under foot. Shame, grief, and fear of what was to come drove her
almost to distraction.

At the end of three days, Mr. Lee, acting as her master,
who had been apprised of her arrest, arrived at the prison.
But what a wretched object had he come to see! He could scarcely believe
that the miserable, dejected being before him was the once bright,
beautiful Tidy,--such a change had her disappointment and sorrow wrought.
He really pitied her, if a slaveholder ever can pity a slave, and yet
he reproached her severely. He told her she was a fool to run away;
that niggers never knew when they were well off; that if she had had a
thimble-full of sense she might have known she couldn't make her escape.
He said they had just been offered a thousand dollars for her,--
which was then considered an enormous price,--by a gentleman in Virginia,
and they had been on the point of selling her.

"I's Miss Matilda's," fiercely cried the poor girl at this,
"and SHE wouldn't a sold me; she said she never would."

"Yes, she would, Miss," replied Mr. Lee; "we don't let her throw
away such a valuable piece of property for nothing, I can tell you.
A thousand dollars in the bank isn't a small thing. It wouldn't
find feet to walk off with very soon, that we know."

"Miss Matilda TOLD me to take my liberty," said Tidy, disconsolately.

"Miss Matilda is a fool, like you. But we shall look out she don't
cheat herself in such a fashion. Now you can have your choice,
little one; you can go home with me, and take a good flogging
for an example to the rest, and stay with us till another buyer