Daniel considered the plan and agreed to help.
Their first entry concerned Josephine’s family.
Aaron had finally reached a town within traveling distance of his wife and sons.
The reunion took place at a church hall rather than on a railway platform crowded with strangers.
Rose attended because Josephine asked her to come.
Daniel stayed away to give the family privacy.
Josephine wrote afterward that Aaron barely recognized the older boy at first.
The child had grown taller, and his voice had changed.
Then the boy repeated a phrase his father used when teaching him to tie a knot.
Aaron knelt and embraced both sons.
Josephine said they wept until the church caretaker brought extra chairs.
The family still faced uncertainty about work, housing, and the possibility of being pursued.
But they were together, and they could make their next decision together.
Daniel entered their news in the register after Josephine gave permission.
He did not write that they had been rescued by a hero.
He wrote that they had found one another through the efforts of many people, including themselves.
The distinction mattered to him.
A person who escaped oppression should not be required to spend the rest of life thanking a single savior.
Porter offered Daniel a permanent position after seeing the quality of his work on a complicated cabinet.
The offer included a steady wage and the opportunity to supervise apprentices.
Daniel asked for the terms in writing.
Porter looked surprised but agreed without complaint.
Daniel read the agreement beside Rose and Adeline.
He wanted the hours clear, the pay specified, and the right to leave if the arrangement no longer served him.
The request was ordinary business for a free laborer, but it felt remarkable to somebody who had once been transferred between estates without consultation.
Adeline said the paper was not a shield against every unfair employer.
It was a useful record of promises that could be checked.
Daniel signed it with a steady hand.
The first apprentice assigned to him was a sixteen-year-old named Jonah Ellis.
Jonah moved too fast and repeatedly ruined corners by cutting against the grain.
Daniel could have humiliated him the way overseers once humiliated workers for mistakes.
Instead he showed Jonah how the wood fibers lifted beneath the blade.
He asked the boy to feel the resistance and change his direction.
Jonah tried again and produced a clean surface.
At the end of the day Jonah asked why Daniel explained mistakes so patiently.
