Cincinnati, and leaving the steamboat at Wheeling, went up to Morgantown, where they stopped to recruit and fit the horses and fighting cocks for the June races and sporting in Baltimore. Stowe would often leave Tom in charge of the establishment while recruiting in Morgantown, and go to Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Morgantown is only six miles from the Pennsylvania line on the Monongahela River. The grocer of whom he bought supplies was in the habit of talking to him about the free States, and told him that he could get to Canada if he would try, but Tom answered that he had many times passed up the Ohio, and knew he was near the free States, but he did not wish to go away; besides, his master could not spare him. Tom had known this man four or five years, but was shy of him, supposing he intended to betray him for a reward, should he listen to his suggestions. After the races in Baltimore Tom was usually left in B. in charge of the stock, while Stowe went north to New York and Saratoga. In the fall, their sporting tour toward home was through Richmond, Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans. Thus by extensive travel and business intercourse with many men, Tom became intelligent, and carried about with him a heart-yearning for freedom. He was always well fed, well dressed, trusted with money, and left by his master often on the very borders of the free States. He remained faithful to his trust, and his master knew he would, and knew the reason why. Tom was, in size and form, a splendid specimen of a man; tall, straight, and handsome, nearly white, weighed about two hundred pounds, and not an ounce of spare material about him. Lucy, his wife, (as he described her,) was also nearly white, an octoroon, one of those whose rare beauty and accomplishments are the greatest misfortune that can
