he had exercised towards me, and reminded me that there was a limit to his patience.  When I succeeded in avoiding opportunities for him to talk to me at home, I was ordered to come to his office, to do some errand.  When there, I was obliged to stand and listen to such language as he saw fit to address to me.  Sometimes I so openly expressed my contempt for him that he would become violently enraged, and I wondered why he did not strike me.  Circumstanced as he was, he probably thought it was better policy to be forebearing.  But the state of things grew worse and worse daily.  In desperation I told him that I must and would apply to my grandmother for protection.  He threatened me with death, and worse than death, if I made any complaint to her.  Strange to say, I did not despair.  I was naturally of a buoyant disposition, and always I had a hope of somehow getting out of his clutches.  Like many a poor, simple slave before me, I trusted that some threads of joy would yet be woven into my dark destiny.

I had entered my sixteenth year, and every day it became more apparent that my presence was intolerable to Mrs. Flint.  Angry words frequently passed between her and her husband.  He had never punished me himself, and he would not allow any body else to punish me.  In that respect, she was never satisfied; but, in her angry moods, no terms were too vile for her to bestow upon me.  Yet I, whom she detested so bitterly, had far more pity for her than he had, whose duty it was to make her life happy.  I never wronged her, or wished to wrong her, and one word of kindness from her would have brought me to her feet.

After repeated quarrels between the doctor and his wife, he announced his intention to take his youngest daughter, then four years old, to sleep in his apartment.  It was necessary that a servant should sleep in the same room, to be on hand if the child stirred.  I was selected for that office, and informed for what purpose that arrangement had been made.  By managing to keep within sight of people, as much as possible, during the day time, I had hitherto succeeded in eluding my master, though a razor was often held to my throat to force me to change this line of policy.  At night I slept by the side of my great aunt, where I felt safe.  He was too prudent to come into her room.  She was an old woman, and had been in the family many years.  Moreover, as a married man, and a professional man, he deemed it necessary to save appearances in some degree.  But he resolved to remove the obstacle in the way of his scheme; and he thought he had planned it so that he should evade suspicion.  He was well aware how much I prized my refuge by the side of my old aunt, and he determined to dispossess me of it.  The first night the doctor had the little child in his room alone.  The next morning, I was ordered to take my station as nurse the following night.  A kind Providence interposed in my favor.  During the day Mrs. Flint heard of this new arrangement, and a storm followed.  I rejoiced to hear it rage.