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services, surgeons and nurses sought her assistance, and even strangers
learned that there was one who would willingly do for them, in cases of
emergency, what they could not do, and what no wages could procure well
done. As her life became known, she obtained the respect of some, the
contempt of others, and the wonderment of most. I will not specify what
she did, for my story is already getting too long; but you would be
surprised to know how often she was needed.

'Her means, though small, were large enough to allow her to do most of
her work gratuitously, but she received sufficient pecuniary
compensation during the year to enable her to provide well for herself
and give much to others.

'In pursuing the duties of her vocation, she came in contact at one time
or another with almost every kind of misery, and though, from
familiarity, she ceased to be shocked at new forms of suffering, yet she
never became hardened, but each year grew more tender and sympathizing.

'In due time the practical workings of the great sin of the nineteenth
century came under her observation. She talked with fugitive slaves, and
all the pent-up fire within her burst forth in intense indignation. She
had not thought of the question before--it had not been in her way; but
now every feeling, her love of God, her love of country, her great
interest in human rights and destinies, conspired to make her throw her
whole soul into it, and she saw slavery as it is, its intense wickedness
and its fearful results. She looked with dismay at its effect upon the
country, its 'trail' upon everything in it, on church, on politics, on
society, on commerce, on manufactures, on education. There was nothing
which had not been corrupted by it--it was fast eating into the vitals
of religion and liberty. The more she studied the subject the more
earnest grew her feeling. But what should she do? She had not lost
self-love, that passion which never deserts us; but she had lost its
_glamour_--eyes that have wept much see clear--and she knew that the
least valuable offering which a woman without good looks, high position,
or great talent, can make to an unpopular cause, is--herself. So far
from her conspicuous support of a new thing being an encouragement and
assistance to others, it would be a hindrance: fear of being identified
with her would be another lion to be encountered in the path.

'She loved her cause better than she loved herself, and would not make
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