l selfish aims and narrowing pride of opinion
touched an answering chord in the self-devotion of Mr. Stearns. A
little anecdote illustrates the modest estimate of the work he
had in hand. After several efforts to bring together certain
friends to meet Captain Brown at his home in Medford, he found
that Sunday was the only day that would serve their several
convenience, and being a little uncertain how it might strike his
ideas of religious propriety, he prefaced his invitation with
something like an apology. With characteristic promptness came
the reply: 'Mr. Stearns, I have a little ewe-lamb that I want to
pull out of the ditch, and the Sabbath will be as good a day as
any to do it.'

"It was this occasion which furnished to literature one of the
most charming bits of autobiography. Our oldest son, Harry, a lad
of eleven years, was an observant listener, and drank eagerly
every word that was said of the cruel wrongs in Kansas, and of
slavery everywhere. When the gentlemen rose to go, he privately
asked his father if he might be allowed to give all his spending
money to John Brown. Leave being granted, he bounded away, and
returning with his small treasure, said: 'Captain Brown, will you
buy something with this money for those poor people in Kansas,
and some time will you write to me and tell me _what sort of a
little boy_ you were?' 'Yes, my son, I will, and God bless you
for your kind heart!' The autobiography has been printed many
times, but never before with the key which unlocked it.

"It may not be out of place to describe the impression he made
upon the writer on this first visit. When I entered the parlor,
he was sitting near the hearth, where glowed a bright open fire.
He rose to greet me, stepping forward with such an erect,
military bearing; such fine courtesy of demeanor and grave
earnestness, that he seemed to my instant thought some old
Cromwellian hero suddenly dropped down before me; a suggestion
which was presently strengthened by his saying [proceeding with
the conversation my entrance had interrupted]: 'Gentlemen, I
consider the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence one
and inseparable; and it is better that a whole generation of men,
women, and children should be swept away, than that this crime of
slavery