and her curiosity satisfied, she would have gone on in her investigations;
and from studying objects in nature, she would have come to study books,
and perhaps would have read the Bible, and thus found out a great
deal which it is not considered proper for a slave to know.

"We couldn't keep our servants, if we were to instruct them,"
says the slaveholder; and therefore he makes the law which constitutes
it a criminal offense to teach a slave to read.

But Tidy was taught to WORK. That is just what slaves are made for,--
to work, and so save their owners the trouble of working themselves.
Slaveholders do not recognize the fact that God designed us
all to work, and has so arranged matters, that true comfort
and happiness can only be reached through the gateway of labor.
It is no blessing to be idle, and let others wait upon us;
and in this respect the slaves certainly have the advantage
of their masters.

Tidy was an apt learner, and at eight years of age she could do up
Miss Matilda's ruffles, clean the great brass andirons and fender
in the sitting-room, and set a room to rights as neatly as any person
in the house.


CHAPTER IV.

SEVERAL EVENTS.

SHALL I pause here in my narrative to tell you what became
of Annie and some of the other persons who have been mentioned