The mistress came to meet us, and led me up stairs to a small room over her own sleeping apartment.  “You will be safe here, Linda,” said she; “I keep this room to store away things that are out of use.  The girls are not accustomed to be sent to it, and they will not suspect any thing unless they hear some noise.  I always keep it locked, and Betty shall take care of the key.  But you must be very careful, for my sake as well as your own; and you must never tell my secret; for it would ruin me and my family.  I will keep the girls busy in the morning, that Betty may have a chance to bring your breakfast; but it will not do for her to come to you again till night.  I will come to see you sometimes.  Keep up your courage.  I hope this state of things will not last long.”  Betty came with the “nice hot supper,” and the mistress hastened down stairs to keep things straight till she returned.  How my heart overflowed with gratitude!  Words choked in my throat; but I could have kissed the feet of my benefactress.  For that deed of Christian womanhood, may God forever bless her!

I went to sleep that night with the feeling that I was for the present the most fortunate slave in town.  Morning came and filled my little cell with light.  I thanked the heavenly Father for this safe retreat.  Opposite my window was a pile of feather beds.  On the top of these I could lie perfectly concealed, and command a view of the street through which Dr. Flint passed to his office.  Anxious as I was, I felt a gleam of satisfaction when I saw him.  Thus far I had outwitted him, and I triumphed over it.  Who can blame slaves for being cunning?  They are constantly compelled to resort to it.  It is the only weapon of the weak and oppressed against the strength of their tyrants.

I was daily hoping to hear that my master had sold my children; for I knew who was on the watch to buy them.  But Dr. Flint cared even more for revenge than he did for money.  My brother William and the good aunt who had served in his family twenty years, and my little Benny, and Ellen, who was a little over two years old, were thrust into jail, as a means of compelling my relatives to give some information about me.  He swore my grandmother should never see one of them again till I was brought back.  They kept these facts from me for several days.  When I heard that my little ones were in a loathsome jail, my first impulse was to go to them.  I was encountering dangers for the sake of freeing them, and must I be the cause of their death?  The thought was agonizing.  My benefactress tried to soothe me by telling me that my aunt would take good care of the children while they remained in jail.  But it added to my pain to think that the good old aunt, who had always been so kind to her sister’s orphan children, should be shut up in prison for no other crime than loving them.  I suppose my friends feared a reckless movement on my part, knowing, as they did, that my life was bound up in my children.