t it means. That mulatto--Roger Wentworth--and his
wife are as good as I am, but I have seen them kicked and beaten like
dogs. I know slavery now and all the days of my life I am going to fight
against it. Now I am ready to go to my father's house--like the Prodigal
Son coming back after his folly."

"But you will have some dinner first," said Mrs. Brimstead.

"No, I can not wait--I will walk. It is not far to Hopedale."

"Percy is at the door now with his buggy," said Brimstead.

Bim kissed Samson's cheek and embraced Annabel and her mother and hurried
out of the house. Harry carried her bag to the buggy and helped her in.

"Harry, I want you to fall in love with this pretty girl," she said.
"Don't you dare think of me any more or come near me. If you do, I'll
shoo you away. Go on, Percy."

She waved her hand as the buggy went up the road.

"It's the same old Bim," Harry said to himself, as he stood watching her.
"But I think she's lovelier than she ever was."

The next day Samson wrote in his diary:

* * * * *

"Bim was handsomer, but different. She had a woman's beauty. I noticed
her loose clothes and that gentle look in her face that used to come to
Sarah's when her time was about half over. I am glad she got away before
she was further along."

CHAPTER XV

WHEREIN HARRY AND ABE RIDE UP TO SPRINGDALE AND VISIT KELSO'S AND LEARN
OF THE CURIOUS LONESOMENESS OF ELIPHALET BIGGS.

Illinois was growing. In June score of prairie schooners, loaded with old
and young, rattled over the plains from the East. There were many Yankees
from Ohio, New York and New England in this long caravan. There were
almost as many Irish, who had set out for this land of golden promise as
soon as they had been able to save money for a team and wagon, after
reaching the new world. There were some Germans and Scandinavians in the
dust clouds of the National Road. Steamers on the Illinois River
scattered their living freight along its shores. These were largely from
Kentucky, southern Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The call of
the rich and kindly lands had traveled far and streams of life were
making toward them, to flow with increasing speed and volume for many
years.

People in Sangamon County had begun to learn of the thriving village of
Chicago in the North. Abe said that Illinois would be the Empire State of
the West; that a new era of rapid development and great prosperity wa