n as a funeral, and partakes of its
nature in one important particular,--the meeting no more in the flesh.

Levi and I climbed a pine-tree, when we got to the woods, and had this
conversation together.

"Le," I said to him, "our turn will come next; let us run away, and not
be sold like the rest."

"If we can only get clear this time," replied Le, "may-be they won't
sell us. I will go to Master William, and ask him not to do it."

"What will you get by going to Master William?" I asked him. "If we see
him, and ask him not to sell us, he will do as he pleases. For my part,
I think the best thing is to run away to the Free States."

"But," replied Levi, "see how many start for the Free States, and are
brought back, and sold away down South. We could not be safe this side
of Canada, and we should freeze to death before we got there."

So ended our conversation. I must have been about ten or eleven years
old then; yet, young as I was, I had heard of Canada as the land far
away in the North, where the runaway was safe from pursuit; but, to my
imagination, it was a vast and cheerless waste of ice and snow. So the
reader can readily conceive of the effect of Levi's remarks. They were a
damper upon our flight for the time being.

When night came, Levi wanted to go home and see if they had sold his
mother; but I did not care about going back, as I had no mother to sell.
How desolate I was! No home, no protector, no mother, no attachments. As
we turned our faces toward the Quarter,--where we might at any moment be
sold to satisfy a debt or replenish a failing purse,--I felt myself to
be what I really was, a poor, friendless slave-boy. Levi was equally
sad. His mother was not sold, but she could afford him no protection.

To the question, "Where had we been?" we answered, "Walking around."
Then followed inquiries and replies as to who were sold, who remained,
and what transpired at the sale.

Said Levi,--

"Mother, were you sold?"

"No, child; but a good many were sold; among them, your Uncles Anthony
and Dennis."

I said,--

"Aunt Ruthy, did they sell Uncle Sammy?"

"No, child."

"Where, then, is Uncle Sammy?"

I thought, if I could be with Uncle Sammy, may-be I would be safe. My
Aunt Rachel, and her two children, Jacob and Priscilla, were among the
sold, who altogether comprised a large number of the servants.

The apologist for slavery at the North, and the owner of his fellow-man
at the South, have steadi