hen talking to the trader. I felt sure that
my time had now come, but the day closed without my being sold. I did
not regret this, for I had heard that foreigners made the worst of
masters, and I felt confident that the man who eyed me so closely was
not an American.

"The next day was the Sabbath. The bells called the people to the
different places of worship. Methodists sang, and Baptists immersed, and
Presbyterians sprinkled, and Episcopalians read their prayers, while the
ministers of the various sects preached that Christ died for all; yet
there were some twenty-five or thirty of us poor creatures confined in
the '_Negro Pen_' awaiting the close of the Holy Sabbath, and the dawn
of another day, to be again taken into the market, there to be examined
like so many beasts of burden. I need not tell you with what anxiety we
waited for the advent of another day. On Monday we were again brought
out, and placed in rows to be inspected; and fortunately for me, I was
sold before we had been on the stand an hour. I was purchased by a
gentleman residing in the city, for a waiting-maid for his wife, who was
just on the eve of starting for Mobile, to pay a visit to a near
relation. I was then dressed to suit the situation of a maid-servant;
and, upon the whole, I thought that in my new dress I looked as much the
lady as my mistress.

"On the passage to Mobile, who should I see among the passengers, but
the tall, long-haired man that had eyed me so closely in the
slave-market a few days before. His eyes were again on me, and he
appeared anxious to speak to me, and I as reluctant to be spoken to. The
first evening after leaving New Orleans, soon after twilight had let her
curtain down, and pinned it with a star, and while I was seated on the
deck of the boat, near the ladies' cabin, looking upon the rippled
waves, and the reflection of the moon upon the sea, all at once I saw
the tall young man standing by my side. I immediately rose from my seat,
and was in the act of returning to the cabin, when he in a broken
accent said, 'Stop a moment; I wish to have a word with you. I am your
friend.' I stopped and looked him full in the face, and he said, 'I saw
you some days since in the slave-market, and I intended to have
purchased you to save you from the condition of a slave. I called on
Monday, but you had been sold and had left the market. I inquired and
learned who the purchaser was, and that you had to go to Mobile, so I
resolve