“Then the Lord said to me, ’Git up two or three hours afore daylight, an’ start off.’

“An’ says I, ’Thank ‘ee, Lord! that’s a good thought.’

“So up I got, about three o’clock in the mornin’, an’ I started an’ travelled pretty fast, till, when the sun rose, I was clear away from our place an’ our folks, an’ out o’ sight.  An’ then I begun to think I didn’t know nothin’ where to go.  So I kneeled down, and says I,—­

“‘Well, Lord, you’ve started me out, an’ now please to show me where to go.’

“Then the Lord made a house appear to me, an’ He said to me that I was to walk on till I saw that house, an’ then go in an’ ask the people to take me.  An’ I travelled all day, an’ didn’t come to the house till late at night; but when I saw it, sure enough, I went in, an’ I told the folks that the Lord sent me; an’ they was Quakers, an’ real kind they was to me.  They jes’ took me in, an’ did for me as kind as ef I’d been one of ’em; an’ after they’d giv me supper, they took me into a room where there was a great, tall, white bed; an’ they told me to sleep there.  Well, honey, I was kind o’ skeered when they left me alone with that great white bed; ’cause I never had been in a bed in my life.  It never came into my mind they could mean me to sleep in it.  An’ so I jes’ camped down under it, on the floor, an’ then I slep’ pretty well.  In the mornin’, when they came in, they asked me of I hadn’t been asleep; an’ I said, ‘Yes, I never slep’ better.’  An’ they said, ’Why, you haven’t been in the bed!’ An’ says I, ‘Laws, you didn’t think o’ sech a thing as my sleepin’ in dat ‘ar’ bed, did you?  I never heerd o’ sech a thing in my life.’

“Well, ye see, honey, I stayed an’ lived with ’em.  An’ now jes’ look here:  instead o’ keepin’ my promise an’ bein’ good, as I told the Lord I would, jest as soon as everything got a-goin’ easy, I forgot all about God.

“Pretty well don’t need no help; an’ I gin up prayin.’  I lived there two or three years, an’ then the slaves in New York were all set free, an’ ole massa came to our house to make a visit, an’ he asked me ef I didn’t want to go back an’ see the folks on the ole place.  An’ I told him I did.  So he said, ef I’d jes’ git into the wagon with him, he’d carry me over.  Well, jest as I was goin’ out to git into the wagon, I met God! an’ says I, ‘O God, I didn’t know as you was so great!’ An’ I turned right round an’ come into the house, an’ set down in my room; for ’t was God all around me.  I could feel it burnin’, burnin’, burnin’ all around me, an’ goin’ through me; an’ I saw I was so wicked, it seemed as ef it would burn me up.  An’ I said, ’O somebody, somebody, stand between God an’ me! for it burns me!’ Then, honey, when I said so, I felt as it were somethin’ like an amberill [umbrella] that came between me an’ the light, an’ I felt it was somebody,—­somebody that stood between me an’ God; an’ it felt cool, like a shade; an’ says I, ’Who’s