So Peter proposed to Vina, that she should give him certain small
articles, consisting of a cape, etc., which he would carry with him as
memorials, and, in case Concklin or any one else should ever come for
her from him, as an unmistakable sign that all was right, he would send
back, by whoever was to befriend them, the cape, so that she and the
children might not doubt but have faith in the man, when he gave her the
sign, (cape).

Again Peter returned to Philadelphia, and was now willing to accept the
offer of Concklin. Ere long, the opportunity of an interview was had,
and Peter gave Seth a very full description of the country and of his
family, and made known to him, that he had very carefully gone over with
his wife and children the matter of their freedom. This interview
interested Concklin most deeply. If his own wife and children had been
in bondage, scarcely could he have manifested greater sympathy for them.

For the hazardous work before him he was at once prepared to make a
start. True he had two sisters in Philadelphia for whom he had always
cherished the warmest affection, but he conferred not with them on this
momentous mission. For full well did he know that it was not in human
nature for them to acquiesce in this perilous undertaking, though one of
these sisters, Mrs. Supplee, was a most faithful abolitionist.

Having once laid his hand to the plough he was not the man to look
back,--not even to bid his sisters good-bye, but he actually left them
as though he expected to be home to his dinner as usual. What had become
of him during those many weeks of his perilous labors in Alabama to
rescue this family was to none a greater mystery than to his sisters. On
leaving home he simply took two or three small articles in the way of