I must testify."
Mrs. Scudder looked grave at this earnest announcement; she had
heard many like it before, and they always filled her with alarm,
because--Shall we tell you why?
Well, then, it was not because she was not a thoroughly indoctrinated
anti-slavery woman. Her husband, who did all her thinking for her, had
been a man of ideas beyond his day, and never for a moment countenanced
the right of slavery so far as to buy or own a servant or attendant
of any kind; and Mrs. Scudder had always followed decidedly along the
path of his opinions and practice, and never hesitated to declare the
reasons for the faith that was in her. But if any of us could imagine an
angel dropped down out of heaven, with wings, ideas, notions, manners,
and customs all fresh from that very different country, we might easily
suppose that the most pious and orthodox family might find the task of
presenting him in general society and piloting him along the courses of
this world a very delicate and embarrassing one. However much they might
reverence him on their own private account, their hearts would probably
sink within them at the idea of allowing him to expand himself according
to his previous nature and habits in the great world without.
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