rience kind, and even tender treatment; they had
known nothing of the sort. Life, to them, had been rough and thorny, as
well as dark. They had--most of them--lived on my old master's farm in
Tuckahoe, and had felt the reign of Mr. Plummer's rule. The overseer had
written his character on the living parchment of most of their backs,
and left them callous; my back (thanks to my early removal from the
plantation to Baltimore) was yet tender. I had left a kind mistress{139}
at Baltimore, who was almost a mother to me. She was in tears when we
parted, and the probabilities of ever seeing her again, trembling in the
balance as they did, could not be viewed without alarm and agony. The
thought of leaving that kind mistress forever, and, worse still, of
being the slave of Andrew Anthony--a man who, but a few days before the
division of the property, had, in my presence, seized my brother Perry
by the throat, dashed him on the ground, and with the heel of his
boot stamped him on the head, until the blood gushed from his nose and
ears--was terrible! This fiendish proceeding had no better apology than
the fact, that Perry had gone to play, when Master Andrew wanted him
for some trifling service. This cruelty, too, was of a piece with his
general character. After inflicting his heavy blows on my brother, on
observing me looking at him with intense astonishment, he said, "_That_
is the way I will serve you, one of these days;" meaning, no doubt,
when I should come into his possession. This threat, the reader may well
suppose, was not very tranquilizing to my feelings. I could see that he
really thirsted to get hold of me. But I was there only for a few days.
I had not received any orders, and had violated none, and there was,
therefore, no excuse for flogging me.

At last, the anxiety and suspense were ended; and they ended, thanks to
a kind Providence, in accordance with my wishes. I fell to the portion
of Mrs. Lucretia--the dear lady who bound up my head, when the savage
Aunt Katy was adding to my sufferings her bitterest maledictions.

Capt. Thomas Auld and Mrs. Lucretia at once decided on my return
to Baltimore. They knew how sincerely and warmly Mrs. Hugh Auld was
attached to me, and how delighted Mr. Hugh's son would be to have
me back; and, withal, having no immediate use for one so young, they
willingly let me off to Baltimore.

I need not stop here to narrate my joy on returning to Baltimore, nor
that of little Tommy; no