The events of the spring proved that I had not left too soon.  As soon as the season for travelling fairly opened, active search was made, and my master was seen in a town, twenty miles in advance of where I had spent my six months.

The following curious fact also came out.  That same brother-in-law who frightened me, was putting up one evening at a hotel some miles off, and while sitting quietly by himself in one part of the room, he overheard a conversation between a travelling pedler and several gossippers of the neighbourhood, who were lounging away the evening at the hotel.

PEDLER.—­“Do you know one W.W. somewhere about here?”

GOSSIPER.—­“Yes, he lives ——­ miles off.”

PED.—­“I understand he had a black boy with him last winter, I wonder if he is there yet?”

GOS.—­“I don’t know, he most always has a runaway nigger with him.”

PED.—­“I should like to find out whether that fellow is there yet.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW, (turning about.)—­“What does thee know about that boy?”

PED.—­“Well he is a runaway.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW.—­“Who did he run away from?”

PED.—­“From Col ——­ in ——.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW.—­“How did thee find out that fact?”

PED.—­“Well, I have been over there peddling.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW.—­“Where art thou from?”

PED.—­“I belong in Conn.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW.—­“Did thee see the boy’s master?”

PED.—­“Yes.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW.—­“What did he offer thee to find the boy?”

PED.—­“I agreed to find out where he was, and let him know, and if he got him, I was to receive ——.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW.—­“How didst thou hear the boy had been with W.W.”

PED.—­“Oh, he is known to be a notorious rascal for enticing away, and concealing slaves; he’ll get himself into trouble yet, the slaveholders are on the look out for him.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW.—­“W.W. is my brother-in-law; the boy of whom thou speakest is not with him, and to save thee the trouble of abusing him, I can moreover say, he is no rascal.”

PED.—­“He may not be there now, but it is because he has sent him off.  His master heard of him, and from the description, he is sure it must have been his boy.  He could tell me pretty nigh where he was; he said he was a fine healthy boy, twenty-one, a first-rate blacksmith; he would not have taken a thousand dollars for him.”

BROTHER-IN-LAW.—­“I know not where the boy is, but I have no doubt he is worth more to himself than he ever was to his master, high as he fixes the price on him; and I have no doubt thee will do better to pursue thy peddling honestly, than to neglect it for the sake of serving negro-hunters at a venture.”

All this happened within a month or two after I left my friend.  One fact which makes this part of the story deeply interesting to my own mind, is, that some years elapsed before it came to my knowledge.