OLD SHADKACH. 309 



enjoy the luxuries of civilization in the Old Colony, 

 or as much of them as was compatible with his con- 

 dition as a chattel. He was brought to Steuben, by a 

 Virginian, who came there with a large number of 

 slaves and plethoric money-bags, to run through all 

 the gradations from respectability to absolute destitu- 

 tion, and to die at last a pauper, and be buried at the 

 public expense. 



Old Shadrach stood in mortal fear of snakes and 

 toads, and could be frightened into any measure, by 

 the threat of having one of these put in his bed. He 

 ran away regularly two or three times every year, and 

 would stay away sometimes a fortnight, sometimes a 

 month, and on two or three occasions he was gone so 

 long, that my father began to congratulate himself 

 upon being rid of him entirely. But some morning, 

 Old Shadrach would come crawling out from the hay- 

 mow, and promise his master solemnly to be obedient 

 and industrious, and never run away again as long as 

 he lived. I said he stood in mortal fear of snakes. 

 He was one day in a canoe, out fishing on the Crooked 

 Lake, on the bank of which my father's house stood, 

 and drew up what he took to be a rattlesnake. He 

 dropped his pole in a perfect horror of affright, and 



