“Well, we drove ten miles, and come to a gate, and ‘twouldn’t do for them to go through, and so there we parted; and they told me to die afore I got catched,—and if I did, not to _bring ’em out_. I told them I’d die five times over afore I’d fetch ’em out; and so ‘Lecta took me by the hand and kissed me on the cheek, and I kissed her on the _hand_, for I thought her _face_ warn’t no place for me: and then she squeezes my hand, and says, ‘God bless you, Peter;’ and Polly did the same, and there was some cryin’ on both sides. So I helped ’em off, and as we parted, each one gin me a handsome half-dollar, and I kept one on ’em a good many years; and, finally, I gin it to my sweet-heart in Santa Cruz, and I guess she’s got it yit.
“I starts on my journey with a heavy heart, sobbin’ and cryin’, for I begun to cry as soon as I got out of the wagon. I guess I cried all of three hours afore mornin’, and I felt so distressedly ’bout leavin’ the gals I almost wished myself back; but I’d launched out, and I warn’t agoin’ back _alive_.
“I travelled till daylight, and then, to be undiscovered, I took to the woods, and stayed there all day, and eat the food I took along in the knapsack; and a dreadful thunder-storm come, and I crawled, feet first, into a fell holler old tree, and pulled in my knapsack for a pillar, and had a good sleep; only a part of the time I cried, and when I come out I was very dry, and I lays down and drinks a bellyful of water out of a place made by a crutter’s track, and filled by the rain, and on I went till I come to Skaneatales Bridge; and ’twas now dark, and when I got into the middle, a man comes up and says ‘good evenin’, Peter.’ Well, I stood and says nothin’, only I expected my doom was sealed. He says ‘you needn’t be scart, Peter,’ and come to, it was a black man I’d known, and he takes me into his house in the back room, and gin me a good meal. You see I’d seen him a good many times agoin’ by there with a team. Arter supper his wife gin me a pair of stockins and half a dollar, and he gin me half a loaf of wheat bread, and a hunk of biled bacon, and a silver dollar, and off I started, with a kind of a light heart. I travels all that night till daylight, and grew tired and sleepy; and on the right side of the road I see a barn, and so I goes in and lies down on the hay, and I’d no sooner struck the mow than I fell asleep. When I woke up the sun was up three hours, and some men were goin’ into the field with a team, and that ‘woke me up. I looks for a chance to clear, and I sees a piece of woods off about half a mile, and I gits off; so the barn hid me from ’em, and I lays my course for these woods, and jist by ’em was a large piece of wheat, and I gits in and was so hid I stays there all day; and a part of the time I cried, and sat down, and stood up, and whistled, and all that, and it come night, I started out, and travelled till about midnight, and had a plenty to eat yit.