It is true, I have known that you were
somewhere in Kansas; but I could see no reason why you should not
wish it to be known exactly where; nor can I now. I was so foolish
as to think, at first, that it was because you did not wish the
people where you now live to know that you had ever been a teacher
in a colored school.
"When I returned here, however, and learned something of your
kindness to our people--how you had saved the property of my dear
lost brother Nimbus, and provided for his wife and children, and
the wife and children of poor Berry, and so many others of those
who once lived at Red Wing; and when I heard Captain Pardee read
one of your letters to our people, saying that you had not forgotten
us, I was ashamed that I had ever had such a thought. I know that
you must have some good reason, and will never seek to know more
than you may choose to tell me in regard to it. You may think it
strange that I should have had this feeling at all; but you must
remember that people afflicted as I am become very sensitive--morbid,
perhaps--and are very apt to be influenced by mere imagination
rather than by reason.
"After completing my course at the college, for which I can never
be sufficiently grateful to Mr. Hesden, I thought at first that I
would write to you and see if I could not obtain work among some
of my people in the West. Before I concluded to do so, however, the
President of the college showed me a letter asking him to recommend
some one for a colored school in one of the Northern States.
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