“‘Aint you contented where you are, Nicholas?’ he enquired.  I told him I didn’t dislike him; but freedom was sweetest.  ’Give me a chance of my freedom, master, and yet you may know me as a man,’ says I, feeling that to be free was to be among the living; to be a slave was to be among the moving dead.  To this he said, he always had liked me, was proud of me, had unbounded confidence in my directions over the men, and always felt safe when he went from home leaving things in my charge.  ‘In this view of the case, Nicholas,’ he says, ’I have come to the conclusion,—­and it’s Mrs. Grabguy’s conclusion, too,—­to let you work evenings, on overtime, for yourself.  You can earn a deal of money that way, if you please; just save it up, and let me keep it for you, and in consideration of your faithfulness I will set you free whenever you get a thousand dollars to put into my hands.  Now that’s generous-I want to do the straight thing, and so Mrs. Grabguy wants to do the straight thing; and what money you save you can put in Mrs. Grabguy’s hands for safe keeping.  She’s a noble-minded woman, and ‘ll take good care of it.’  This was to me like entering upon a new life of hope and joy.  How my heart yearned for the coming day, when I should be free like other folks!  I worked and struggled by night and day; and good Mr. Simons befriended me, and procured me many little orders, which I executed, and for which I got good pay.  All my own earnings I put into Mrs. Grabguy’s hands; and she told me she would keep it for me, safe, till I got enough to buy my freedom.  My confidence in these assurances was undivided.  I looked upon Mrs. Grabguy as a friend and mother; and good Mr. Simons, who was poor but honest, did many kind things to help me out.  When I got one hundred dollars in missus’ hands I jumped for joy; with it I seemed to have got over the first difficult step in the great mountain.  Then missus said I must take Jerushe for my wife.  I didn’t like Jerushe at first—­she was almost black; but missus said we were both slaves; hence, that could be no objection.  As missus’s order was equally as positive as master’s, there was no alternative but to obey it, and Jerushe became my wife.  We were lawfully married, and missus made a nice little party for us, and Jerushe loved me, and was kind to me, and her solicitude for my welfare soon made me repay her love.  I pitied her condition, and she seemed to pity mine; and I soon forgot that she was black, and we lived happily together, and had two children, which missus said were hers.  It was hard to reconcile this, and yet it was so, by law as well as social right.  But then missus was kind to Jerushe, and let her buy her time at four dollars a week, which, having learned to make dresses, she could pay and have a small surplus to lay by every week.  Jerushe knew I was struggling for freedom, and she would help me to buy that freedom, knowing that, if I was free, I would return her kindness, and struggle to make her free, and our children free.