amiliar face. She watched it
eagerly as it moved up and down in the throng, for she felt that she had
seen it before. But it was some minutes before she could tell exactly
where. At last it all came to her. It was Arthur Carroll, the son of the
man who had owned her when a baby. She had often seen and played with
him in her visits to her mother. Many years had passed since she last
beheld him, and he had grown to be a young gentleman; but she was sure
it was he. He stepped out of the hotel and came towards the house.
She uttered a little, quick cry, "Why, Mass Arthur!" He turned and
recognized her, and at once stopped to inquire into her condition and
circumstances.

It was almost like a visit to old Virginia to see young Carroll; and as
cold water to a thirsty soul was the news he brought her from that far
country. Tidy drank in eagerly every word he could tell her of the
Lees, and others whom she knew, and they were enjoying an animated
conversation when Tidy's master passed that way. He saw his slave
engaged in familiar talk with a stranger, and remembering the remark
of the trader of whom he had bought her, that she had tried "the
running-away game" once, and must be watched lest she should repeat the
attempt, without waiting to inquire into the circumstances of the case,
he resolved to administer a proper chastisement. Coming up behind, he
struck her a violent blow on the side of the head that sent the frail
girl reeling to the ground.

For a few minutes Tidy lay stunned upon the earth. When she came to
herself, her head was smarting with pain and her heart burned like fire
with indignation, and in a perfect frenzy of distress and mortification
she rushed out of the gate and flew down the street. Up and down,
through the streets and lanes of the city, she ran for hours, not
knowing or caring whither she went, until finally, exhausted and
bewildered, she dropped down upon the ground. Some one raised the
panting girl and took her to the guard-house. There she lay until
morning before she could give any distinct thought to what she had done,
and what course she was now to pursue.

When she began to think clearly, she felt that she had acted very
unwisely. For a slave to resist punishment, if it is ever so undeserved,
or to attempt to escape it by running away, is only to provoke severer
chastisement. That she well knew, and that there was nothing to be done
now, but to walk back to her master's house and meet a fat