His first impulse was to run; but his legs trembled so that he could not stir.  He turned to confront his antagonist, and behold, there stood his old master’s next door neighbor!  He thought it was all over with him now; but it proved otherwise.  That man was a miracle.  He possessed a goodly number of slaves, and yet was not quite deaf to that mystic clock, whose ticking is rarely heard in the slaveholder’s breast.

“Ben, you are sick,” said he.  “Why, you look like a ghost.  I guess I gave you something of a start.  Never mind, Ben, I am not going to touch you.  You had a pretty tough time of it, and you may go on your way rejoicing for all me.  But I would advise you to get out of this place plaguy quick, for there are several gentlemen here from our town.”  He described the nearest and safest route to New York, and added, “I shall be glad to tell your mother I have seen you.  Good by, Ben.”

Benjamin turned away, filled with gratitude, and surprised that the town he hated contained such a gem—­a gem worthy of a purer setting.

This gentleman was a Northerner by birth, and had married a southern lady.  On his return, he told my grandmother that he had seen her son, and of the service he had rendered him.

Benjamin reached New York safely, and concluded to stop there until he had gained strength enough to proceed further.  It happened that my grandmother’s only remaining son had sailed for the same city on business for his mistress.  Through God’s providence, the brothers met.  You may be sure it was a happy meeting.  “O Phil,” exclaimed Benjamin, “I am here at last.”  Then he told him how near he came to dying, almost in sight of free land, and how he prayed that he might live to get one breath of free air.  He said life was worth something now, and it would be hard to die.  In the old jail he had not valued it; once, he was tempted to destroy it; but something, he did not know what, had prevented him; perhaps it was fear.  He had heard those who profess to be religious declare there was no heaven for self-murderers; and as his life had been pretty hot here, he did not desire a continuation of the same in another world.  “If I die now,” he exclaimed, “thank God, I shall die a freeman!”

He begged my uncle Phillip not to return south; but stay and work with him, till they earned enough to buy those at home.  His brother told him it would kill their mother if he deserted her in her trouble.  She had pledged her house, and with difficulty had raised money to buy him.  Would he be bought?

“No, never!” he replied.  “Do you suppose, Phil, when I have got so far out of their clutches, I will give them one red cent?  No!  And do you suppose I would turn mother out of her home in her old age?  That I would let her pay all those hard-earned dollars for me, and never to see me?  For you know she will stay south as long as her other children are slaves.  What a good mother!  Tell her to buy you, Phil.