Finally she had seized a favorable opportunity, and taking the only child which the cruel slave system had left her, for the rest had been sold South, succeeded in making her way into Pennsylvania.

Chance had directed her to Rossville, where she had been permitted to occupy, rent free, an old shanty which for some years previous had been uninhabited.

Here she had supported herself by taking in washing and ironing.

This had been her special work on the plantation where she had been born and brought up, and she was therefore quite proficient in it.

She found no difficulty in obtaining work enough to satisfy the moderate wants of herself and little Pomp.
The latter was a bright little fellow, as black as the ace of spades, and possessing to the full the mercurial temperament of the Southern negro.