The old slave, having soon after missed the chicken, inquired after it; and on my relating the accident (for I told her the truth, because my mother would never suffer me to tell a lie) she flew into a violent passion, threatened that I should suffer for it; and, my master being out, she immediately went and told her mistress what I had done.  This alarmed me very much, and I expected an instant flogging, which to me was uncommonly dreadful; for I had seldom been beaten at home.  I therefore resolved to fly; and accordingly I ran into a thicket that was hard by, and hid myself in the bushes.  Soon afterwards my mistress and the slave returned, and, not seeing me, they searched all the house, but not finding me, and I not making answer when they called to me, they thought I had run away, and the whole neighbourhood was raised in the pursuit of me.  In that part of the country (as in ours) the houses and villages were skirted with woods, or shrubberies, and the bushes were so thick that a man could readily conceal himself in them, so as to elude the strictest search.  The neighbours continued the whole day looking for me, and several times many of them came within a few yards of the place where I lay hid.  I then gave myself up for lost entirely, and expected every moment, when I heard a rustling among the trees, to be found out, and punished by my master:  but they never discovered me, though they were often so near that I even heard their conjectures as they were looking about for me; and I now learned from them, that any attempt to return home would be hopeless.  Most of them supposed I had fled towards home; but the distance was so great, and the way so intricate, that they thought I could never reach it, and that I should be lost in the woods.  When I heard this I was seized with a violent panic, and abandoned myself to despair.  Night too began to approach, and aggravated all my fears.  I had before entertained hopes of getting home, and I had determined when it should be dark to make the attempt; but I was now convinced it was fruitless, and I began to consider that, if possibly I could escape all other animals, I could not those of the human kind; and that, not knowing the way, I must perish in the woods.  Thus was I like the hunted deer: 

    —­“Ev’ry leaf and ev’ry whisp’ring breath
    Convey’d a foe, and ev’ry foe a death.”

I heard frequent rustlings among the leaves; and being pretty sure they were snakes I expected every instant to be stung by them.  This increased my anguish, and the horror of my situation became now quite insupportable.  I at length quitted the thicket, very faint and hungry, for I had not eaten or drank any thing all the day; and crept to my master’s kitchen, from whence I set out at first, and which was an open shed, and laid myself down in the ashes with an anxious wish for death to relieve me from all my pains.  I was scarcely awake in the morning when the old woman slave, who was the first up, came to light the fire, and saw me in the fire place.  She was very much surprised to see me, and could scarcely believe her own eyes.  She now promised to intercede for me, and went for her master, who soon after came, and, having slightly reprimanded me, ordered me to be taken care of, and not to be ill-treated.