Incidents in the life of a slave girl.: Written by herself. Edited by L. Maria Child.

The Slave who Dared to Feel like a Man. 41
the brothers met. You may be sure it was a happy
meeting. " 0 Phil," exclaimed Benjamin, "I aml here
at last." Then he told him how near he came to
dying, almost in sight of free land, and how he prayed
that he might live to get one breath of free air. He
said life was worth something now, and it would
be hard to die. In the old jail he had not valued it;
once, he was tempted to destroy it; but something,
he did not know what, had prevented him; perhaps it
was fear. Hie had heard those who profess to be religious declare there was no heaven for self-murderers;
and as his life had been pretty hot here, he did not desire a continuation of the same in another world. "'If
I die now," he exclaimed, "thank God, I shall die a
freeman!"
He begged my uncle Phillip not to return south; but
stay and work with him, till they earned enough to
buy those at home. His brother told him it would
kill their mother if he deserted her in her trouble.
She had pledged her house, and with difficulty had
raised money to buy him. Would he be bought?
"No, never!" he replied. " Do you suppose, Phil,
when I have got so far out of their clutches, I will
give them one red cent? No! And do you suppose
I would turn mother out of her home in her old age?
That I would let her pay all those hard-earned dollars
for me, and never to see me? For you know she will
stay south as long as her other children are slaves.
What a good mother! Tell her to buy you, Phil. You
have been a comfort to her, and I have been a trouble.
And Linda, poor Linda; what'll become of her? Phlil,
you don't know what a life they lead her. She has told
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