d tiny green islands."
No wonder that the girl from the bleak North found it in her heart to
thrill at the beauty of such a gem from Nature's jewel-casket as was
that garden of the Van Lews'!

And other things were as interesting to her in a different way as the
garden was beautiful. Many guests went to and from the hospitable
mansion, and the little Northerner saw beautiful women and heard
brilliant men talk intelligently on many subjects of vital import,
especially on the all-important subject of slavery; of the men who
upheld it, of its result to the Union. But more interesting to her
than anything else were the slaves themselves, of whom the Van Lews
had many, and who were treated with the kindness and consideration of
children in a family.

"Of course, it is better for them!" declared Betty. "Everybody who
has grown up with them knows that they simply _can't_ take
responsibility,--and yet!" There was a long pause, then Betty added,
softly: "And yet, all human beings have a right to be free; I know
it; and all the States of the Union must agree on that before there
is any kind of a bond between them."

She spoke like an old lady, her arm leaning on the window-sill, with
her dimpled chin resting in her hand, and as the moonlight gleamed
across the window-sill, young as she was, in Betty Van Lew's face
there was a gleam of that purpose which in coming years was to be her
consecration and her baptism of fire, although a moment later the
conversation of the girls had drifted into more frivolous channels,
and a coming dance was the all-important topic.

As we know, when Missouri applied for admission into the Union, the
slavery question was discussed and finally settled by the so-called
"Missouri Compromise" in 1820. Now, in 1849, a new question began to
agitate both North and South. Before that time the debate had been as
to the abolishing of slavery, but the question now changed to "Shall
slavery be extended? Shall it be allowed in the country purchased from
Mexico?" As this land had been made free soil by Mexico, many people
in the North insisted that it should remain free. The South insisted
that the newly acquired country was the common property of the States,
that any citizen might go there with his slaves, and that Congress had
no power to prevent them. Besides this, the South also insisted that
there ought to be as many slave States as free States. At that time
the numbers were equal--fifteen slave States an