When they came along-side the packet, the captain, supposing him to be a passenger for Baltimore, ordered the sailors to assist him on board.  When his business was made known, he was told that the Frenchman was in the cabin.  He sought him out, and stated that the laws of Pennsylvania did not allow apprentices to be carried out of the state without certain preliminaries, to which he had not attended.  The Frenchman had six or eight friends with him, and as he was going out of the country, he put the laws at defiance.  Meanwhile, the vessel was gliding down the river, carrying friend Hopper to Newcastle.  He summoned the captain, and requested him to put the colored boy into the ferry-boat, which was alongside ready to receive him.  He was not disposed to interfere; but when Friend Hopper drew a volume from his pocket and read to him the laws applicable to the case, he became alarmed, and said the boy must be given up.  Whereupon, Friend Hopper directed the child to go on deck, which he was ready enough to do; and the ferryman soon helped him on board the boat.

The Frenchman and his friends were very noisy and violent.  They attempted to throw Friend Hopper overboard; and there were so many of them, that they seemed likely to succeed in their efforts.  But he seized one of them fast by the coat; resolved to have company in the water, if he were compelled to take a plunge.  They struck his hand with their canes, and pulled the coat from his grasp.  Then he seized hold of another; and so the struggle continued for some minutes.  The ferryman, who was watching the conflict, contrived to bring his boat into a favorable position; and Friend Hopper suddenly let go the Frenchman’s coat, and tumbled in.

When he returned to Philadelphia with the boy, he found the mother waiting at his house, in a state of intense anxiety.  The meeting between mother and son was joyful indeed; and Wagelma made them all laugh by his animated description of his friend’s encounter with the Frenchmen, accompanied by a lively imitation of their gesticulations.  In witnessing the happiness he had imparted, their benefactor found more than sufficient compensation for all the difficulties he had encountered.

JAMES POOVEY.

Slavery having been abolished by a gradual process in Pennsylvania, there were many individuals who still remained in bondage at the period of which I write.  Among them was James Poovey, slave to a blacksmith in Pennsylvania.  He had learned his master’s trade, and being an athletic man, was very valuable.  During several winters, he attended an evening school for the free instruction of colored people.  He made very slow progress in learning, but by means of unremitting industry and application, he was at last able to accomplish the desire of his heart, which was to read the New Testament for himself.