“Well, by this time, old mistress come, and hit me a slap on the backsides, with one of these ’ere old-fashioned Dutch fire-slices, and it didn’t set very asy ‘nother; but I still hung on to one ear, and fetched her a _side-winder_ right across the bridge of her old nose, and she fell backwards, and out come the key of the door out of her pocket; and ‘Lecta got the key, and run and opened the door—for the noise had brought the gals down like fury; and I gin his old head one more mortal jam with both hands, and pummelled his old belly once more hard, and leaped out of the door, and put out for the barn.
“At night I come back, and there was somethin’ better for my supper than I had had since I lived there. I set down to eat; and he come out into the kitchen with his cane, and cussed, and swore, and ripped, and tore; and I says, ‘Master, you may cuss and swear as much as you please; but on the peril of _your life_, don’t you lay a finger on me;’ and there was a big old-fashioned butcher-knife lay on the table, and I says to him, ‘Just as sure as you do, I’ll run that butcher-knife through you, and clinch it.’ I had the worst oath I ever took in all my life, and spoke so savage, that I fairly _scart him_.
“I told him to give me a paper to look a new master; for you see, there was a law, that if a slave, in them days, wanted to change masters, on account of cruelty, that his old master must give him a paper, and he could git a new one, if he could find a man that would buy him. At fust he said he would give me a paper in the mornin’, but right off he says, ‘No, I swear I won’t; _I’ll have the pleasure of killin’ on you myself!_’ ☜
“So he cussed, and finally, went into the other room; and the gals says, ‘Peter, now is your time; stick to him, and you’ll either make it better or worse for you.’
“So I goes off to bed, and takes with me a walnut flail swingle; and I crawled into my nest of rags, and lay on my elbow all night; and if a rat or a mouse stirred, I trembled, for I expected every minute he’d be a comin’ up with a rifle to shoot me; and I didn’t sleep a wink all that night. And I swore to Almighty God, that the fust time I got a chance I’d clear from his reach; and I prayed to the God of freedom to help me get free.”