noble spirit, still retaining
its freshness unchafed by the carking cares and vexatious trials to
which he had been daily subject. While to some men association with so
peculiar and trying a nature as