Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/62

42 placed on them; the cries of my child only served to augment my determination. The child's mother being engaged in delivering the Fugitive out of the power of his pursuers, and I having undertaken the charge of the children, I must be faithful to the trust my wife commited to me, and faithful also to the flying Slave. However, one of the men, in a kind of unnatural nasal sound, dropping his sheepish-looking eyes on the floor, said, with feelings of much disappointment, "Might as well go, I reckon; no nigger here, I guess." I do not know whether they ever discovered that he had been in my house or the method of his escape, but of this I am satisfied, that they never got their victim.

I regard the deliverance of this Fugitive, by the agency of my wife, as a direct interposition of God, effectually operating through her. We are told, in his Word, that "every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of Lights, in whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning." This may be considered one; the evidence of which is found in the fact of its effectuality. We may well adopt the cogent language of David, "In thee, Lord, do I put my trust, let me never be put to confusion: deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked: out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man." I hope, and verily believe, that this prayer