"Well, this looks better than the sand plains--a lot better--and you look
better than that flea farmer back in York State. How are the children?"

"Fat an' happy an' well dressed. Mrs. Peasley has been a mother to 'em
an' her sister is goin' to be a wife to me." He came close to Samson and
added in a confidential tone: "Say, if I was any happier I'd be scairt.
I'm like I was when I got over the toothache--so scairt for fear it would
come back I was kind o' miserable."

Mr. Peasley came out of the door. He was a big, full bearded, jovial man.

"I've got a small load o' hay for you," said Samson.

"I was expecting it, though I supposed 'twould be walkin'--in the dark o'
the night," Peasley answered. "Drive in on the barn floor."

When Samson had driven into the barn its doors were closed and the
negroes were called from their place of hiding. Samson writes:

* * * * *

"I never realized what a blessing it is to be free until I saw that
scared man and woman crawling out from under the dusty hay and shaking
themselves like a pair of dogs. The weather was not cold or I guess they
would have been frozen. They knelt together on the barn floor and the
woman prayed for God's protection through the day. I knew what slavery
must mean when I saw what they were suffering to get away from it. When
they came in the night I felt the call of God to help them. Now I knew
that I was among the chosen to lead in a great struggle. Peasley brought