l fear vanishing in the glow of righteous
indignation which filled him,--"I meant the system which makes it a
crime to teach a man to read--a punishable offence to befriend the poor
and down-trodden, or to bind up wounds. A system which makes it
dangerous for one to utter his honest opinions, even in private, to a
person towards whom he is at the same time showing the mercy which
others have denied him." He looked at Dan, who groaned. "A system----"

"Wal, I reckon that'll do fur one spell," broke in Silas Ropes. "You've
said more 'n enough to convict you, and to earn a halter 'stead of a
mild coat of tar and feathers."

"I am well aware," said Penn, "that I can expect no mercy at your hands;
so I thought I might as well be plain with you."

"And plain enough you've been, I swear to gosh!" said Silas. "Boys,
strip him!"

"Wait a moment!" said Penn, putting them off with a gesture which they
mistook for an appeal to some deadly weapon in his pocket. "What I have
said has been to free my mind, and to save Daniel trouble. Now, allow me
to speak a few words in my own defence. I have committed no crime
against your laws; if I have, why not let the laws punish me?"

"We take the laws into our hands sech times as these," said the man
called Gad.

"You're an abolitionist, and that's enough," said another.

"If I do not believe slavery to be a good thing, it is not my fault; I
cannot help my belief. But one thing I will declare. I have never
interfered with your institution in any way at all dangerous to you, or
injurious to your slaves. I have not rendered them discontented, but,
whenever I have had occasion, I have counselled them to be patient and
faithful to their masters. I came among you a very peaceable man, a
simple schoolmaster, and I have tried to do good to everybody, and harm
to no one. With this motive I opened an evening school for poor whites.
How many men here have any education? How many can read and write? Not
many, I am sure."

"What's the odds, so long as they're men of the true sperrit?"
interrupted Silas Ropes. "I can read for one; and as for the rest, what
good would it do 'em to be edecated? 'Twould only make 'em jes' sech
low, sneakin', thievin' white slaves, like the greasy mechanics at the
north."

"The white slaves are not at the north," said Penn. "Education alone
makes free men. If you, who threaten me with violence here to-night, had
the common school education of the north, you would no