,--

When I was on the "Tribune," I was despatched to report Mr. Webster's
great reply to Hayne. This was in the days of stages. We had to ride
from Baltimore to Washington early in the morning to get there in time.
I found my boots were gone from my room when the stage-man called me,
and I reported that speech in worsted slippers my wife had given me the
week before. As we came into Bladensburg it grew light, and I recognized
my boots on the feet of my fellow-passenger,--there was but one other
man in the stage. I turned to claim them, but stopped in a moment, for
it was Webster himself. How serene his face looked as he slept there! He
woke soon, passed the time of day, offered me a part of a sandwich,--for
we were old friends,--I was counsel against him in the Ogden case. Said
Webster to me,--"Steele, I am bothered about this speech: I have a
paragraph in it which I cannot word up to my mind." And he repeated it
to me. "How would this do?" said he. "'Let us hope that the sense of
unrestricted freedom may be so intertwined with the desire to preserve a
connection of the several parts of the body politic, that some
arrangement, more or less lasting, may prove in a measure satisfactory.'
How would that do?"

I said I liked the idea, but the expression seemed involved.

"And it is involved," said Webster; "but I can't improve it."

"How would this do?" said I.

"'LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE!'"

"Capital!" he said, "capital! write that down for me." At that moment
we arrived at the Capitol steps. I wrote down the words for him, and
from my notes he read them, when that place in the speech came along.

All of us applauded the story.

Phebe then told

THE SCHOOLMISTRESS'S STORY.

You remind me of the impression that very speech made on me, as I heard
Henry Chapin deliver it at an exhibition at Leicester Academy. I
resolved then that I would free the slave, or perish in the attempt. But
how? I, a woman,--disfranchised by the law? Ha! I saw!

I went to Arkansas. I opened a "Normal College, or Academy for
Teachers." We had balls every second night, to make it popular. Immense
numbers came. Half the teachers of the Southern States were trained
there. I had admirable instructors in Oil Painting and Music,--the most
essential studies. The Arithmetic I taught myself. I taught it well. I
achieved fame. I achieved wealth; invested in Arkansas Five per Cents.
Only one secret device I persever