as he said, "Boys, I am just as God made me, an' so is a toad." At
this the boys slunk away; and I felt very indignant in seeing the men
who were standing near only laugh, instead of sharply reproving those
ill-behaved children.

Another colored man, named Ben, came to our town with a family who
opened an inn. He was employed mostly in the kitchen, and while Ben
was asleep on the kitchen floor, some rude boys put a quantity of
powder in the back of his pants, and placing a slow match to it left
the room, but watched the process of their diabolical sport through a
window, and soon saw their victim blown up, it was said, nearly to
the ceiling. His hips and body were so badly burned that he was never
able to sit or stoop after this wicked act. He always had to walk
with a cane, and whenever too weary to stand, was compelled to lie
down, as his right hip and lower limb were stiffened. Yet little
notice was taken of this reckless act, but to feed and poorly clothe
this life-long cripple, as he went from house to house, because he was
of that crushed and neglected race.


RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCE.

In the Autumn of my thirteenth year, with our parents' permission,
brother Harvey and I attended a little prayer-meeting at our Uncle Ira
Smith's house, near by. Here was singing, experiences given, with
prayer and exhortations, in which young people, as well as those more
advanced in years, took part. All this was new to me, having never
attended any other meeting than of Friends, usually called Quakers. My
father being a minister and mother an elder in that denomination, they
were very conscientious in training their children in all the usages,