appearance of being one mass of bruises.  Her red, inflamed eyes seemed to weep incessantly and involuntarily; whatever might be the expression of her mouth, so inflamed and suffering were they, that they were pitiful to see; and to complete the picture, the stump of one of her arms, which had been severed at some former period, close to the shoulder, was but partially hidden by her ragged, low-necked dress.  Her whole appearance struck me as the most pathetic I had ever beheld.

I speedily brought the poor thing some bread and cold meat, which she received with warm expressions of gratitude; and she then told me that she was a fugitive slave, and having come here at night with her husband, at the approach of day they had hidden themselves within the wood.

‘And oh!’ she said, ’you would be sorry if you could see my husband.  He is not an old man at all, but you would think he was very old, if you could see him; his hair is so white, his face is so wrinkled, and his back all bowed down.  He is so cowed and frightened that he doesn’t dare come out of the wood, though he is almost starving.  We ran away a little while ago, and they caught us and took us down the river to Louisville; and there they just knocked us down on the ground like beeves that they were going to kill, and beat us until we could neither stand nor move.  The moment we got a chance, we ran away again.  But my poor husband shakes like a leaf, and can not travel far at once, he is so frightened.’

Then she spoke of her bruised face, and said that the sun hurt her eyes so dreadfully, begging me to give her some old thing to cover them with and keep off the light.  ‘It would be such a mercy,’ she said, and ‘Heaven will bless you for helping us when we are so distressed.’

I betook myself again to the garret; there were plenty of old bonnets, to be sure; but, alas! all of them were of such a style that they might serve, indeed, to adorn the back of the head, but were none of them of any manner of use to shelter a pair of distressed eyes.  While rummaging about, I came at length upon something which struck me as just the thing required; it was an ancient relic, more venerable even than ’my son’s boots,’ but in excellent preservation.  It was a head-dress that had been manufactured for my mother, some twenty years ago, before the invention of sun-bonnets, or broad hats.  It was called a calash, and was constructed of green silk outside and white silk within, reeved upon cane, similar in fashion to the ‘uglies,’ which, at the present day, English ladies are wont to prefix to the front of their bonnets when traveling or rusticating by the seaside; but instead of being something to attach to the bonnet, it was a complete bonnet in itself, gigantic and bow-shaped, which would fold together flat as a pancake, or opening like an accordeon, it could be drawn forward over the face to any required extent, by means of a ribbon attached to the front.  It was effective, light, and cool, and the green tint