by calling attention to the rude characters and wanting to know who had done that.  I was afraid to own that I had done it; but old Master Jack somehow surmised that it was Tom or I, for he said to Boss:  “Edmund, you must watch those fellows, Louis and Thomas, if you don’t they will get spoilt—­spoilt.  They are pretty close to town here—­here.”  Tom and I laughed over this a good deal and how easily we slipped out of it, but concluded not to stop trying to learn all we could.  Tom always said:  “Lou, I am going to be a free man yet, then we will need some education; no, let us never stop trying to learn.”  Tom was a Virginian, as I was, and was sold from his parents when a mere lad.  Boss used to write to his parents (owners) occasionally, that his people might hear from him.  The letters were to his mother, but sent in care of the white folks.  Tom had progressed very fast in his secret studies, and could write enough to frame a letter.  It seems it had been over a year since Boss had written for him, but nothing was said until one morning I heard Boss telling Tom to come to the barn to be whipped.  He showed Tom three letters which he had written to his mother, and this so startled him that he said nothing.  I listened breathlessly to each word Boss said:  “Where did you learn to write?” asked he, “and when did you learn?  How long have you been writing to your mother?” At that moment he produced the three letters which Tom had written.  Boss, it seems, had mistrusted something, and spoke to the postmaster, telling him to stop any letters which Tom might mail for Virginia to his mother.  The postmaster did as directed, for slaves had no rights which postmasters were bound to respect; hence, the letters fell into the master’s hands instead of going to their destination.  Tom, not hearing from his first letter, wrote a second, then a third, never dreaming that they had been intercepted.  Boss raged and Tom was severely whipped.  After this nothing Tom did pleased any of the family—­it was a continual pick on him.  Everything was wrong with both of us, for they were equally hard on me.  They mistrusted, I think, that I could write; yet I could not find out just what they did think.

* * * * *

Tom strikes for liberty and Gains it.

Tom stayed only a few weeks after this.  He said to me, one morning:  “Lou, I am going away.  If I can get a boat to-night that is starting off, why, I am gone from this place.”  I was sad to see him go, for he was like a brother to me—­he was my companion and friend.  He went, and was just in time to catch the boat at the Memphis dock.  He succeeded in getting on, and made an application to the captain to work on the boat.  The captain did not hesitate to employ him, as it was common for slaves to be permitted to hire themselves out for wages which they were required to return, in whole or in part, to their masters.  Of course all such