matter through the day, and finally resolved to answer it squarely and
promptly in the evening. That night he wrote the following:

"CAPTAIN ROBERT HOMES:

"_Dear Brother_,--I received your letter to-day, and it was a
genuine surprise to me. How in the world you discovered my
whereabouts is a mystery to me; but it is all well and will turn
out for the best, no doubt. To answer your letter affords me an
opportunity to state exactly the cause of my sudden departure from
Boston, which I do not think you understand. The sole cause of my
leaving was the unjust and harsh treatment of James. Instead of
seeing in me a brother, he saw only an apprentice, indentured to
him until I was twenty-one, over whom he held the iron rod of a
master, and from whom he expected the most servile obedience. At
times I may have been saucy and provoking, but it was when I was
receiving more than flesh and blood could bear. For, in letting
loose his violent temper, he not only lashed me unmercifully with
his tongue, but he resorted to blows; and you ought to know enough
of the Franklins by this time to understand that no one of them
would submit to such oppression. Then, to cap the climax, father,
who had always sided with me whenever our difficulties were laid
before him, now gave his decision, for some reason, in favor of
James. That was the last straw on the camel's back. Nothing but
harsh treatment by a master, who asserted his rights under the law,
awaited me. To remain was to be trod upon, and suffer, and become a
slave instead of a man. To leave was impossible, unless I left
clandestinely. For many days a mighty contest was waged in my soul
between love of home and escape from a bondage as bad as Negro
slavery.