pay him $15 a month for her time, and in addition to furnish him his dinner each day, providing whatever he should order. He was fond of good living, and these dinners sometimes drew largely on her savings. She took in washing, and worked early and late, from Monday morning till Saturday night. But with $5 a month to be paid for house rent, and their own food and clothing to buy, their little hoard for the purchase of their freedom grew but slowly.
Children came, and as they grew old enough to run about, the mother took great care to keep them out of her master's sight, lest he should some day take a fancy to sell them from her.
After several years of this overwork and anxiety, her health gave way, and her friends thought she would die. She had laid up $900, and it was determined to take this and buy the children, if possible. Her master had repeatedly declared that none of his slaves should purchase their freedom, and so a trusty friend was commissioned to make the bargain, as if buying them for himself. After much delay their master finally agreed to sell the three children for $900 and throw in their mother, as she was not expected to live.
After the papers were signed and the money paid he repented of his bargain, and would gladly have broken it if he could. The mother no sooner began to breathe free air into free lungs, than she began to get better, and is still living. Afterwards she bought her own mother, then ninety years old, for $100, and furnished her husband another $100 to
