moments--speech is not for such occasions, but silence rather, and the
rush of thoughts. When the first flash of feeling had passed I spoke,
calling him by name, and he addressed me as brother. There seemed to be
no doubt on either side as to our true relationship, though the
features of each had long since faded forever from the memory of the
other. He took me to his house; and each of us related his story with
such feelings as few can fully appreciate. He told me that he had never
heard anything of our mother or brother. He went back to the old home in
Virginia, after the close of the rebellion, but could get no trace of
her.

As we related our varied experiences--the hardships, the wrongs and
sorrows which we endured and at last the coming of brighter days, we
were sad, then happy. It seemed, and indeed was, wonderful that we
should have met again after so long a separation. The time allotted to
my visit with him passed most pleasantly, and all too quickly; and, as I
looked into the faces of his wife and children, I seemed to have entered
a new and broader life, and one in which the joys of social intercourse
had marvelously expanded. When I came to saying good-bye to him, so
close did I feel to him, the tie between us seemed never to have been
broken. That week, so full of new experiences and emotions can never be
erased from my memory. After many promises of the maintenance of the
social relations thus renewed, we parted, to take up again the burdens
of life, but with new inspiration and deeper feeling.

I came back to my work with renewed vigor, and I could not but rejoice
and give praise to God for the blessings that I had experienced in the
years since my bondage, and especially for this partial restoration of
the broken tie of kindred. I had long since learned to love Christ, and
my faith in him was so firmly established that I gave him praise for