"We be nigh wone out with cold an' hungah, suh, 'deed we be." Samson asked them in and put wood on the fire, and Sarah got up and made some hot tea and brought food from the cupboard and gave it to the strangers, who sat shivering in the firelight.

They were a good-looking pair, the young woman being almost white.

They were man and wife.

The latter stopped eating and moaned and shook with emotion as her husband told their story.

Their master had died the year before and they had been brought to St.Louis to be sold in the slave market.