ds to go down east, and come
around by Niagara Falls, for this was the place from which Tom had
written them. Boss had great confidence in himself, and did not doubt
his ability to take Tom home with him if he should meet him, even though
it should be in Canada. So he took a pair of handcuffs with him as a
preparation for the enterprise. His young nephew had been to Niagara
Falls, and seen and talked with Tom; but Boss said if he had seen him
anywhere he would have laid hands on him, at once, and taken him home,
at all hazards.

* * * * *

MAKING CLOTHES.

When the family went on this visit down east I was left in charge of the
house, and was expected to keep everything in order, and also to make
the winter clothes for the farm hands. The madam and I had cut out these
clothes before she left, and it was my principal duty to run the sewing
machine in their manufacture. Many whole days I spent in this work. My
wife made the button holes and sewed on the buttons. I made hundreds of
sacks for use in picking cotton. This work was always done in summer.
When the garments were all finished they were shipped to the farm at
Bolivar, to be ready for the fall and winter wear. In like manner the
clothes for summer use were made in winter.

* * * * *

A SUPERSTITION.

It was the custom in those days for slaves to carry voo-doo bags. It was
handed down from generation to generation; and, though it was one of the
superstitions of a barbarous ancestry, it was still very generally and
tenaciously held to by all classes. I carried a little bag, which I got
from an old slave who claimed that it had power to prevent any one who
carried it from being whipped. It was made of leather, and contained
roots, nuts, pins and some other things. The claim that it would prevent
the folks from whipping me so much, I found, was not sustained by my
experience--my whippings came just the same. Many of the servants were
thorough believers in it, though, and carried these bags all the time.

* * * * *

MEMPHIS AND ITS COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE.

The city of Memphis, from its high bluff on the Mississippi, overlooks
the surrounding country for a long distance. The muddy waters of the
river, when at a low stage, lap the ever crumbling banks that yearly
change, yielding to new deflections of the current. For hundreds of
miles below there is a highly interesting