“It is best that I find my help in Washington. I know one young man whom I can count on. Jack Haley. He’ll bring me all the news. You know, I think I’ll publish a paper!” He grinned. “Since they won’t let the _Liberator_ in, we’ll see if I can’t get a paper out.” So it happened that Jack Haley was not on the dock to meet Amelia’s boat from St. Michaels. The weekly issue of the _National Era_ had hit the streets the day before, and scattered like a bomb all up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. In Congress, on the streets and in the clubs they raged! Here was heresy of the most dangerous order, printed and distributed within a stone’s throw of the Capitol. It was enough to make God-fearing Americans shudder when the son of such an old and respected family as the Virginia Baileys flaunted the mongrel elements in their faces. They did shudder, some of them. And grinning reporters ran from one caucus to the other. Jack was much younger than his cousin Tom. He remembered Tom’s wife with affection. Her letters had intrigued him, and he was glad she was coming to Washington. He found her down on the wharf, surrounded by bales of cotton, serenely rocking in a highback New England rocker! Amelia saw him staring at her and with a little cry of joy she sprang up. “Jack, I knew you’d get here! I wasn’t worrying a bit. And kind Captain Drayton has made me quite comfortable.” The weather-beaten Vermonter, leaning against the rail of his ship, regarded the late arrival and scowled until his thick eyebrows threatened to tangle with his heavy beard. “Nice way to treat a female!” he boomed. Jack held her hands in his. She was so thin, so little. The gray strands smoothed carefully behind her ears accentuated the hollows in her face; the cotton dress she wore was washed out, but the blue eyes looking up at him were young and bright. Amelia exclaimed over the little buggy Jack had waiting. He helped her in, tucked the bag under their feet and flapped the reins. Washington in the spring! Heavy wagon wheels bogged down in deep ruts, and hogs wallowed in the mud; but a soft green haze lay over the sprawling town and wrapped it in loveliness. They were rolling along a wide street, and Amelia was trying to see everything at once. Then she saw the Capitol lifting its glistening dome against the wide blue sky, and she caught her breath. They circled the Capitol grounds, turned down a shaded lane and stopped before a two-story brick house which sat well back in a yard with four great elms. “Here we are!” Jack smiled down at her. “How nice! Is this where you live?” “No, ma’am. This is where, I hope, you’re going to live.” “But who--?” began Amelia. “Just you wait.” Jack jumped out and hitched the reins around a post. The big trees up and down the street formed an avenue of coolness. Amelia hesitated when he turned to assist her. “Are they--Are they expecting me?” Jack chuckled. “Mrs. Royall, my dear, is expecting anything--at any time!”