"Having done up his piety and humility, to the satisfaction of the parlor, as he trusted, he clapped his palm-leaf on his head with a sort of free-and-easy air, and proceeded to the dominions of Aunt Chloe, with the intention of flourishing largely in the kitchen." JOHN BROWN AND THE COLORED CHILD. BY L. MARIA CHILD. [When John Brown went from the jail to the gallows, in Charlestown, Virginia, December 2, 1859, he stooped to kiss a little colored child.] A winter sunshine, still and bright, The Blue Hills bathed with golden light, And earth was smiling to the sky, When calmly he went forth to die. Infernal passions festered there, Where peaceful Nature looked so fair; And fiercely, in the morning sun, Flashed glitt'ring bayonet and gun. The old man met no friendly eye, When last he looked on earth and sky; But one small child, with timid air, Was gazing on his hoary hair. As that dark brow to his upturned, The tender heart within him yearned; And, fondly stooping o'er her face, He kissed her for her injured race. The little one she knew not why That kind old man went forth to die; Nor why, 'mid all that pomp and stir, He stooped to give a kiss to _her_. But Jesus smiled that sight to see, And said, "He did it unto _me_." The golden harps then sweetly rung, And this the song the angels sung: "Who loves the poor doth love the Lord; Earth cannot dim thy bright reward: We hover o'er yon gallows high, And wait to bear thee to the sky." * * * * * John Brown, on his way to the scaffold, stooped to take up a slave-child. That closing example was the legacy of the dying man to his country. That benediction we must continue and fulfil. In this new order, equality, long postponed, shall become the master-principle of our system, and the very frontispiece of our Constitution.--HON. CHARLES SUMNER. * * * * * Christ told me to remember those in bonds as bound with them; to do toward them as I should wish them to do toward me in similar circumstances. My conscience bade me to do that. Therefore I have no regret for the transaction for which I am condemned. I think I feel as happy as Paul did when he lay in prison. He knew if they killed him it would greatly advance the cause of Christ. That was the reason he rejoiced. On that same ground "I do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."--JOHN BROWN. THE AIR OF FREEDOM. BY FRANCES E. W. HARPER. [Written at Niagara Falls in 1856.]