about the
window-sashes. She has been in excellent spirits ever since I stopped
the papers. She says that she wonders at herself so calm and happy. I
heard her yesterday calling at the stairs to a little lisping English
waiting-maid, who cannot pronounce _s_: "Judith," said she, "did you not
hear the parlor-bell?" Judith walked up, and said, "Mitthith North,
lately you've rung tho eathy, that motht of the time I thought it mutht
be a acthident, and didn't come up at futht. I thpect the wireth ith got
ruthty." Mrs. North said nothing, but afterward, in relating the affair
to me, she said she truly believed that it was owing to my stopping the
papers. For she could remember how often she went to the bell-rope
saying to herself as she pulled it, "sum of all villanies!" then
"enormous wrong," with another pull, and then "stupendous injustice,"
with another. Several times she says Judith has rushed up to the parlor
with "Ma'am, whath the matter! the bell rung three timth right off." She
thinks that her nervous system will last longer without the papers than
with them. As she told me this, she was shutting down the lid of the
piano for the night. As it fell into its place, the strings set up a
beautiful murmur. "Oh, hear that!" said she; "how solemn it is!" "I
suppose," said I, "you would not have heard it, if those papers had been
in the house." I shall not tell you, a bachelor, what she said and did.
I trust that her views on the great subject of freedom will get adjusted
by and by; and I am debating with myself what papers to take, having
been obliged, for my own edification, to become a subscriber to the
reading-room. There, however, I meet with a good many pro-slavery
prints, and I am tempted to look into them; after which I frequently
feel as though I should pull a bell-rope three times. A.F.N.

CHAPTER III.

MORBID NORTHERN CONSCIENCE.

"Heaven pities ignorance:
She's still the first that has her pardon sign'd;
All sins else see their faults; she's, only, blind."

MIDDLETON: _No Help like a Woman's._

[Accompanying note, from A. BETTERDAY CUMMING to A. FREEMAN NORTH.

MY DEAR MR. NORTH,--

With many thanks for your kindness and frankness, and with my warmest
congratulations to Mrs. North for the pleasant effect which the Southern
lady's letter has had upon her, I send you another document, hoping that
she will read it to you. It will not be worth while for me to say
anything ab