to regret, for I have done nothing more than any other reasonable person would have done under the same circumstances.  But I had good luck from the morning I left the horse until I got back into the State of Ohio.  About two miles from where I left the horse, I found a public house on the road, where I stopped and took breakfast.  Being asked where I was traveling, I replied that I was going home to Perrysburgh, Ohio, and that I had been out to look at the land in Missouri, with a view of buying.  They supposed me to be a native of Ohio, from the fact of my being so well acquainted with its location, its principal cities, inhabitants, &c.

The next night I put up at one of the best hotels in the village where I stopped, and acted with as much independence as if I was worth a million of dollars; talked about buying land, stock and village property, and contrasting it with the same kind of property in the State of Ohio.  In this kind of talk they were most generally interested, and I was treated just like other travelers.  I made it a point to travel about thirty miles each day on my way to Jefferson city.  On several occasions I have asked the landlords where I have stopped over night, if they could tell me who kept the best house where I would stop the next night, which was most generally in a small village.  But for fear I might forget, I would get them to give me the name on a piece of paper as a kind of recommend.  This would serve as an introduction through which I have always been well received from one landlord to another, and I have always stopped at the best houses, eaten at the first tables, and slept in the best beds.  No man ever asked me whether I was bond or free, black or white, rich or poor; but I always presented a bold front and showed the best side out, which was all the pass I had.  But when I got within about one hundred miles of Jefferson city, where I expected to take a Steamboat passage to St. Louis, I stopped over night at a hotel, where I met with a young white man who was traveling on to Jefferson City on horse back, and was also leading a horse with a saddle and bridle on.

I asked him if he would let me ride the horse which he was leading, as I was going to the same city?  He said that it was a hired horse, that he was paying at the rate of fifty cents per day for it, but if I would pay the same I could ride him.  I accepted the offer and we rode together to the city.  We were on the road together two or three days; stopped and ate and slept together at the same hotels.

CHAPTER XVI.

Stratagem to get on board, the steamer.—­My Irish friends.—­My success in reaching Cincinnati.—­Reflections on again seeing Kentucky.—­I get employment in a hotel.—­My fright at seeing the gambler who sold me.—­I leave Ohio with Mr. Smith.—­His letter.—­My education.

The greatest of my adventures came off when I arrived at Jefferson City.  There I expected to meet an advertisement for my person; it was there I must cross the river or take a steamboat down; it was there I expected to be interrogated and required to prove whether I was actually a free man or a slave.  If I was free, I should have to show my free papers; and if I was a slave I should be required to tell who my master was.