“'Yes, said little Sarah, 'I love sister, too. I would cry, too, if you sent her away where I could not see her. Why, grandpa, people don't do that, do they? Your are only fooling sister.' “'No, no, child; in the South, where the war is, there are a great many colored people living. They are called slaves. They work for their masters and only get what they eat and wear, and their masters very often sell them and send the men away from their wives and children, and their babies away from their mothers and fathers.' “'Grandpa, do they ever sell white people?' asked Jennie. “'No, my child.' “'Well, why don't they sell white people, too?' “'Oh, my child, the law only allows colored people to be sold.' “'Well, grandpa, I don't think any good people ever sell the little children away from their mothers, any way.' “'No, my child, nor any grown people either.' “'Well, grandpa, you wouldn't sell anybody, would you?' “'No, my child, I would not.' “'Well, then, grandpa, you are an Abolitionist.' “'Yes, in that sense I am.' “'Well, grandpa, I am one, too, and I will just say so at school, and will tell the boys and girls who threw clods at us and called us Abolitionists that they sell people like cows, and that they are not good people.' [Illustration: Pupils attacking the little Abolitionist 048] “'Yes,' said little Mary Anderson, 'I know what colored people are. They've plenty of them down where we came from. They call them “niggers”. They are mighty good to me, grandpa, and my papa doesn't sell 'em. He is a good man. He don't do bad like those rebels, does he, ma?' “'No, my child, your papa does not sell anybody. He is against it. He never owned anyone. He does not think it right to own people.' “'No; my papa don't, does he, ma? He is going to fight the people that sell other people, ain't he, ma?' “'Yes, my darling; but don't say any more. Let us go in and get our tea, and you will feel better.' “This interference of little Mary and her mother let me out of a scrape, for I say to you, friends, that I was getting into deep water and would have very soon lost my soundings if Jennie and little Sarah had kept after me much longer. You see, the truth is that I had never been an Abolitionist, but a Freesoil Democrat; but soon I became a full-fledged Abolitionist after our flag was fired upon by the Secessionists.