ready my bundle, she bade me good-by with tears in her eyes, saying: "My
son, be a good boy; be polite to every one, and always behave yourself
properly." It was sad to her to part with me, though she did not know
that she was never to see me again, for my master had said nothing to
her regarding his purpose and she only thought, as I did, that I was
hired to work on the canal-boat, and that she should see me
occasionally. But alas! We never met again. I can see her form still as
when she bade me good-bye. That parting I can never forget. I ran off
from her as quickly as I could after her parting words, for I did not
want her to see me crying. I went to my master at the store, and he
again told me that he had hired me to work on the canal-boat, and to go
aboard immediately. Of the boat and the trip and the scenes along the
route I remember little--I only thought of my mother and my leaving her.

When we arrived at Richmond, George Pullan, a "nigger-trader," as he was
called, came to the boat and began to question me, asking me first if I
could remember having had the chickenpox, measles or whooping-cough. I
answered, yes. Then he asked me if I did not want to take a little walk
with him. I said, no. "Well," said he, "you have got to go. Your master
sent you down here to be sold, and told me to come and get you and take
you to the trader's yard, ready to be sold." I saw that to hesitate was
useless; so I at once obeyed him and went.

* * * * *

A SLAVE MARKET.

The trader's establishment consisted of an office, a large show-room and
a yard in the rear enclosed with a wall of brick fifteen feet high. The
principal men of the establishment were the proprietor and the foreman.