Why not let well enough alone ?" "Because I love liberty, not only for myself but for every human being.
Think how dear these children are to me; and then for the thought to be forever haunting me, that if you were dead they could be turned out of doors and divided among your relatives.

I sometimes lie awake at night thinking of how there might be a screw loose somewhere, and, after all, the children and I might be reduced to slavery." "Marie, what in the world is the matter with you?
Have you had a presentiment of my death, or, as Uncle Jack says, 'hab you seed it in a vision ?'" "No, but I have had such sad forebodings that they almost set me wild.
One night I dreamt that you were dead; that the lawyers entered the house, seized our property, and remanded us to slavery.

I never can be satisfied in the South with such a possibility hanging over my head." "Marie, dear, you are growing nervous.

Your imagination is too active.
You are left too much alone on this plantation.

I hope that for your own and the children's sake I will be enabled to arrange our affairs so as to find a home for you where you will not be doomed to the social isolation and ostracism that surround you here." "I don't mind the isolation for myself, but the children.