very glad to see thee and thy
husband. Come in, to the fire; I dare say thou art cold and hungry
after thy journey."

We went in, and the young ladies asked if she would like to go upstairs
and "fix" herself before tea. My wife said, "No, I thank you; I shall
only stop a little while." "But where art thou going this cold night?"
said Mr. Ivens, who had just stepped in. "I don't know," was the
reply. "Well, then," he continued, "I think thou hadst better take off
thy things and sit near the fire; tea will soon be ready." "Yes, come,
Ellen," said Mrs. Ivens, "let me assist thee;" (as she commenced
undoing my wife's bonnet-strings;) "don't be frightened, Ellen, I shall
not hurt a single hair of thy head. We have heard with much pleasure
of the marvellous escape of thee and thy husband, and deeply sympathise
with thee in all that thou hast undergone. I don't wonder at thee,
poor thing, being timid; but thou needs not fear us; we would as soon
send one of our own daughters into slavery as thee; so thou mayest make
thyself quite at ease!" These soft and soothing words fell like balm
upon my wife's unstrung nerves, and melted her to tears; her fears and
prejudices vanished, and from that day she has firmly believed that
there are good and bad persons of every shade of complexion.

After seeing Sally Ann and Jacob, two coloured domestics, my wife felt
quite at home. After partaking of what Mrs. Stowe's Mose and Pete
called a "busting supper," the ladies wished to know whether we could
read. On learning we could not, they said if we liked they would teach
us. To this kind offer, of course, there was no objection. But we
looked rather knowingly at each other, as much as to say that they
would have rather a hard task to cram anything into our thick and
matured skulls.

However, all hands set to and quickly cleared away the tea-things, and
the ladies and their good brother brought out the spelling and copy
books and slates, &c., and commenced with their new and green pupils.
We had, by stratagem, learned the alphabet while in slavery, but not
the writing characters; and, as we had been such a time learning so
little, we at first felt that it was a waste of time for any one at our
ages to undertake to learn to read and write. But, as the ladies were
so anxious that we should learn, and so willing to teach us, we
concluded to give our whole minds to the work, and see what could be
done. By so doing, at the end of th