en in her mind an interest in my
welfare. It is quite true, that this interest was never very marked, and
it seldom showed itself in anything more than in giving me a piece
of bread when I was hungry; but this was a great favor on a slave
plantation, and I was the only one of the children to whom such
attention was paid.{103} When very hungry, I would go into the back yard
and play under Miss Lucretia's window. When pretty severely pinched by
hunger, I had a habit of singing, which the good lady very soon came to
understand as a petition for a piece of bread. When I sung under Miss
Lucretia's window, I was very apt to get well paid for my music.
The reader will see that I now had two friends, both at important
points--Mas' Daniel at the great house, and Miss Lucretia at home.
From Mas' Daniel I got protection from the bigger boys; and from Miss
Lucretia I got bread, by singing when I was hungry, and sympathy when
I was abused by that termagant, who had the reins of government in the
kitchen. For such friendship I felt deeply grateful, and bitter as are
my recollections of slavery, I love to recall any instances of kindness,
any sunbeams of humane treatment, which found way to my soul through the
iron grating of my house of bondage. Such beams seem all the brighter
from the general darkness into which they penetrate, and the impression
they make is vividly distinct and beautiful.

As I have before intimated, I was seldom whipped--and never severely--by
my old master. I suffered little from the treatment I received, except
from hunger and cold. These were my two great physical troubles. I could
neither get a sufficiency of food nor of clothing; but I suffered less
from hunger than from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, I was
kept almost in a state of nudity; no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no
trowsers; nothing but coarse sackcloth or tow-linen, made into a sort of
shirt, reaching down to my knees. This I wore night and day, changing
it once a week. In the day time I could protect myself pretty well,
by keeping on the sunny side of the house; and in bad weather, in the
corner of the kitchen chimney. The great difficulty was, to keep warm
during the night. I had no bed. The pigs in the pen had leaves, and
the horses in the stable had straw, but the children had no beds. They
lodged anywhere in the ample kitchen. I slept, generally, in a little
closet, without even a blanket to cover me. In very cold weather. I