wilderness in Essex county, and commenced to live a life of
sterner simplicity than before, hewing in the forests, and
clearing with axe and fire the land which they then proceeded to
cultivate, obtaining food and clothes as those must who have
neither store nor tailor near. There, with one room beneath that
served by day, and two rooms overhead that served by night, they
lived, and not discontentedly, for if there was little space or
grandeur within there was plenty without; and John Brown, who was
no mere conqueror of Nature, but a lover of her beauty, revelled
in the glories of that untamed land, with its mountains wooded to
their summits, with its frowning gorges and rushing torrents and
its richly scented air. Best of all there were black settlers
around whom they could help and thus forward their life-work,
proving that the race they vowed should be free could appreciate
and justify the boon.



CHAPTER IV

HOW THE CALL CAME

Thus, then, did this family live their life of preparation. But
eventful days were at hand, and John Brown felt that his real
life-work had yet to come. 'I have never,' he said, 'for twenty
years made any business arrangement that would prevent me at any
time from answering the call of the Lord. I have kept my affairs
in such a condition that in two weeks I could wind them up and be
ready to obey that call, permitting nothing to stand in the way
of duty, neither wife, children, nor worldly goods; whenever the