It was _Eliza_, who had made her way across the river, springing from ice-block to ice-block, in the way so often pictured, and, strange to say, so true also to the fact. Kind _Mrs. Bird_ made her comfortable on a settle by the fire. After this _Eliza_ told the pathetic story of her escape and gave the real deep reason why she desired to leave her home in Kentucky. It was not merely a passion for freedom, though that intensely American trait was no doubt the fundamental cause why many colored people were willing to leave owners that gave them good homes and had not been specially unkind to them to launch out upon a hazardous attempt to win support in commercial lines for which they had no training. Let us read this passage, and find in it the aspect that most appealed to the soul of Harriet Beecher Stowe. “‘Were you a slave?’ said Mr. Bird. “‘Yes, sir; I belonged to a man in Kentucky.’ “‘Was he unkind to you?’ “‘No, sir; he was a good master.’ “‘And was your mistress unkind to you?’ “‘No, sir--no! My mistress was always good to me.’ “‘What could induce you to leave a good home, then, and run away, and go through such dangers?’ “The woman looked up at Mrs. Bird with a keen, scrutinizing glance, and it did not escape her that she was dressed in deep mourning. “‘Ma’am,’ she said suddenly, ‘have you ever lost a child?’ “The question was unexpected, and it was a thrust on a new wound; for it was only a month since a darling child of the family had been laid in the grave. “Mr. Bird turned around and walked to the window, and Mrs. Bird burst into tears; but, recovering her voice, she said: “‘Why do you ask that? I have lost a little one.’ “‘Then you will feel for me. I have lost two, one after another, ... and I had only this one left.... And, ma’am, they were going to take him away from me--to _sell_ him--sell him down south, ma’am, to go all alone--a baby that had never been away from his mother in his life! I couldn’t stand it, ma’am.... And when I knew the papers were signed, and he was sold, I took him and came off in the night; and they chased me--the man that bought him and some of Mas’r’s folks--and they were coming down right behind me, and I heard ’em. I jumped right on to the ice; and how I got across I don’t know--but, first thing I knew, a man was helping me up the bank.’” This picture, then, shows us what it was that seemed most terrible to the mother heart of Mrs. Stowe. When _Mrs. Bird_ came to hunt for some clothing that she could give to _Eliza_ and her child, she sought the drawer where the precious treasures of her own lost baby were sacredly stored. She “opened the little bedroom door adjoining her room, and, taking the candle, set it down on the top of the bureau there; then from a small recess she took a key, and put it thoughtfully in the lock of a drawer, and made a sudden pause, while two boys, who, boylike, had followed close on her heels, stood looking with silent, significant glances at their mother....