immediately looked to the ground. After a short pause, I said,

"Master, mother has often told me that you are a near relative of mine,
and I have often heard you admit the fact; and after you have hired me
out, and received, as I once heard you say, nine hundred dollars for my
services,--after receiving this large sum, will you sell me to be
carried to New Orleans or some other place?"

"No," said he, "I do not intend to sell you to a negro trader. If I had
wished to have done that, I might have sold you to Mr. Walker for a
large sum, but I would not sell you to a negro trader. You may go to the
city, and find you a good master."

"But," said I, "I cannot find a good master in the whole city of St.
Louis."

"Why?" said he.

"Because there are no good masters in the State."

"Do you not call me a good master?"

"If you were, you would not sell me."

"Now I will give you one week to find a master in, and surely you can do
it in that time."

The price set by my evangelical master upon my soul and body was the
trifling sum of five hundred dollars. I tried to enter into some
arrangement by which I might purchase my freedom; but he would enter