“But, mother, how did you get to feeling so?”

“Why, honey, I used to suffer until my heart was almost ready to burst, but I learned to cast my burden on the Lord, and then my misery all passed away.  My burden fell off at the foot of the cross, and I felt that my feet were planted on a rock.”

“How wonderful,” said Minnie, “is this faith!  How real it is to them!  How near some of these suffering people have drawn to God!”

“Yes,” said Ellen, “Mrs. Sumpter had a colored woman, to whom they were real mean and cruel, and one day they whipped her and beat her on her feet to keep her from running away; but she made up her mind to leave, and so she packed up her clothes to run away.  But before she started, I believe she kneeled down and prayed, and asked what she should do, and something reasoned with her and said, ’Stand still and see what I am going to do for you,’ and so she unpacked her clothes and stayed, and now the best part of it was this, Milly’s son had been away, and he came back and brought with him money enough to buy his mother; for he had been out begging money to buy her, and so Milly got free, and she was mighty glad that she had stayed, because when he’d come back, if she had been gone, he would not have known where to find her.”

“Well, it is wonderful.  Somehow these people have passed through the darkness and laid their hands on God’s robe of love and light, and have been sustained.  It seems to me that some things they see clearer through their tears.”

“Mother,” said Minnie, “As it is Saturday I will visit some of my scholars.”

“Well, Minnie, I would; you look troubled, and may be you’ll feel better.”

“Yes, Mother, I often feel strengthened after visiting some of these good old souls, and getting glimpses into their inner life.  I sometimes ask them, after listening to the story of their past wrongs, what has sustained you?  What has kept you up?  And the almost invariable answer has been the power of God.  Some of these poor old souls, who have been turned adrift to shift for themselves, don’t live by bread alone; they live by bread and faith in God.  I asked one of them a few days since, Are you not afraid of starving? and the answer was, Not while God lives.”

After Minnie left, she visited a number of lowly cabins.  The first one she entered was the home of an industrious couple who were just making a start in life.  The room in which Minnie was, had no window-lights, only an aperture that supplied them with light, but also admitted the cold.

“Why don’t you have window-lights?” said Minnie.

“Oh we must crawl before we walk;” and yet even in this humble home they had taken two orphan children of their race, and were giving them food and shelter.  And this kindness to the orphans of their race Minnie found to be a very praiseworthy practice among some of those people who were not poorer than themselves.