but advised me to
go to W.W., a Quaker, who lived about three miles from her, whom I would
find to take an interest in me. She gave me directions which way to take;
I thanked her, and bade her good morning, and was very careful to follow
her directions.

In about half an hour I stood trembling at the door of W.W. After
knocking, the door opened upon a comfortably spread table; the sight of
which seemed at once to increase my hunger sevenfold. Not daring to enter,
I said I had been sent to him in search of employ. "Well," said he, "Come
in and take thy breakfast, and get warm, and we will talk about it; thee
must be cold without any coat." "_Come in and take thy breakfast, and get
warm!_" These words spoken by a stranger, but with such an air of simple
sincerity and fatherly kindness, made an overwhelming impression upon my
mind. They made me feel, spite of all my fear and timidity, that I had, in
the providence of God, found a friend and a home. He at once gained my
confidence; and I felt that I might confide to him a fact which I had, as
yet, confided to no one.

From that day to this, whenever I discover the least disposition in my
heart to disregard the wretched condition of any poor or distressed
persons with whom I meet, I call to mind these words--"_Come in and take
thy breakfast, and get warm_." They invariably remind me of what I was at
that time; my condition was as wretched as that of any human being can
possibly be, with the exception of the loss of health or reason. I had but
four pieces of clothing about my person, having left all the rest in the
hands of my captors. I was a starving fugitive, without home or friends--a
reward offered for my person in the public papers--pursued by cruel
manhunters, and no claim upon him to whose door I went. Had he turned me
away, I must have perished. Nay, he took me in, and gave me of his food,
and shared with me his own garments. Such treatment I had never before
received at the hands of any white man.

A few such men in slaveholding America, have stood, and even now stand,
like Abrahams and Lots, to stay its forthcoming and well-earned and just
judgment.

The limits of this work compel me to pass over many interesting incidents
which occurred during my six months' concealment in that family. I must
confine myself only to those which will show the striking providence of
God, in directing my steps to the door of W.W., and how great an influence
the incidents of that