ht be used as his credentials in the matter of
soliciting assistance. Armed with this document, he arrived at New York and
found his way to the Anti-Slavery office, where the price demanded was
considered so exorbitant that but little encouragement was given him. From
here he went to the home of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, where he arrived
foot-sore and weary. After ringing the bell, he sat upon the doorstep
weeping. Here Mr. Beecher found him and, taking him into his library,
inquired his story.

As a result there followed a public meeting in Mr. Beecher's Brooklyn
church, at which he pleaded passionately as if for his own children, while
other clergymen spoke with equal interest and feeling. The money was
raised, an agent appointed to consummate the ransom of the children, and
Paul, with a sense of happiness and relief to which he had long been a
stranger, started with the good news on his way homeward.

Meanwhile the girls were torn with doubt and anxiety as to the success of
their father's mission. Several weeks had elapsed and the traders were
again getting together a coffle of slaves for shipment to the slave market,
this time to that in South Carolina. The girls, too, had been ordered to
be in readiness and the evening before had broken down in tears when
Bruin's young daughter, who was a favorite with the girls, sought them out
and pleaded with them not to go. Emily told her to persuade her father not
to send them and so she did, while clinging around his neck until he had
not the heart to refuse.

A day or two later, while looking from their window, they caught sight of
their father and ran into his arms shouting and crying. So great was their
joy that they did not notice their father's companion, a Mr. Chaplin, the
agent appointed at the New York meeting to take charge of the details of
their ransom. These were soon completed, their free papers signed and the
money paid over. Bruin, too, it is said, was pleased with the joy and
happiness in evidence on every hand and upon bidding the girls good-bye
gave each a five dollar gold piece.

Upon their arrival at Washington they were taken in a carriage to their
sister's home, whence the news of their deliverance seemed to have
penetrated to every corner of the neighborhood with the result that it was
far into the night before the last greetings and congratulations had been
received and they were permitted, in the seclusion of the family circle, to
kneel with their p