“A letter, sah, a big, fat letter, fo’ Miss Rhoda. A boy brought it, jess now.”
Rhoda tore open the envelope, curiosity getting the better, for a moment, of the feeling that had just burst through all her usual barriers of restraint. “It’s the papers freeing that slave!” she cried. “It was good of Jeff to do this, wasn’t it, father?”
Together they glanced through the document. “I’m so glad I held out,” she exclaimed. “How happy that poor man will be when he sees this!”
“You see, Rhoda, you’ve done something already!”
“Yes, and I want to do more. Father, you do something—I don’t know what—but I know you work as well as talk. Can’t I help?”
She had never seen him look at her with such pride and gratification. Her heart leaped in response and she flushed with gladness.
“Yes, Rhoda, you can—I need your help. For years I’ve given to the anti-slavery cause all I could afford in money—mainly for the work of the Underground Railroad. But I couldn’t do much in any other way because your mother’s sympathies are with the South. Now the time has come when they need my help as an actual worker. You know Jim Conners’ house, not far from the steamboat landing. For a long time that has been the first station on the Underground Road, for all the slaves who get across the river in this vicinity. But Conners is going to Kansas soon and, besides, he is under such suspicion and the slave hunters are watching his place so closely that it’s no longer safe. Why, this man,” and he tapped the document, “was nearly caught there this morning. He got away by the skin of his teeth, in a dress and bonnet of Mrs. Conners’, and the marshal and his men had been close at his heels all the morning, when you came to his rescue!”
“Then you knew about him already!”
“Yes. That is, I knew of his narrow escape this morning, and knew he belonged to Delavan. Well, you see, there’s got to be a new refuge provided for them here in town, not too far from the river. For many reasons our house is the best place possible. If you help me I think I can manage it, with the aid of Jim and Lizzie, and your mother and Charlotte need know nothing about it.”
“I’ll be glad to help you, father, glad to do anything I can, and it will be fine to know that we’re getting even a few poor creatures out of slavery. But, father, will it ever really amount to anything?” She looked up at him anxiously. “Will it ever help to tear out the whole wicked system?”