Oh, was not this fearful, fearful ignorance? Through the solid rock of her obtusity, I could, with no argument of mine, make an aperture for a ray of heavenly light to penetrate. Do Christians, who send off missionaries, realize that heathendom exists in their very midst; aye, almost at their own hearthstone? Let them enlighten those that dwell in the bonds of night on their own borders; then shall their efforts in distant lands be blest. Numberless instances, such as the one I have recorded, exist in the slave States. The masters who instruct their slaves in religion, could be numbered; and I will venture to assert that, if the census were taken in the State of Kentucky, the number would not exceed twenty. Here and there you will find an instance of a mistress who will, perhaps, on a Sunday evening, talk to a female slave about the propriety of behaving herself; but the gist of the argument, the hinge upon which it turns, is--"obey your master and mistress;" upon this one precept hang all the law and the prophets. That night, after my house duties were discharged, I went to the cabin, where I found Amy lying on her face, weeping bitterly. I lifted her up, and tried to console her; but she exclaimed, with more energy than I had ever heard her, "Ann, every ting seems so dark to me. I kan't see past to-morrow. I has bin thinkin' of Aunt Polly; I keeps seein' her, no matter what way I turns." "You are frightened," I ventured to say. "No, I isn't, but I feels curus." "Let me teach you to pray." "Will it do me any good?" "Yes, if you put faith in God." "What's faith?" "Believe that God is strong and willing to save you; that is faith." "Who is God? I never seed him." "No, but He sees you." "Whar is He?" and she looked fearfully around the room, in which the scanty fire threw a feeble glare. "Everywhere. He is everywhere," I answered. "Is He in dis room?" she asked in terror, and drew near me. "Yes, He is here." "Oh lor! He may tell Masser on me." This ignorance may, to the careless reader, seem laughable; but, to me, it was most horrible, and I could not repress my tears. Here was the force of education. Master was to her the strongest thing or person in existence. Of course she could not understand a higher power than that which had governed her life. There are hundreds as ignorant; but no missionaries come to enlighten them! "Oh, don't speak that way; you know God made you." "Yes, but dat was to please Masser. He made me fur to be a slave." Now, how would the religious slave-holder answer that?