brothers entered into a conspiracy, and locked up the fourth in the
smoke-house. Fortunately, he sounded the alarm loud and clear, and was
set free in safety, whereupon the three were imprisoned in a garret
with two barred windows. They summarily kicked out the bars, and
sliding down on the lightning-rod betook themselves to the barn for
liberty. The youngest boy, then only five years old, skinned his hands
in the descent. This is a fair sample of the quiet happiness I enjoyed
in the first years of motherhood. It was 'mid such exhilarating scenes
that Miss Anthony and I wrote addresses for temperance, anti-slavery,
educational and woman's rights conventions. Here we forged
resolutions, protests, appeals, petitions, agricultural reports, and
constitutional arguments, for we made it a matter of conscience to
accept every invitation to speak on every question, in order to
maintain woman's right to do so. To this end, we took turns on the
domestic watch-towers, directing amusements, settling disputes,
protecting the weak against the strong, and trying to secure equal
rights to all in the home as well as the nation. I can recall many a
stern encounter between my friend and the young experimenter. It is
pleasant to remember that he never seriously injured any of his
victims, and only once came near shooting himself with a pistol. The
ball went through his hand; happily a brass button prevented it from
penetrating his heart.

[83] When the flock reached the magic number of seven, my good angel
would sometimes take one or two to her own quiet home just out of
Rochester, where on a well-cultivated little farm, one could enjoy
uninterrupted rest and the choicest fruits of the season. That was
always a safe harbor for my friend, as her family sympathized fully in
the reforms to which she gave her life. I have many pleasant memories
of my own flying visits to that hospitable Quaker home and the broad
catholic spirit of Daniel and Lucy Anthony. Whatever opposition and
ridicule their daughter endured elsewhere, she enjoyed the steadfast
sympathy and confidence of her own home circle. Her faithful sister
Mary, a most successful principal in the public schools of Rochester
for a quarter of a century, and a good financier, who with her
patrimony and salary has laid by a competence, took on her shoulders
double duty at home in cheering the declining years of her parents,
that Susan might do the public work in these reforms, in which th