“Yes, Rhoda, you can--I need your help. For years I’ve given to the anti-slavery cause all I could afford in money--mainly for the work of the Underground Railroad. But I couldn’t do much in any other way because your mother’s sympathies are with the South. Now the time has come when they need my help as an actual worker. You know Jim Conners’ house, not far from the steamboat landing. For a long time that has been the first station on the Underground Road, for all the slaves who get across the river in this vicinity. But Conners is going to Kansas soon and, besides, he is under such suspicion and the slave hunters are watching his place so closely that it’s no longer safe. Why, this man,” and he tapped the document, “was nearly caught there this morning. He got away by the skin of his teeth, in a dress and bonnet of Mrs. Conners’, and the marshal and his men had been close at his heels all the morning, when you came to his rescue!” “Then you knew about him already!” “Yes. That is, I knew of his narrow escape this morning, and knew he belonged to Delavan. Well, you see, there’s got to be a new refuge provided for them here in town, not too far from the river. For many reasons our house is the best place possible. If you help me I think I can manage it, with the aid of Jim and Lizzie, and your mother and Charlotte need know nothing about it.” “I’ll be glad to help you, father, glad to do anything I can, and it will be fine to know that we’re getting even a few poor creatures out of slavery. But, father, will it ever really amount to anything?” She looked up at him anxiously. “Will it ever help to tear out the whole wicked system?” He glanced at her with approval. “I’m glad you take that view of it, Rhoda. I’ll answer your question in a minute. By means of the Underground Road many thousands of slaves have been enabled to throw away their chains. Levi Coffin, in Cincinnati--you remember we were at their house--has been engaged in this work for years and himself has sent nearly three thousand runaways on to Canada and freedom. The southerners hate him bitterly and because of his activity they call him ‘President of the Underground Road.’ There is no president, no organization of any sort, nothing but coöperation between those who live near together. I speak of it to show you how the work angers the slaveholders. They got the Fugitive Slave Law passed six years ago to try to stop it, and they are furious because it has since flourished more than ever.