summer-day looking toward the woods, suddenly there
stood before me a strongly-made middle-aged negro woman. Whether she had
glided round the house, or in what way she had come so suddenly and
quietly before me, I do not know; but there she stood, bare-headed, and
humbly asking for a piece of bread, or any cold food that I could spare.
Her appearance struck me with surprise; her skin was of a deep, rich,
yellow brown, her face soft and kindly in expression, but wonderfully
swollen, and with the appearance of being one mass of bruises. Her red,
inflamed eyes seemed to weep incessantly and involuntarily; whatever
might be the expression of her mouth, so inflamed and suffering were
they, that they were pitiful to see; and to complete the picture, the
stump of one of her arms, which had been severed at some former period,
close to the shoulder, was but partially hidden by her ragged,
low-necked dress. Her whole appearance struck me as the most pathetic I
had ever beheld.

I speedily brought the poor thing some bread and cold meat, which she
received with warm expressions of gratitude; and she then told me that
she was a fugitive slave, and having come here at night with her
husband, at the approach of day they had hidden themselves within the
wood.

'And oh!' she said, 'you would be sorry if you could see my husband. He
is not an old man at all, but you would think he was very old, if you
could see him; his hair is so white, his face is so wrinkled, and his
back all bowed down. He is so cowed and frightened that he doesn't dare
come out of the wood, though he is almost starving. We ran away a little
while ago, and they caught us and took us down the river to Louisville;
and there they just knocked us down on the ground like beeves that they
were going to kill, and beat us until we could neither stand nor move.
The moment we got a chance, we ran away again. But my poor husband
shakes like a leaf, and can not travel far at once, he is so
frightened.'

Then she spoke of her bruised face, and said that the sun hurt her eyes
so dreadfully, begging me to give her some old thing to cover them with
and keep off the light. 'It would be such a mercy,' she said, and
'Heaven will bless you for helping us when we are so distressed.'

I betook myself again to the garret; there were plenty of old bonnets,
to be sure; but, alas! all of them were of such a style that they might
serve, indeed, to adorn the back of the head, but were non