What is the next step?" And then it was that a fanatic entered the
scene.

His name was John Brown, descended from Peter Brown, a Pilgrim of the
_Mayflower_. He had been cattle-drover, tanner and wool-merchant. When
about forty years of age he was living in Springfield, Massachusetts.
One night, in 1849, a runaway slave knocked at his door and told Brown
the story of his flight, of the weeks he had spent hiding in the swamps,
of his escape to the fastnesses of the mountains, of his life in the
forest, and how he finally reached New York and Springfield. It was a
story of starvation, hunger, cold, blows and piercing anguish. Long
after the children had gone to bed at midnight, while the slave was
sleeping in a blanket beside the fire, John Brown sat musing over the
national infamy. All the next day and night the conference continued
with this runaway, who was also a negro preacher. The following night
John Brown assembled his sons. He closed the door and told his family
his decision. He was a tall man, over six feet, straight and lithe,
slightly gray, with thin lips and smooth face. The Bible was almost the
only book in the house, and no sound was so familiar as the voice of
prayer. Brown was lifted into the prophetic mood. He told his family
that he had decided to give himself, and to consecrate them, to
righting the wrongs of the slaves; that he had heard a voice calling him
to the work of the deliverer; that he would be killed, and that they
must expect also to die the martyr's death, and that henceforth they
must expect only crusts, wounds, bitter enmity, and finally martyrdom. A
little later and Brown had moved the younger children of his family to
North Elba, in the Adirondack woods, that the slaves on the underground
route might be able to hide in the forest, in the event of the pursuers
overtaking them. Brown then began to travel along Mason and Dixon's line
from the city of Washington through to Topeka, Kan. From time to time he