permission to go a few miles into the country, to see his sister, and while he was gone, the vessel unfortunately sailed; he called upon the consignee and asked what he had better do under the circumstances, and he told him that his captain had left directions for him to go to Philadelphia and take passage home by the first vessel.  Captain Cox was entirely satisfied with this account.  He said there was a vessel then in port, which would sail for Bermuda in a few days, and told Joe he had better go and stay with him at Mr. Tatem’s house, while he made inquiries about it.

When Isaac entered the kitchen that evening, he found Joe sitting there, in a very disconsolate attitude; and watching him closely he observed tears now and then trickling down his dark cheeks.  He thought of poor old Mingo, whose pitiful story had so much interested him in boyhood, and caused him to form a resolution to be the friend of Africans.—­The more he pondered on the subject, the more he doubted whether Joe was so much pleased to meet his “old friend,” as he had pretended to be.  He took him aside and said, “Tell me truly how the case stands with you.  I will be your friend; and come what will, you may feel certain that I will never betray you.”  Joe gave him an earnest look of distress and scrutiny, which his young benefactor never forgot.  Again he assured him, most solemnly, that he might trust him.  Then Joe ventured to acknowledge that he was a fugitive slave, and had great dread of being returned into bondage.  He said his master let him out to work on board a ship going to New-York.  He had a great desire for freedom, and when the vessel arrived at its destined port, he made his escape, and travelled to Philadelphia, in hopes of finding some one willing to protect him.  Unluckily, the very day he entered the City of Brotherly Love he met his old acquaintance Captain Cox; and on the spur of the moment he had invented the best story he could.

Isaac was then a mere lad, and he had been in Philadelphia too short a time to form many acquaintances; but he imagined what his own feelings would be if he were in poor Joe’s situation, and he determined to contrive some way or other to assist him.  He consulted with a prudent and benevolent neighbor, who told him that a Quaker by the name of John Stapler, in Buck’s County, was a good friend to colored people, and the fugitive had better be sent to him.  Accordingly, a letter was written to Friend Stapler, and given to Joe, with instructions how to proceed.  Meanwhile, Captain Cox brought tidings that he had secured a passage to Bermuda.  Joe thanked him, and went on board the vessel, as he was ordered.  But a day or two after, he obtained permission to go to Mr. Tatem’s house to procure some clothes he had left there.  It was nearly sunset when he left the ship and started on the route, which Isaac had very distinctly explained to him.  When the sun disappeared, the bright moon came forth.—­By her friendly light, he travelled on with a hopeful heart until the dawn of day, when he arrived at Friend Stapler’s house and delivered the letter.  He was received with great kindness, and a situation was procured for him in the neighborhood, where he spent the remainder of his life comfortably, with “none to molest or make him afraid.”