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arm into a hollow tree, in search of squirrels, and pulled out a large black snake.
He was so terrified, that he tumbled headlong from the tree, and it was difficult to tell which ran away fastest, he or the snake.
This incident inspired the bold boy with fear, which he vainly tried to overcome during the remainder of his life.
There was a thicket of underbrush between his father's farm and the village of
Woodbury.
Once when he was sent of an errand to the village, he was seized with such a dread of snakes, that before entering among the bushes, he placed his basket on an old rail, knelt down and prayed earnestly that he might pass through without encountering a snake.
When he rose up and attempted to take his basket, he perceived a large black snake lying close beside the rail.
It may well be believed that he went through the thicket too fast to allow any grass to grow under his feet.
When he drove the cows to and from pasture, he often met an old colored man named Mingo.
His sympathizing heart was attracted toward him, because he had heard the neighbors say he was stolen from Africa when he was a little boy. One day, he asked Mingo what part of the world he came from; and the poor old man told how he was playing with other children among the bushes, on the coast of Africa, when white men pounced upon them suddenly and dragged them off to a ship.
He held fast hold
