When my grandmother’s illness became known, many ladies, who were her customers, called to bring her some little comforts, and to inquire whether she had every thing she wanted.  Aunt Nancy one night asked permission to watch with her sick mother, and Mrs. Flint replied, “I don’t see any need of your going.  I can’t spare you.”  But when she found other ladies in the neighborhood were so attentive, not wishing to be outdone in Christian charity, she also sallied forth, in magnificent condescension, and stood by the bedside of her who had loved her in her infancy, and who had been repaid by such grievous wrongs.  She seemed surprised to find her so ill, and scolded uncle Phillip for not sending for Dr. Flint.  She herself sent for him immediately, and he came.  Secure as I was in my retreat, I should have been terrified if I had known he was so near me.  He pronounced my grandmother in a very critical situation, and said if her attending physician wished it, he would visit her.  Nobody wished to have him coming to the house at all hours, and we were not disposed to give him a chance to make out a long bill.

As Mrs. Flint went out, Sally told her the reason Benny was lame was, that a dog had bitten him.  “I’m glad of it,” replied she.  “I wish he had killed him.  It would be good news to send to his mother. Her day will come.  The dogs will grab her yet.”  With these Christian words she and her husband departed, and, to my great satisfaction, returned no more.

I learned from uncle Phillip, with feelings of unspeakable joy and gratitude, that the crisis was passed and grandmother would live.  I could now say from my heart, “God is merciful.  He has spared me the anguish of feeling that I caused her death.”

XXIV.  The Candidate For Congress.

The summer had nearly ended, when Dr. Flint made a third visit to New York, in search of me.  Two candidates were running for Congress, and he returned in season to vote.  The father of my children was the Whig candidate.  The doctor had hitherto been a stanch Whig; but now he exerted all his energies for the defeat of Mr. Sands.  He invited large parties of men to dine in the shade of his trees, and supplied them with plenty of rum and brandy.  If any poor fellow drowned his wits in the bowl, and, in the openness of his convivial heart, proclaimed that he did not mean to vote the Democratic ticket, he was shoved into the street without ceremony.

The doctor expended his liquor in vain.  Mr. Sands was elected; an event which occasioned me some anxious thoughts.  He had not emancipated my children, and if he should die they would be at the mercy of his heirs.  Two little voices, that frequently met my ear, seemed to plead with me not to let their father depart without striving to make their freedom secure.  Years had passed since I had spoken to him.  I had not even seen him since the night I passed him, unrecognized, in my disguise of a sailor.  I supposed he would call before he left, to say something to my grandmother concerning the children, and I resolved what course to take.