(’I wish I had him where my Tom is!’ Mrs. Swiggs mutters to herself.) Do come on here, Sister.  We will give you an excellent reception, and make you so happy while you sojourn among us.  And now, Sister, having never appealed to you in vain, we again extend our hand, hoping you will favor the several very excellent projects we now have on hand.  First, we have a project-a very excellent one, on hand, for evangelizing the world; second, in consideration of what has been done in the reign of the Seven Churches-Pergamos Thyatira, Magnesia, Cassaba, Demish, and Baindir, where all is darkness, we have conceived a mission to Antioch; and third, we have been earnestly engaged in, and have spent a few thousand dollars over a project of the ‘Tract Society,’ which is the getting up of no less than one or two million of their excellent tracts, for the Dahomy field of missionary labor-such as the Egba mission, the Yoruba mission, and the Ijebu missions.  Oh!  Sister, what a field of labor is here open to us.  And what a source of joy and thankfulness it should be to us that we have the means to labor in those fields of darkness.  We have selected brother Singleton Spyke, a young man of great promise, for this all-important mission to Antioch.  He has been for the last four years growing in grace and wisdom.  No expense has been spared in everything necessary to his perfection, not even in the selection of a partner suited to his prospects and future happiness.  We now want a few thousand dollars to make up the sum requisite to his mission, and pay the expenses of getting him off.  Come to our assistance, dear Sister-do come!  Share with us your mite in this great work of enlightening the heathen, and know that your deeds are recorded in heaven. (’Verily!’ says the old lady.) And now, hoping the Giver of all good will continue to favor you with His blessing, and preserve you in that strength of intellect with which you have so often assisted us in beating down Satan, and hoping either to have the pleasure of seeing you, or hearing from you soon, I will say adieu! subscribing myself a servant in the cause of the heathen, and your sincere Sister, “Mrs. Abijah Slocum.

“P.S.—­Remember, dear Sister, that the amount of money expended in idol-worship—­in erecting monster temples and keeping them in repair, would provide comfortable homes and missions for hundreds of our very excellent young men and women, who are now ready to buckle on the armor and enter the fight against Satan.  “A.S.”

“Dear-a-me,” she sighs, laying the letter upon the table, kicking the cat as she resumes her rocking, and with her right hand restoring her Milton to its accustomed place on the table.  “Rebecca,” she says, “will get a pillow and place it nicely at my back.”  Rebecca, the old slave, brings the pillow.  “There, there! now, not too high, nor too low, Rebecca!” her thin, sharp voice echoes, as she works her shoulders, and permits her long fingers to wander over her cap-border.