"This is so unlike what I have been used to, Miss Nancy, that it excites my wonder as well as gratitude." "I fear, poor child, that you have served in a school of rough experience! You are so thoroughly disciplined, that, at times, you excite my keenest pity." "Yes, ma'm, I have had all sorts of trouble. The only marvel is that I am not utterly brutalized." "Some time you must tell me your history; but not now, my nerves are too unquiet to listen to an account so harrowing as I know your recital must be." As I adjusted the pillow and arranged the beautiful silk spread (her own manufacture), I observed that her eyes were filled with tears. I said nothing, but the sight of _those tears_ served to soften many a painful recollection of former years. I am conscious, in writing these pages, that there will be few of my white readers who can enter fully into my feelings. It is impossible for them to know how deeply the slightest act of kindness impressed _me_--how even a word or tone gently spoken called up all my thankfulness! Those to whom kindness is common, a mere household article, whose ears are greeted morning, noon and night, with loving sounds and kind tones, will deem this strange and exaggerated; but, let them recollect that I was a _slave_--not a mere servant, but a perpetual slave, according to the abhorred code of Kentucky; and their wonder will cease. The first night that I threw myself down on my bed to sleep (did I state that I had a bedstead--that I had _actually_ what slaves deemed a great luxury--a _high-post bedstead_?) I felt as proud as a queen. Henry had been to see me. I entertained him in a nice, clean, carpeted kitchen, until a few minutes of ten o'clock, when he left me; for at that hour, by the city ordinance, he was obliged to be at home. "What," I thought, "have I now to desire? Like the weary dove sent out from the ark, I have at last found land, peace and safety. Here I can rest contentedly beneath the waving of the olive branches that guard the sacred portal of _home!_" _Home!_ home this truly was! A home where the heart would always love to lurk; and how blessed seemed the word to me, now that I comprehended its practical significance! No more was it a fable, an expression merely used to adorn a song or round a verse! That first night that I spent at home was not given up to sleep. No, I was too happy for that! Through the long, mysterious hours, I lay wakeful on my soft and pleasant pillow, weaving fairest fancies from the dim chaos of happy hopes. Adown the sloping vista of the future I descried nought but shade and flowers! With my new mistress, I was more like a companion than a servant. My duties were light--merely to read to her, nurse her, and do her sewing; and, as she had very little of the latter, I may as well set it down as the "extras" of my business, rather than the business itself.