"Were you happy at home?" "I was;" and the words were scarcely audible. "Did they treat you kindly there?" "Indeed they did; and there I had a mother, and was not lonely." "They did not beat you?" "No, no, they did not," and large tears gushed from my burning eyes;--for I remembered with anguish, how many a smarting blow had been given to me by Mr. Jones, how many a cuff by Mr. Peterkin, and ten thousand knocks, pinches, and tortures, by the young ladies. "Don't weep, child," said Miss Bradly, in a soothing tone, and she laid her arm caressingly around my neck. This kindness was too much for my fortitude, and bursting through all restraints I gave vent to my feelings in a violent shower of tears. She very wisely allowed me some time for the gratification of this luxury. I at length composed myself, and begged her pardon for this seeming disrespect. "But ah, my dear lady, you have spoken so kindly to me that I forgot myself." "No apology, my child, I tell you again that I am your friend, and with me you can be perfectly free. Look upon me as a sister; but now that your excited feelings have become allayed, let me ask you why your master sold you?" I explained to her that it was necessary to the equal division of the estate that some of the slaves should be sold, and that I was among the number. "A bad institution is this one of slavery. What fearful entailments of anguish! Manage it as the most humane will, or can, still it has horrible results. Witness your separation from your mother. Did these thoughts never occur to you?" I looked surprised, but dared not tell her that often had vague doubts of the justice of slavery crossed my mind. Ah, too much I feared the lash, and I answered only by a mournful look of assent. "Ann, did you never hear of the Abolition Society?" I shook my head. She paused, as if doubtful of the propriety of making a disclosure; but at length the better principle triumphed, and she said, "There is in the Northern States an organization which devotes its energies and very life to the cause of the slave. They wish to abolish the shameful system, and make you and all your persecuted race as free and happy as the whites." "Does there really exist such a society; or is it only a wild fable that you tell me, for the purpose of allaying my present agony?" "No, child; I do not deceive you. This noble and beneficent society really lives; but it does not, I regret to say, flourish as it should." "And why?" I asked, whilst a new wonder was fastening on my mind. "Because," she answered, "the larger portion of the whites are mean and avaricious enough to desire, for the sake of pecuniary aggrandizement, the enslavement of a race, whom the force of education and hereditary prejudice have taught them to regard as their own property."