[The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave by William Wells Brown]@TWC D-Link bookThe Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave CHAPTER XIV 10/12
I replied that I had come some way, and was going to Cleaveland. After hesitating a moment or two, he told me that he could give me nothing to eat, adding, "that if I would work, I could get something to eat." I felt bad, being thus refused something to sustain nature, but did not dare tell him that I was a slave. Just as I was leaving the door, with a heavy heart, a woman, who proved to be the wife of this gentleman, came to the door, and asked her husband what I wanted? He did not seem inclined to inform her.
She therefore asked me herself.
I told her that I had asked for something to eat.
After a few other questions, she told me to come in, and that she would give me something to eat. I walked up to the door, but the husband remained in the passage, as if unwilling to let me enter. She asked him two or three times to get out of the way, and let me in. But as he did not move, she pushed him on one side, bidding me walk in! I was never before so glad to see a woman push a man aside! Ever since that act, I have been in favor of "woman's rights!" After giving me as much food as I could eat, she presented me with ten cents, all the money then at her disposal, accompanied with a note to a friend, a few miles further on the road.
Thanking this angel of mercy from an overflowing heart, I pushed on my way, and in three days arrived at Cleaveland, Ohio. Being an entire stranger in this place, it was difficult for me to find where to stop.
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