Lloyd, old master, instead of allowing so much for each slave, committed the allowance for all to the care of Aunt Katy, to be divided after cooking it, amongst us.

The allowance, consisting of coarse corn-meal, was not very abundant--indeed, it was very slender; and in passing through Aunt Katy's hands, it was made more slender still, for some of us.

William, Phil and Jerry were her children, and it is not to accuse her too severely, to allege that she was often guilty of starving myself and the other children, while she was literally cramming her own.
Want of food was my chief trouble the first summer at my old master's.
Oysters and clams would do very well, with an occasional supply of bread, but they soon failed in the absence of bread.

I speak but the simple truth, when I say, I have often been so pinched with hunger, that I have fought with the dog--"Old Nep"-- for the smallest crumbs that fell from the kitchen table, and have been glad when I won a single crumb in the combat.

Many times have I followed, with eager step, the waiting-girl when she went out to shake the table cloth, to get the crumbs and small bones flung out for the cats.