Year: 1877

Martha Jones nee Marblehead set her,
self about preparing the evening meal
with heavy heart, aching feet, and tired
back. No slave in a coffie gang, no
bond woman in a cotton field, or en-
forced colored mistress of white task
master, ever felt more keenly than she
the throes of struggling freedom.


"pd give million worlds for libertyp
she cried, as, fastening hither and
thither in her quadruple capacity of
full hand at the four distinct occupa-
tions of nurse, cook, dairy and laundry
woman, she crushed back the rising
tears and vented her irrepressible sense
of personal wrongs upon whatever OBJ
ject, whether child, chair, or dinner
kettle, that came in the way of her en-
forced ambition.


It is not necessary that 1 shall here
recount the incidents of that evenings
work. Every mother who is or has
been thus situated knows all about it by
experience, and men or women who
have not tried it cannot know it all, no





It was nightfall long before the last
COW was milked, the last pig fed, the
last dish and last baby washed, and
when all was quiet, and the young
mother sat her down upon the doorsteps
of her little home in the wilderness, to
brood over her unhappy destiny, she
fell into profound reverie, in which it
seemed as though her mother came to
greet her, full of love, compassion, ten
derness and hope. Whether or not she
had fallen asleep, she could never after
determine, but certain it was that the
reverie, or dream, or vision, or rapture,
was to her very present help in time
of trouble, preventing utter despair, and
imbuing her with strength sufficient for
her day.


The night was both cloudy and moon
less. Thomas Jones had accepted an in-
vitation from his mother to sup at the
maternal table, and, forgetful of his
lonely, overworked wife and exacting
little ones, he enjoyed himself till late
hour in canvassing plans for the future
promotion of himself and his maternal
ally.


When Martha sat down upon the
doorstep, she breathed a sigh of relief
over the reflection that one day more OF
her miserable existence had departed,
never to return.


"What is it all for?r she asked her
self. "What will all my struggles in
life amount to? Nothing will come oi
them, as 1 can see, except the unsatis.
factory result of multiplying human
life, human disappointment, and human
misery. L wish, oh, I GOiSh that my
children were all dead There is ne
good in living, and they are now young
and innocent, and will go straight tC
glory if kill them. have half minC
to do ~


Poor girl! she was indeed well-nigt
crazed. Had not merciful providence
intervened to save her from herself, an.
other chapter of horror would have beer
added to the early history of the coun





gaze abstractedly through the iron bar.
of the asylum's windows, and anothel
woman would be added to the numbe
of insane, whose thoughts have becom,
combinations of disj0inted things
through 'causes unknown"


Martha leaned her throbbing bea
against the door cheek, and tried to pee
into the impenetrable gloom without
She strained her listening ear to hearke
for the coming footsteps of her maste
and jailer.


Good reader, do not call the above az
pellations harsh. The man or woma
who, as husband or wife, would bold tn
other in a bondage where either kne,
there was absence of conjugaI love, bt
comes in every sense jailer of the mo.
rigid type, tyrant of the most absolut
character.


Not sound broke the oppressive s
lenee of the lonely dwelling save th
regular breathing of the sleeping babe
and the tireless ticking of death watc
in the shake-lined wall.


"Unloving wifehood, enforced mate
nifty, ceaseless toll, constant sufferin
these are my portion, and naught bu
these will bequeath to my children,
they live to be women. Why in a
reason were they not born boys, VOL
der ?"


AS the young mother thus soliI
quized, the surrounding atmosphe
grew strangely luminous. The ngl
was not brilliant, but white, not tran
parent, but semi-opaque. Wonderiu
what it could mean, the lonely watch
in the wilderness for an instant forg
herself and gazed in passive inquiry,
lent but curious.


Near the center of the whitish light
radiance slowly formed, as though gat
ering its forces from the surroundil
air. Then, pale being with white ga
ments, luminous blue eyes, and fowl