rmed with this I called on the editors of the
_Republican_ (pro-slavery), and secured a paid notice of my lecture.
The editor of the _Democrat_, who had an interest in free Kansas, and
was glad of news items from its immigrants, received me cordially, and
gave the "lady lecturer" a handsome "personal," though he had no more
interest in my subject than either of the other gentlemen, and gave me
little encouragement of an audience. Nevertheless, when the evening
came, I met an audience intelligent and respectful, and larger than I
had ventured to expect, but not numerous enough to warrant the venture
of a second lecture in the expensive hall, which from the refusal of
church lecture-rooms, I had been obliged to occupy. But here, as often
before and after, a good Providence interposed. Rev. Mr. Weaver,
Universalist, claimed recognition as "a reader in his boyhood of Mrs.
Nichols' paper"--his father was a patron of the _Windham County
Democrat_--and tendered the use of his church for further lectures. I
had found a friend of the cause. The result was a full house, and
hearty appeals for "more."

As isolated, historical facts, how very trivial all these
"reminiscences" appear! How egotistical the pen that presumes upon
anything like a popular interest in their perusal! But to the social
and political reformer, as to the Kanes and Livingstons, trifles teach
the relations of things, and indicate the methods and courses of
action that result in world-wide good or evil. Seeds carried by the
winds and waves plant forests and beautify the waste places of the
earth. Truths that flowed from the silent nib of my pen in Vermont,
had been garnered in a boy's sympathies to yield me a man's welcome
and aid in St. Louis. How clear the lesson, that for seed-sowing, all
seasons belong to God's truth!

The autumn and winter of 1860-61 I spent in Wisconsin and Ohio; in
Wisconsin, visiting friends and lecturing. In Ohio, Mrs. Frances D.
Gage, Mrs. Hannah Tracy Cutler, and myself were employed under
direction of Mrs. Elizabeth Jones, of Salem, to canvass the State,
lecturing and procuring names to petitions to the Legislature for
equal legal and political rights for the women of the State. The time
chosen for this work was inopportune for immediate success--the
opening scenes of the rebellion alike absorbing the attention of the
people and their Legislature. Women in goodly numbers came out to
hear, but men of all classes waited in the street