the slaves he had sold, were
getting their liberty and doing well.

CHAPTER X.

HIRED OUT TO A NEW MASTER.

While I was staying with my master at Bath, he having little necessity for
my services, hired me out to a man by the name of Joseph Robinson, for the
purpose of learning me to drive a team. Robinson lived about three miles
from the village of Bath, on a small farm, and was not only a poor man but
a very mean one. He was cross and heartless in his family, as well as
tyrannical and cruel to those in his employ; and having hired me as a
"slave boy," he appeared to feel at full liberty to wreak his brutal
passion on me at any time, whether I deserved rebuke or not; nor did his
terrible outbreaks of anger vent themselves in oaths, curses and
threatenings only, but he would frequently draw from the cart-tongue a
heavy iron pin, and beat me over the head with it, so unmercifully that he
frequently sent the blood flowing over my scanty apparel, and from that to
the ground, before he could feel satisfied.

These kind of beatings were not only excessively painful, but they always
reminded me of the blows I had so often received from the key, in the hand
of Mrs. Helm, when I was but a little waiter lad; and in truth I must say
that the effect of these heavy blows on the head, have followed me thus
far through life; subjecting me to frequent and violent head-aches, from
which I never expect to be entirely free. Even to this day I shudder at
the thought, when I think how Robinson used to fly at me, swearing,
foaming, and seeming to think there was no weapon too large or too heavy
to strike me with.

He and I were at one time logging with a yoke of oxen, which it was my
business to drive. At that time rattle-snakes were numerous, and a great
terror to the inhabitants. To be bitten by one of these poisonous reptiles
was certain and almost instant death; hence, the greatest caution and
constant vigilance was necessary to avoid them while at work. I had been
sent with the oxen to draw a log to the pile, and when I came up to it, I
observed that it appeared to be hollow; but stepping forward, with the
chain in my hand, ready to attach it to the log, when, oh, horror! the
warning rattle of a snake sounded like a death knell in my ears,
proceeding from the log I was about to lay hold of. I was so much
frightened by the sound, that I dropped the chain as though it were red
hot, left my team, and ran with all the speed in m