"Golly matty! is de nigga mad?" cried the Jezebel. "I say, you nigga Tom, what you doin'? How you neck feel now?" "My neck?" thought I, recollecting that it had been broken, and wondering in what way it had been mended. I clapped my hands to it; it was very stiff and sore: while I felt at it, the old woman told me some great doctor had twisted a great "kink" out of it; but I bestowed little notice on what she said. My mind ran upon other matters; I could think of nothing but cowhides and cat-o'-nine-tails, that were to welcome me to bondage. "Aunty," said I--_why_ I addressed the old lady thus I know not; but I have observed that negroes always address their seniors by the titles of uncle and aunt, and I suppose the instinct was on me--"am I a slave?" "What a fool nigga to ax a question!" said she. "What you gwying to be, den, but old Massa Jodge's nigga-boy Tom? What you git up faw, ha?" --(I was making an attempt to rise)-- "Massa docta say you stay a-bed. What you git up faw, ha?" "I intend to run away," said I; and truly that was the notion then uppermost in my mind; and it is very likely I should have made a bolt for the door that moment, had I not discovered an uncommon weakness in my lower limbs, which prevented my getting out of bed. "Whaw! what a fool!" cried the beldam, regarding me with surprise and contempt; "what you do when you run away, ha? Who'll hab you? who'll feed you? who'll take care of you? who'll own a good-fo'-nothin' runaway nigga, I say, ha? Kick him 'bout h'yah, kick him 'bout dah, poor despise nigga wid no massa, jist as despise as any free nigga! You run away, ha? what den?" continued my sable monitress, warming into eloquence as she spoke: "take up constable, clap him in jail, salt him down cowskin. Dat all? No! sell him low price, send Mississippi--what den? Work in de cotton-field, pull at de cane. Dat all? No! cussed overseer wid a long whip--cut h'yah, cut dah, cut high, cut low--whip all day, cuff all night--take all de skin off--oh! dey do whip to de debbil in de Mississippi!" And as the old lady concluded, to give more effect to her expressions, she fell to rubbing her back and dodging her head from side to side, until I had the liveliest idea in the world of that very castigation of which I stood in such horror. 2. CHAPTER II. IN WHICH SHEPPARD LEE IS INTRODUCED TO HIS MASTER. Just at this moment, to make my anguish more complete, in stepped a tall and dignified person, bearing a huge walking-stick; with which I was so certain he would proceed to maul me, that I made a second dive under the bedclothes, loudly beseeching him for mercy.