Then she thought of her soldier son and she remembered the other mothers who had given their boys to the country’s need. With a gush of agony came the reflection that for the mothers to go themselves and to give their own lives would have been so much easier! As these heavy thoughts were passing through her mind a thousand men just out of slavery were looking toward the quiet little woman on the platform who in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” had so marvelously told their story. There were many among the freedmen present who had been able to acquire the valuable and dangerous art of reading printed words, and who had read the wonderful story Mrs. Stowe had written. There were others who had listened breathlessly behind closed doors in their little cabins while the book was being read in low tones to them. So a great glow of grateful love was being poured out in the direction of that inconspicuous member of the distinguished company, for they felt that they knew her heart. As the last strains of “Go down, Moses” were fading away and the company was dispersing, an aged negress met Mrs. Stowe in the doorway and, lifting up her hands in blessing, cried out, “Bressed be de Lord dat brought me to see dis first happy day of my life! Bressed be de Lord!” At this time Mrs. Stowe must have looked very much like the picture which is reproduced as the frontispiece to this book, which is taken from a _carte de visite_ made in 1862. At this meeting we may imagine her as this picture shows her, but we must add perhaps some kind of shawl or drapery for warmth, a pair of black silk mitts of ornamented net, and a bonnet tied with wide ribbons in a double bow knot under the chin. This bonnet must have concealed the abundant hair coiled up at the back, but not the soft wavy brown folds that came down on either side of the beautiful, refined face. The large breast-pin in the picture was made from a piece of softly clouded lava; the ring, worn in the fashion of the day on the first finger, had belonged to her son who was drowned while in college; this ring she wore and jealously guarded for his sake. Many people who knew Mrs. Stowe pronounce it one of the best likenesses of her that we possess. CHAPTER XIX A VISIT TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN