We remember the very frequent advertisements: 'One cent reward.

Ran away from the subscriber, an indented apprentice,' etc.

The descriptions of such fugitives, all for the sake of absolving the master from liability for the absconding boy, and sometimes the hunt that was made, with dogs to scent his tracks, when his return was desired, are far within the memory of the oldest inhabitant.
"In Israel, this descent of a family from a prosperous to a decayed state, and the consequent servitude, were used by the Most High to cultivate some of the best feelings of our nature.

It touched the finest sensibilities of the soul.

Let me read from the fifteenth of Deuteronomy:-- "'And if thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
"'And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty.
"'Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.