aggers among us. Beware, the sacred
serpent has hissed."

But Louis, brave and resolute, kept on the even tenor of his way,
although he never left his home without some forebodings that he tried
in vain to cast off. But his young wife being less in contact with the
brutal elements of society in that sin-cursed region, did not comprehend
the danger as Louis did, and yet she could not help feeling anxious for
her husband's safety.

They never parted without her looking after him with a sigh, and then
turning to her school, or whatever work or reading she had on her hand,
she would strive to suppress her heart's forebodings. But the storm
about to burst and to darken forever the sunshine of that home was
destined to fall on that fair young head.

Imperative business called Louis from home for one night. Minnie stood
at the door and said, "Louis, I hate to have you go. I have been feeling
so badly here lately, as if something was going to happen. Come home as
soon as you can."

"I will, darling," he said, kissing her tenderly again and again. "I do
feel rather loath to leave you, but death is every where, always lurking
in ambush. A man may escape from an earthquake to be strangled by a
hair. So, darling, keep in good spirits till I come."

Minnie stood at the door watching him till he was out of sight, and then
turning to her mother with a sigh, she said, "What a wretched state of
society. When he goes I never feel easy till he returns. I do wish we
had a government under which our lives would be just as safe as they
were in Pennsylvania."

Ellen felt very anxious, but she tried to hide her disquietude and keep
Minnie's spirits from sinking, and so she said, "This is a hard country.
We colored people have seen our hard times here."

"But, mother, don't you sometimes feel bitter towards these people, who
have treated you so unkindly?"

"No, Minnie; I used to, but I don't now. God says we must forgive, and
if we don't forgive, He won't forgive."

"But, mother, how did you get to feeling so?"

"Why, honey, I used to suffer until my heart was almost ready to burst,
but I learned to cast my burden on the Lord, and then my misery all
passed away. My burden fell off at the foot of the cross, and I felt
that my feet were planted on a rock."

"How wonderful," said Minnie, "is this faith! How real it is to them!
How near some of these suffering people have drawn to God!"

"Yes," said Ellen, "Mrs. Sumpter had a colored