nt kind and
enough food. His master considered it a great insult, and declared he
would sell him. But previous to this insult, as he called it, my
step-father was foreman in Mr. L.'s tobacco factory. He was trusty and
of good moral habits, and was calculated to bring the highest price in
the human market; therefore the excuse to sell him for the above
offence was only a plot. The morning this offence occurred, Mr. L. bid
my father to remain in the kitchen till he had taken his breakfast.
After pulling his ears and slapping his face bade him come to the
factory; but instead of going to the factory he went to Canada. Thus
my poor mother was again left alone with two more children added to
her misery and sorrow to toil on her weary pilgrimage.

Racked with agony and pain she was left alone again,
With a purpose nought could move
And the zeal of woman's love,
Down she knelt in agony
To ask the Lord to clear the way.

True she said O gracious Lord,
True and faithful is thy word;
But the humblest, poorest, may
Eat the crumbs they cast away.

Though nine long years had passed
Without one glimmering light of day
She never did forget to pray
And has not yet though whips and chains are cast away.

For thus said the blessed Lord,
I will verify my word;
By the faith that has not failed,
Thou hast asked and shall prevail.

We remained but a short time at the same residence when Mr. Lewis
moved again to the country. Soon after, my little brother was taken
sick in consequence of being confined in a box in which my mother was
obliged to keep him. If permitted to creep around the floor her
mistress thought it would take too much time to attend to him. He was
two years old and never walked. His limbs were perfectly paralyzed for
want of exercise. We now saw him gradually failing, but was not
allowed to render him due attention. Even the morning he died she was
compelled to attend to her usual work. She watched over him for three
months by night and attended to her domestic affairs by day. The night
previous to his death we were aware he could not survive through the
approaching day, but it made no impression on my mistress until she
came into the kitchen and saw his life fast ebbing away, then she put
on a sad countenance for fear of being exposed, and told my mother to
take the child to her room, where he only lived one hour. When she
found he was dead she o