About eight o'clock
The fugitives said that they would rather die than go back to him . Samson was so moved by their story that he hitched up his horses and put some hay in the wagon box and made off with the fugitives up the road to the north in the night . When daylight came he covered them with the hay . About eight o'clock he came to a frame house and barn , the latter being of unusual size for that time and country . Above the door of the barn was a board which bore the stenciled legend : `` John Peasley , Orwell Farm . '' As Samson drew near the house he observed a man working on the roof of a woodshed . Something familiar in his look held the eye of the New Salem man .