Now that Tom was gone, excitement prevailed at the house among the white folks—­nothing had been heard of him or the method of his escape.  All the servants expected that he would be caught, and I was alarmed every time Boss came from the city, fearing that he had news that Tom was caught.  He had been gone about six months, when, one morning, I went to the postoffice and brought back a letter.  It seemed to me that I felt that it contained something unusual, but I did not know what it was.  It proved to be a letter from Tom to Boss.  They did not intend that the servants should know it was from Tom, but one of the house maids heard them reading it, and came out and told us.  She whispered:  “Tom is free; he has gone to Canada; Boss read it in the letter Lou brought.”  This news cheered me, and made me eager to get away; but I never heard from him any more until after the rebellion.  Tom gone made my duties more.  I now had to drive the carriage, but Uncle Madison was kept at the barn to do the work there, and hitch up the team—­I only had to drive when the family went out.

* * * * *

M’GEE expects to capture Tom.

In the summer the McGees made up their minds to go down east, and come around by Niagara Falls, for this was the place from which Tom had written them.  Boss had great confidence in himself, and did not doubt his ability to take Tom home with him if he should meet him, even though it should be in Canada.  So he took a pair of handcuffs with him as a preparation for the enterprise.  His young nephew had been to Niagara Falls, and seen and talked with Tom; but Boss said if he had seen him anywhere he would have laid hands on him, at once, and taken him home, at all hazards.

* * * * *

Making clothes.

When the family went on this visit down east I was left in charge of the house, and was expected to keep everything in order, and also to make the winter clothes for the farm hands.  The madam and I had cut out these clothes before she left, and it was my principal duty to run the sewing machine in their manufacture.  Many whole days I spent in this work.  My wife made the button holes and sewed on the buttons.  I made hundreds of sacks for use in picking cotton.  This work was always done in summer.  When the garments were all finished they were shipped to the farm at Bolivar, to be ready for the fall and winter wear.  In like manner the clothes for summer use were made in winter.

* * * * *

A superstition.

It was the custom in those days for slaves to carry voo-doo bags.  It was handed down from generation to generation; and, though it was one of the superstitions of a barbarous ancestry, it was still very generally and tenaciously held to by all classes.  I carried a little bag, which I got from an old slave who claimed that it had power to prevent any one who carried it from being whipped.  It was made of leather, and contained roots, nuts, pins and some other things.  The claim that it would prevent the folks from whipping me so much, I found, was not sustained by my experience—­my whippings came just the same.  Many of the servants were thorough believers in it, though, and carried these bags all the time.