“Well, come to the barn, the first thing he swings the big doors open, and the north wind swept through like a harricane. ‘Now,’ says he, ‘nigger, pull off your coat;’ I did.
“‘Now pull off your jacket, nigger;’ I did.
“‘Now off with your shirt, nigger;’ I did.
“‘Now off with your pantaloons, nigger;’ I did.
“Arter I gits ’em off, he crosses my hands, and ties ’em together with one end of a rope, and throws the other end up overhead, across a beam, and then draws me up by my hands till I clears the floor two feet. He then crosses my feet jist so, and puts the rope through the bull-ring in the floor, and then pulls on the rope till I was drawn _tight_—till my bones fairly snapped, and ties it, and then leaves me in that doleful situation, and goes off to the house, and wanders round ’bout twenty minutes; and there the north wind sweeps through: oh! how it stung; and there I hung and cried, and the tears fell and froze on my breast, and I wished I was _dead_. But back he comes, and says he, as he takes up a _withe_, ‘now, you dam nigger, I’m a goin’ to settle with you for breaking open the cupboard,’ and he hits me four or five cuts with one and it broke; and he catches up another, and he cut all ways, cross and back, and one way and then another, and he whipped me till the blood run down my legs, and froze in long blood isicles on the balls of my heels, as big as your thumb!! ☜ !! and I hollered and screamed till I was past hollerin’ and twitchin’, for when he begun, I hollered and twitched dreadfully; and my hands was swelled till the blood settled under my nails and toes, and one of my feet hain’t seen a well day since: and I cried, and the tears froze on my cheeks, and I had got almost blind, and so stiff I couldn’t stir, and near dyin’. How long he whipped me I can’t tell, for I got so, finally, I couldn’t tell when he _was_ a whippin’ on me!!! ‘Oh! Mr. L.——,’ “said Peter, as the tears rolled down his wrinkled cheeks, while the picture of that scene of blood again came up vividly before his mind, “‘oh! Mr. L.——, it was a sight to make any body that has got any feelin’ weep; and there I hung, and he goes off to the house, and arter a while, I can’t tell how long, he comes back with a tin cup full of brine, heat up, and says he, ‘now nigger, I’m goin’ to put this on to keep you from mortifyin,’ and when it struck me, it brought me to my feelin’, I tell ye; and then, arter a while, he lets me down and unties me, and goes off to the house.