“Oh! how I cried when mistress died. She had been kind to me, and loved me, and it seemed I hadn’t any thing left in the world worth livin’ for; put it all together, I guess I cried more’n a week ’bout it, and nothin’ would pacify me. I _loved_ mistress, and when I see her laid in the grave it broke my heart. I have never in all my life with all my sufferin’s had any affliction that broke me down as that did. I thought I _should_ die: the world looked gloomy ‘round me, and I knew I had nothin’ to expect from master after she was gone, and I was left in the world friendless and alone. I had seen _some_, yis _many_, good days, and I don’t believe on arth there was a happier boy than Peter Wheeler; but when mistress closed her eyes in death, my sorrows begun; and oh! the tale of ’em will make your heart ache, afore I finish, for all my hopes, and all my fun, and all my happiness, was buried in mistress’ grave.”
A. “Well, Peter, I’m tired of writing, and suppose we adjourn till to-morrow.”
P. “Well, Sir, that’ll do I guess—oh! afore I go, have you got any more Friend of Man?”
A. “Oh! yes, and something better yet—here’s Thomson and Breckenridge’s Debate.”
P. “Is that the same Thomson that the slavery folks drove out of the country, and the gentleman of property and standing in Boston tried to tar and feather?”
P. “Well, I reckon he must have rowed Breckenridge up Salt River.” ☜
A. “You’re right, Peter, and he left him on Dry Dock!!!”
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Peter emancipated by his old Master’s Will—but is stolen and sold at auction, and bid off by GIDEON MOREHOUSE ☜—Hagar tries to buy her brother back—parting scene—his reception at his new Master’s—sudden change in fortune—Master’s cruelty—the Muskrat skins—prepare to go into “the new countries”—start on the journey—“incidents of travel” on the road—Mr. Sterling, who is a sterling-good man, tries to buy Peter—gives him a pocket full of “Bungtown coppers”—abuse—story of the Blue Mountain—Oswego—Mr. Cooper, an Abolitionist—journey’s end—Cayuga county, New York.
_Author._ “Well, Peter, I’ve come up to your house this morning, to write another chapter in the book; and you can go on with your boots while I write, and so we’ll kill two birds with one stone.”