The effect of his words, _on me_, was neither slight nor transitory.

His iron sentences--cold and harsh--sunk deep into my heart, and stirred up not only my feelings into a sort of rebellion, but awakened within me a slumbering train of vital thought.

It was a new and special revelation, dispelling a painful mystery, against which my youthful understanding had struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit: the _white_ man's power to perpetuate the enslavement of the _black_ man.
"Very well," thought I; "knowledge unfits a child to be a slave." I instinctively assented to the proposition; and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.

This was just what I needed; and I got it at a time, and from a source, whence I least expected it.

I was saddened at the thought of losing the assistance of my kind mistress; but the information, so instantly derived, to some extent compensated me for the loss I had sustained in this direction.
Wise as Mr.Auld was, he evidently underrated my comprehension, and had little idea of the use to which I was capable of putting{115} the impressive lesson he was giving to his wife.