He replied, ‘I would rather trust “that nigger,” as you call him, than either of you.’ So saying, he marched off with the magistrate's mittimus in his pocket.
When Prince Hopkins had finished his job of sawing, he called for the commitment, and carried it to the jailor, who locked him up. Satisfactory evidence of his freedom was soon obtained, and he was discharged.
The colored people appeared to better advantage with their undoubted friend, than they possibly could have done where a barrier of prejudice existed. They were not afraid to tell him their experiences in their own way, with natural pathos, here and there dashed with fun. A fine-looking, athletic fugitive, telling him his story one day, said, ‘When I first run away, I met some people who were dreadful afraid I could n't take care of myself. But thinks I to myself I took care of master and myself too for a long spell; and I guess I can make out.’ With a roguish expression laughing all over his face, he added, ‘I don't look as if I was suffering for a master; do I, Mr. Hopper?’
Though slaveholders had abundant reason to dread Isaac T. Hopper, as they would a blister of Spanish flies, yet he had no hardness of feeling toward them,
