bread, but they soon failed in the absence of bread. I speak but the
simple truth, when I say, I have often been so pinched with hunger, that
I have fought with the dog--"Old Nep"--for the smallest crumbs that fell
from the kitchen table, and have been glad when I won a single crumb
in the combat. Many times have I followed, with eager step, the
waiting-girl when she went out to shake the table cloth, to get the
crumbs and small bones flung out for the cats. The water, in which meat
had been boiled, was as eagerly sought for by me. It was a great thing
to get the privilege of dipping a piece of bread in such water; and
the skin taken from rusty bacon, was a positive luxury. Nevertheless,
I sometimes got full meals and kind words from sympathizing old slaves,
who knew my sufferings, and received the comforting assurance that I
should be a man some day. "Never mind, honey--better day comin'," was
even then a solace, a cheering consolation to me in my{59} troubles. Nor
were all the kind words I received from slaves. I had a friend in the
parlor, as well, and one to whom I shall be glad to do justice, before I
have finished this part of my story.

I was not long at old master's, before I learned that his surname was
Anthony, and that he was generally called "Captain Anthony"--a title
which he probably acquired by sailing a craft in the Chesapeake Bay.
Col. Lloyd's slaves never called Capt. Anthony "old master," but always
Capt. Anthony; and _me_ they called "Captain Anthony Fred." There
is not, probably, in the whole south, a plantation where the English
language is more imperfectly spoken than on Col. Lloyd's. It is a
mixture of Guinea and everything else you please. At the time of which
I am now writing, there were slaves there who had been brought from the
coast of Africa. They never used the "s" in indication of the possessive
case. "Cap'n Ant'ney Tom," "Lloyd Bill," "Aunt Rose Harry," means
"Captain Anthony's Tom," "Lloyd's Bill," &c. _"Oo you dem long to?"_
means, "Whom do you belong to?" _"Oo dem got any peachy?"_ means, "Have
you got any peaches?" I could scarcely understand them when I first went
among them, so broken was their speech; and I am persuaded that I could
not have been dropped anywhere on the globe, where I could reap less,
in the way of knowledge, from my immediate associates, than on this
plantation. Even "MAS' DANIEL," by his association with his father's
slaves, had measurably adopted their dialect