what it was to be a slave, and what her probable prospects were,
if she did not escape. She learned that there was a place,
not a great way from her Virginian home, where people did not hold
her race in bondage; where she could go and come as she pleased,
choose her own employers and occupation, be paid for her labor,
provide for herself, and perhaps some day have a home of her own,
with husband and children whom she could hold and enjoy.
Do you think it strange that such a condition seemed attractive,
and that she was willing to make great efforts and run fearful
risks to reach it?

She kept her intentions profoundly secret. Even Mammy Grace
and Uncle Simon, her best friends, were not in her confidence.
But she prayed about it constantly, and sought information from
every possible source with regard to this free land,--where it was,
and how it could be reached,--and at last formed her plan,
which she determined to carry out during the coming summer.

She knew she must have money, if she was going to travel, and for a
long time she had been carefully saving up all she could command.
She constantly endeavored to make herself useful in various ways
in order to get it. The summer-time was her money harvest;
and this season she was delighted to find visitors thronging
to the Springs in greater numbers than she had ever seen before.
She knew if there was plenty of company, there would be plenty
of business, and consequently a plenty of money; for the class
of people who came there were for the most part wealthy,
and were quite willing to pay for the attentions they received.
The little brick houses in which they lodged were under the care
of the slave girls. Each one had two of these cabins, as they