that I dreaded to return.  I came down as soon as it was light, and remained till eight o’clock, when people began to be about, and there was danger that some one might come on the piazza.  I had tried various applications to bring warmth and feeling into my limbs, but without avail.  They were so numb and stiff that it was a painful effort to move; and had my enemies come upon me during the first mornings I tried to exercise them a little in the small unoccupied space of the storeroom, it would have been impossible for me to have escaped.

XXVI.  Important Era In My Brother’s Life.

I missed the company and kind attentions of my brother William, who had gone to Washington with his master, Mr. Sands.  We received several letters from him, written without any allusion to me, but expressed in such a manner that I knew he did not forget me.  I disguised my hand, and wrote to him in the same manner.  It was a long session; and when it closed, William wrote to inform us that Mr. Sands was going to the north, to be gone some time, and that he was to accompany him.  I knew that his master had promised to give him his freedom, but no time had been specified.  Would William trust to a slave’s chances?  I remembered how we used to talk together, in our young days, about obtaining our freedom, and I thought it very doubtful whether he would come back to us.

Grandmother received a letter from Mr. Sands, saying that William had proved a most faithful servant, and he would also say a valued friend; that no mother had ever trained a better boy.  He said he had travelled through the Northern States and Canada; and though the abolitionists had tried to decoy him away, they had never succeeded.  He ended by saying they should be at home shortly.

We expected letters from William, describing the novelties of his journey, but none came.  In time, it was reported that Mr. Sands would return late in the autumn, accompanied by a bride.  Still no letters from William.  I felt almost sure I should never see him again on southern soil; but had he no word of comfort to send to his friends at home? to the poor captive in her dungeon?  My thoughts wandered through the dark past, and over the uncertain future.  Alone in my cell, where no eye but God’s could see me, I wept bitter tears.  How earnestly I prayed to him to restore me to my children, and enable me to be a useful woman and a good mother!

At last the day arrived for the return of the travellers.  Grandmother had made loving preparations to welcome her absent boy back to the old hearthstone.  When the dinner table was laid, William’s place occupied its old place.  The stage coach went by empty.  My grandmother waited dinner.  She thought perhaps he was necessarily detained by his master.  In my prison I listened anxiously, expecting every moment to hear my dear brother’s voice and step.  In the course of the afternoon a lad was sent by Mr. Sands to tell grandmother that William did not return with him; that the abolitionists had decoyed him away.  But he begged her not to feel troubled about it, for he felt confident she would see William in a few days.  As soon as he had time to reflect he would come back, for he could never expect to be so well off at the north as he had been with him.