to remain one day longer
than I had intended, when I left home. But, as soon as I returned, I
went straight to his house on Fell street, to hand him his (my) money.
Unhappily, the fatal mistake had been committed. I found him exceedingly
angry. He exhibited all the signs of apprehension and wrath, which
a slaveholder may be surmised to exhibit on the supposed escape of a
favorite slave. "You rascal! I have a great mind to give you a severe
whipping. How dare you go out of the city without first asking and
obtaining my permission?" "Sir," said I, "I hired my time and paid you
the price you asked for it. I did not know that it was any part of the
bargain that I should ask you when or where I should go."

"You did not know, you rascal! You are bound to show yourself here every
Saturday night." After reflecting, a few moments, he became somewhat
cooled down; but, evidently greatly troubled, he said, "Now, you
scoundrel! you have done for yourself; you shall hire your time no
longer. The next thing I shall hear of, will be your running away. Bring
home your tools and your clothes, at once. I'll teach you how to go off
in this way."

Thus ended my partial freedom. I could hire my time no longer; and I
obeyed my master's orders at once. The little taste of liberty which I
had had--although as the reader will have seen, it was far from being
unalloyed--by no means enhanced my contentment with slavery. Punished
thus by Master Hugh, it was now my turn to punish him. "Since," thought
I, "you _will_ make a slave of me, I will await your orders in all
things;" and, instead of going to look for work on Monday morning, as
I had{256} formerly done, I remained at home during the entire week,
without the performance of a single stroke of work. Saturday night came,
and he called upon me, as usual, for my wages. I, of course, told him I
had done no work, and had no wages. Here we were at the point of coming
to blows. His wrath had been accumulating during the whole week; for
he evidently saw that I was making no effort to get work, but was most
aggravatingly awaiting his orders, in all things. As I look back to this
behavior of mine, I scarcely know what possessed me, thus to trifle with
those who had such unlimited power to bless or to blast me. Master Hugh
raved and swore his determination to _"get hold of me;"_ but, wisely
for _him_, and happily for _me_, his wrath only employed those very
harmless, impalpable missiles, which roll from