ng them to run
away, to use all means to do so, to do so at any risk, and also by all
means and at any risk to learn to read. By all means, he advises them,
in no case to use violence, or carry off property of their masters'
(except indeed themselves, whom their masters account very valuable
property). I should have told you that Gerrit Smith himself was a large
slave-holder, that he has given up all his property, renounced his home
in the South (where, indeed, if he was to venture to set foot, he would
be murdered in less than an hour). He lives at the North, in comparative
poverty and privation, having given up his wealth for conscience' sake.
I saw him once at Lucretia Mott's. He was a man of remarkable
appearance, with an extremely sweet and noble countenance. He is one of
the "confessors" in the martyr-age of America.

I am much concerned at your account of E----, for though sprains and
twists and wrenches are not uncommon accidents, I have always much more
dread of them than of a _bona_ (bony) _fide_ fracture. I always fear
some injury may be lodged in the system by such apparently lesser
casualties, that may not reveal itself till long after the real cause is
forgotten....

I must end this letter, for I have delayed it too shamefully long, and
you must think me more abominable than ever, in spite of which I am
still

Your most affectionate
FANNY.

CRANFORD HOUSE, April 17th, 1842.

I put a letter into the post for you, my dearest Harriet, this
afternoon. This is all I was able to write to you yesterday--Wednesday;
and now it is Thursday evening, and there is every prospect of my having
leisure to finish my letter.

Emily has asked me several times to come and spend the evening with her
mother, and I have promised her each time that the first evening....

Thus far last night, my dear--that is to say, Thursday evening. It is
now Friday evening, and the long and the short of the story was that
Emily dined out, Mrs. FitzHugh _teaed_ with the Miss Hamiltons, my party
went to Drury Lane, and I passed the evening alone; and the reason why
this letter was not finished during that lonely evening, my dear, was
that I was sitting working worsted-work for Emily in the parlor
downstairs when my people all went away, and after they were gone I was
seized with a perfect nervous panic, a