in the farmer said to him, “Be seated, Joseph, I wish to talk with thee. Thee will be careful what thee says; if what I have heard about thee and thy wife be true, thee need not say so, nor is it necessary for thee to deny it. I have found that thou art discreet, and can be silent when to speak truth might result in something unpleasant. A man who says his name is Ridgley, and that he lives in Virginia, is stopping in Chester, and has employed a man who does little else than to hunt fugitives from slavery, to find and arrest a man and a woman that he says escaped from his plantation last year. I overheard the hunter describing them when I went for my horses into the barn this afternoon. The description answered so well to thee and thy wife that I fear he will arrest thee whether ye are the people they are looking for or not. Ye have been faithful servants, and I shall add something to the wages we agreed upon. Now go and talk with thy wife, and then come to me again for thy money, as I do not like to have accounts for labor run too long.”
The poor fugitive and his wife felt this new trouble severely; they could not understand why two honest, industrious people, who had done no wrong, should be driven from place to place while their persecutors were protected by the government and by society in thus depriving them of their rights. When Joe went again to the farmer Rosa went with him. He gave to them their money, and then said: “Friend Walton starts at ten o’clock this evening so as to be in Philadelphia before morning with his butter; he goes in the night because the days are too warm for the butter. There is a man to whom he will introduce you, and of whom you may buy such clothing as you need at fair prices; his name is Benjamin Harrison. Thee can confide in him with safety, and Joseph, if thee thinks best to relate to him what I have told thee, he will give thee sound advice
