took the circuit of the table two or three times, and finally pointed me to a seat at the lower end of it.  As there was but one chair, I sat down and took the child in my lap.  Whereupon the young man came to me and said, in the blandest manner possible, “Will you please to seat the little girl in the chair, and stand behind it and feed her?  After they have done, you will be shown to the kitchen, where you will have a good supper.”

This was the climax!  I found it hard to preserve my self-control, when I looked round, and saw women who were nurses, as I was, and only one shade lighter in complexion, eyeing me with a defiant look, as if my presence were a contamination.  However, I said nothing.  I quietly took the child in my arms, went to our room, and refused to go to the table again.  Mr. Bruce ordered meals to be sent to the room for little Mary and I. This answered for a few days; but the waiters of the establishment were white, and they soon began to complain, saying they were not hired to wait on negroes.  The landlord requested Mr. Bruce to send me down to my meals, because his servants rebelled against bringing them up, and the colored servants of other boarders were dissatisfied because all were not treated alike.

My answer was that the colored servants ought to be dissatisfied with themselves, for not having too much self-respect to submit to such treatment; that there was no difference in the price of board for colored and white servants, and there was no justification for difference of treatment.  I staid a month after this, and finding I was resolved to stand up for my rights, they concluded to treat me well.  Let every colored man and woman do this, and eventually we shall cease to be trampled under foot by our oppressors.

XXXVI.  The Hairbreadth Escape.

After we returned to New York, I took the earliest opportunity to go and see Ellen.  I asked to have her called down stairs; for I supposed Mrs. Hobbs’s southern brother might still be there, and I was desirous to avoid seeing him, if possible.  But Mrs. Hobbs came to the kitchen, and insisted on my going up stairs.  “My brother wants to see you,” said she, “and he is sorry you seem to shun him.  He knows you are living in New York.  He told me to say to you that he owes thanks to good old aunt Martha for too many little acts of kindness for him to be base enough to betray her grandchild.”

This Mr. Thorne had become poor and reckless long before he left the south, and such persons had much rather go to one of the faithful old slaves to borrow a dollar, or get a good dinner, than to go to one whom they consider an equal.  It was such acts of kindness as these for which he professed to feel grateful to my grandmother.  I wished he had kept at a distance, but as he was here, and knew where I was, I concluded there was nothing to be gained by trying to avoid him; on the contrary, it might be the means of exciting his ill will.  I followed his sister up stairs.  He met me in a very friendly manner, congratulated me on my escape from slavery, and hoped I had a good place, where I felt happy.