flag
bore this inscription: "GREELEY TO THE RESCUE: I HAVE A NIGGER. THE
REV. MR. BUTLER, AGENT FOR THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD."

This flag I pulled down, cut off the flag with my pen-knife, and made
a paddle of the flag staff, which was a small sapling which they had
cut out of the brush, and was forked at the upper end. Between these
forks they had carefully sewed this flag with twine, and this part of
the canvas I left and made it serve as the blade of my paddle; and so
in due time I paddled to the Kansas shore. The river was rapid, and
there were in the river heaps of drift-wood, called "rack-heaps,"
dangerous places into which the water rushed with great violence; but
from these I was mercifully saved, and though I could not swim, I
landed a few miles below Atchison without harm or accident, and made
my way to Port William, a small town about twelve miles down the
river.

[Illustration: The flag placed on Pardee Butler's raft.]

CHAPTER VIII.

At Port William I had already become acquainted with a Bro. Hartman. He
had leased a saw-mill, and was running it, and I had bought lumber of
him. Having reached Port William, I went to Bro. H. and said, "I want to
obtain lodging of you to-night; but as I do not want to betray any man
into trouble, I must first tell you what has befallen me." I then told
him my mishap at Atchison, and said: "Now if you do not want to lodge
such a man, please say so, and I will go somewhere else." He replied:
"You shall lodge with me if it cost me every cent I am worth." He then
went on to say that he had leased that mill of men who were very bitter,
and very ultra in their views, and that they might be angry with him,
and turn him out of the mill. But at last he said: "There is Bro.
Oliphant living in the bluffs; he is under no such embarrassment," and
Bro. Hartman took me there. The next day was the Lord's day, and Oliver
Steele was to preach the first sermon in that little village on that
day. Oliver Steele was a notable citizen of Platte county, Missouri. His
name appears in the early days of the _Millennial Harbinger_ as a
citizen of Madison county, Kentucky. Bro. Steele complains of the
Reformers of Kentucky, that they are too much wedded to Old Baptist
usages to be true to the primitive and apostolic order of things. Then
Bro. Steele came to Platte county, Missouri, and had become one of its
most wealthy and influential citizens. He was an eminent example of a
courtly and courte