as not, by any means, so comfortable as in former years. My
attachments were now outside of our family. They were felt to those to
whom I _imparted_ instruction, and to those little white boys from whom
I _received_ instruction. There, too, was my dear old father, the pious
Lawson, who was, in christian graces, the very counterpart of "Uncle"
Tom. The resemblance is so perfect, that he might have been the original
of Mrs. Stowe's christian hero. The thought of leaving these dear
friends, greatly troubled me, for I was going without the hope of ever
returning to Baltimore again; the feud between Master Hugh and his
brother being bitter and irreconcilable, or, at least, supposed to be
so.

In addition to thoughts of friends from whom I was parting, as I
supposed, _forever_, I had the grief of neglected chances of escape to
brood over. I had put off running away, until now I was to be placed
where the opportunities for escaping were much fewer than in a large
city like Baltimore.

On my way from Baltimore to St. Michael's, down the Chesapeake bay, our
sloop--the "Amanda"--was passed by the steamers plying between that city
and Philadelphia, and I watched the course of those steamers, and, while
going to St. Michael's, I formed a plan to escape from slavery; of which
plan, and matters connected therewith the kind reader shall learn more
hereafter.

CHAPTER XIV. _Experience in St. Michael's_

THE VILLAGE--ITS INHABITANTS--THEIR OCCUPATION AND LOW PROPENSITIES
CAPTAN(sic) THOMAS AULD--HIS CHARACTER--HIS SECOND WIFE, ROWENA--WELL
MATCHED--SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER--OBLIGED TO TAKE FOOD--MODE OF ARGUMENT
IN VINDICATION THEREOF--NO MORAL CODE OF FREE SOCIETY CAN APPLY TO
SLAVE SOCIETY--SOUTHERN CAMP MEETING--WHAT MASTER THOMAS DID
THERE--HOPES--SUSPICIONS ABOUT HIS CONVERSION--THE RESULT--FAITH AND
WORKS ENTIRELY AT VARIANCE--HIS RISE AND PROGRESS IN THE CHURCH--POOR
COUSIN "HENNY"--HIS TREATMENT OF HER--THE METHODIST PREACHERS--THEIR
UTTER DISREGARD OF US--ONE EXCELLENT EXCEPTION--REV. GEORGE
COOKMAN--SABBATH SCHOOL--HOW BROKEN UP AND BY WHOM--A FUNERAL PALL CAST
OVER ALL MY PROSPECTS--COVEY THE NEGRO-BREAKER.

St. Michael's, the village in which was now my new home, compared
favorably with villages in slave states, generally. There were a few
comfortable dwellings in it, but the place, as a whole, wore a dull,
slovenly, enterprise-forsaken aspect. The mass of the buildings were
wood; they had never enjoyed the artif