was a
monstrous domestic institution that not only tolerated, but fostered,
such an exhibition of table manners by a would-be fine lady--such vulgar
spite and cruelty!

* * * * *

MY SECOND RUNAWAY TRIP.

About three months after my first attempt to get away, I thought I would
try it again. I went to Memphis, and saw a boat at the landing, called
the John Lirozey, a Cincinnati packet. This boat carried the mail. She
had come into port in the morning, and was being unloaded. I went aboard
in the afternoon and jumped down into the hull. Boss had been there in
the fore part of the afternoon inquiring for me, but I did not know it
then. After I had been in the boat some time, the men commenced loading
it. I crept up in the corner and hid myself. At first two or three
hundred dry and green hides were thrown in, and these hid me; but later
on two or three tiers of cotton bales were put in the center of the
hull, and, when the boat started, I got upon the top of these, and lay
there. I could hear the people talking above me, but it was so dark I
could not see anything--it was dark as a dungeon. I had lain there two
nights and began to get so weak and faint I could stand it no longer.
For some reason the boat did not start the day I went aboard,
consequently, I had not gotten as far from home as I expected, and my
privations had largely been in vain. Despairing and hungry, on the
third day, I commenced howling and screaming, hoping that some one
would hear me, and come to my relief, for almost anything else would
have been preferable to the privation and hunger from which I was
suffering. But I could make no one hear, at least no one paid any
attention to my screams, if they did hear. In the evening, however, one
of the deck hands came in with a lantern to look around and see
everything was all right. I saw the light and followed him out, but I
had been out of my hiding only a short time when I was discovered by a
man who took me up stairs to the captain. It was an effort for me to
walk up stairs, as I was weak and faint, having neither eaten nor drank
anything for three days. This boat was crowded with passengers, and it
was soon a scene of confusion. I was placed in the pilot's room for
safety, until we arrived at a small town in Kentucky called Monroe. I
was put off here to be kept until the packet came back from Cincinnati.
Then I was carried back to Memphis, arriving about one o'clock at