The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

CHAPTER XIII.

A STORMY INTERVIEW -THE WHIPPING OF MATT DISCUSSED - MY VISIT TO MATT'S HOUSE - "RUN AWAY,
MATT; I WILL HELP YOU!"
Convalescent--The Children Welcome me - What Happened during
my Illness - A Dinner Party and a Ball at the Blackstock's - A
Plain Question -We Discuss Matt's Whipping -Mrs. Henderson
sides with Bryson - " Matt Needed to be taken down "- A Family
Jar - My Visit to the "Negro Quarters "- Black Pickaninnies
Herded Together in "Ole Betty's Yard"--Repulsive Quarters--
Finding my Way to Matt's Cabin - His Home and Surroundings -
My Interview with him- Results- I Urge him to run away - " Get
out of this Hell as quick as you can!" - Matt's Sufferings - His
Fate - Found Dead Two Years Later - Preparations for the Blackstock Visit - Great Anticipations - Cordial Hospitality.
WHEN Saturday came, Professor Von Luttner, the
children's musical instructor, came with it. I
went to the music-room to meet him, and found the children
assembled, sitting quietly with a very serious look of
anxiety on their young faces. My heart went out to them
immediately with a great throb of affection, for they made
a world of delight and tenderness in this desert ol barbarities. The emotion and its utterance were simultaneous.
"Bless you, dear children!" I said. "I can't tell you
how happy I am to be with you again; it makes me feel
well to see your bright young faces."
Impulsive as their undisciplined teacher, away went
their music books, everything was upset and everything
forgotten, in their reckless plunge at me. I was almost
suffocated in their encircling embraces. They climbed in
my lap; they perched on my chair; they crouched on the
14 (223)