know how to express my views of slavery better than in the language of John Wesley, “It is the sum of all villanies.” I am, with sincere regard, Thy friend, ISAAC T. HOPPER. I am indebted to Miss Averill’s sister, Mrs. A. L. O. Stone of Cleveland, Ohio, for the means of communicating with her, and of obtaining some account of her life. Miss Averill’s letter is as follows:-- “VALRICO, FLA., _Mar. 15, 1893_. _Dear Mrs. Robinson_,-- ... I do not remember the date of my first entrance into the City of Spindles, but think it must have been in 1828; and it was the summer of 1830 that I was baptized in the Concord River, at the age of fifteen, and joined the First Baptist Church. I was born at Mt. Vernon, N.H., in the year 1815; so now I am seventy-eight. About my Florida life, I must first tell the motive. As you are aware, after the war, many were out of employment; and it was a great question, what should be done with them. I could see no better way than co-operative homes. Therefore, with two others, I started out to find a place, and set an example. I thought of some other places, but was much interested in Florida, having just read its history, and also my friends wished to come here. And, indeed, they did come before I was quite ready. A month later I came alone, December, 1877, just at Christmas time, and found the people here celebrating the day by firing guns. At Tampa I found one of my friends who had already selected land, and wished me to take an adjoining quarter-section. Had to come out from Tampa twelve miles to examine the land before I could enter my claim, then returned to register, and move my baggage out to a deserted log cabin in an old field by the side of the woods. The cabin had no floor but the bare ground, no window, and but one door. I spread a carpet of pine straw, and slept well.” She spent the winter in her forlorn log cabin, but in the spring she had a kitchen and bedroom, and soon after a split board floor. She “planted two hundred orange-trees, and cared for them two years.” She made a living by “keeping transient boarders, by washing, needlework, baking bread and cakes to sell, and keeping house for various persons.” When her health began to fail, she made an agreement with one of her neighbors, Mr. Green, “to take care of me as long as I lived for half of my land; so the deed was made out and recorded, and I have only sixty acres for the industrial home.” Later she writes:-- “I have never, for a moment, given up the idea of having an industrial home and school here sometime. It is a pleasant location, having a small pond all under my control, with beautiful pine and oak trees all around it, and green slope down to the water. It is only ten minutes’ walk to the station and post-office, and most of the way on my land. I gave right of way for a railroad through one corner, and yesterday gave one acre for a Baptist church.