"Call me by my proper name and I"ll answer a civil question."
"You"ll answer whether I put the question civilly or not," cried the fellow, raising his whip and spurring his horse on towards Dan, on which I brought my rifle to bear on the man, exclaiming--
"If you touch my brother, I"ll shoot you, as sure as you"re a living man."
On this he pulled in his rein, while his companion, bursting into a loud laugh, exclaimed--
"These young c.o.c.ks crow loudly! I say, youngsters, who is your father?
he must be a smart fellow to own such a pair of bantlings."
"Our father is Captain Loraine who lives at Uphill, and he"s not the person to stand nonsense from you or any other man like you!" exclaimed Dan, whose Irish temper had risen almost to boiling pitch.
The strangers, seeing that they could not get much change out of us, rode on; the last man who had spoken bantering his companion on their defeat. I saw the other turn his head several times as though not quite sure that we should not fire after him.
"I am glad they didn"t come upon our camp this morning, although as they have no blood-hounds with them, we might have managed to conceal the negro without having had resort to force," I remarked.
"But we should have had to tell lies if they had put questions to us, or have given him up or fought for him," observed Dan.
"Still better reason why we should be thankful that they did not find us," I answered.
We were so excited by what had occurred that we slackened our speed for a considerable way. We were still several miles from home when night overtook us; we had therefore again to camp out. We did not mind this, but we were anxious to get to the farm, to send a.s.sistance to our tutor and the poor black. According to our usual plan, we built a shanty, lighted a fire, and one of us sat up to keep the latter blazing. We heard strange sounds during the night, which kept us wakeful, and during my watch I caught sight of a bear, though the fire made him keep at a respectful distance. After surveying us for a few minutes, and not discovering any tempting odour, he slunk away, convinced that he would gain nothing by paying us a visit. When I roused up Dan, I told him to keep a look-out, lest bruin should come back, and lay down to s.n.a.t.c.h a short sleep, expecting to be roused up again before long. Dan, however, saw nothing during his watch to induce him to call me, so I had my sleep out. I was awakened by feeling him shaking my shoulder.
"It is near morning, Mike, I think," he said; "I suspect that I must have nodded, for the fire is lower than it should be, but I have thrown on some sticks and it will soon be blazing up again."
I sprang to my feet just in time to see a big s.h.a.ggy beast emerging from the surrounding darkness. I gave a poke to the fire with my foot, it made some dry leaves burst into a flame, and then Dan and I both shouted at the top of our voices. The bear, who had again scented us out, might in another instant have caught Dan or me in his unfriendly embrace; but he stopped short, and then, turning round, retreated much faster than he had come. We did not fire, as we should probably only have wounded him and have excited him to rage.
Soon after this daylight broke. Having eaten the remainder of our provisions, we started off, hoping to reach home in three or four hours.
We met with no other adventures by the way. The first person we saw on approaching our home was our father. We told him of our discovery of the apparently dying black, and that the dominie had remained behind to take care of the poor fellow.
"Mr Tidey has done as I would have had him, and acted the part of the good Samaritan. We"ll send the waggon off at once, to bring him and the negro in," said my father.
Though I wanted to go too, our father declared that we looked so much knocked up from our long tramp and sleepless nights, that we must turn in and get some rest, and he said that he would despatch Peter, who knew the country better than we did, for the purpose.
CHAPTER THREE.
ARRIVAL OF THE WAGGON--WHY DIO RAN AWAY--HOW TO ACT FOR THE BEST-- ABOLITION OF SLAVERY--WHAT BIDDY O"TOOLE MEANT TO DO--KATHLEEN AND DIO-- BIDDY"S INTERVIEW WITH THE STRANGERS--DIO"S PURSUERS--A FORTUNATE ARRIVAL--TEACHING THE BLACK TO READ--GOOD WORDS--AN INTERRUPTED LESSON-- THE ALARM--MAN-HUNTERS--EVERY MAN"S HOUSE HIS CASTLE--WATCHING THE STRANGERS--AN AGREEABLE SURPRISE--MR. MCDERMONT--MY MOTHER"S APPREHENSIONS OF DANGER--OUR GARRISON INCREASED.
The first thing I did the next morning on getting up was to hurry out to ascertain if Mr Tidey and the negro had arrived, and was much disappointed to find that the waggon had not come back. Breakfast was over, and still it did not appear. My mother suggested that possibly the black was too weak to be removed. When I told my father of the two men we had fallen in with, in search of a runaway slave, he looked grave, remarking--
"Possibly the fellows on their return may have fallen in with the waggon, and if so, they have carried off it and its occupants."
"I don"t think Mr Tidey would allow himself to be captured by only two men, or would surrender the black of whom he had taken charge," I remarked.
"He is not likely to submit himself to be made prisoner, I grant, unless he should have been wounded, but possibly he may not have felt himself called on to fight for a stranger, should the men in search of the slave be able to prove that he belongs to them or their employer," answered my father. "However, I"ll set out to try to ascertain what has happened; saddle Swiftsure, Mike, while I get ready."
As I was on my way to the field in which our horses grazed, I heard Dan shout out--
"Here comes the waggon, no necessity to get the horses."
On running back to the hill on which Dan was standing, I saw the waggon coming along, driven at a quick rate by Peter, while Mr Tidey was seated with his rifle between his knees, close behind him. I could not discover a third person, and I began to fear that the negro had died or been captured by his pursuers. This was a great disappointment, and I pictured to myself the misery of the poor fellow, should he have been dragged back into slavery.
While returning by a path running alongside the hill, we lost sight of the waggon. On our arrival at the house, however, it had just reached the foot of the hill. We here found our father, mother, and Kathleen, standing at the doorway to welcome Mr Tidey, and to hear what had happened.
At that moment a person rose from the bottom of the waggon, and, leaping to the ground, came running towards us. It was the black we had discovered. For an instant he stopped and gazed in my father"s face, then darting forward, he seized his hand and pressed it to his lips, exclaiming--
"Oh, ma.s.sa! dis n.i.g.g.ar Dio know you; nebber forget you, ma.s.sa; you remember de poor slave n.i.g.g.ar who pulled de little boy out of de water?"
"Remember you, my good fellow!" exclaimed my father, wringing his hand.
"I have never forgotten you; you saved my boy"s life, and probably my wife"s too. There they both stand, though you don"t perhaps remember them."
Dio gazed at my mother, then at Dan and me.
"De lady, yes! remember her," and he made an obeisance to my mother.
"But de little boy him not know which," and he looked first at me then at Dan.
"That"s the one," said my father, pointing to me, "he has grown considerably since then, but he has not forgotten you."
"No indeed I have not," I said, "and now I know who you are, I"m doubly thankful that we fell in with you."
"Ah, ma.s.sa, dis n.i.g.g.ar gone c.o.o.n if you hadn"t found him," answered Dio.
"I"m very glad that they did find you, Dio; but how did you happen to be in such a condition?" asked my father.
The negro fixed his eyes on my father"s countenance--
"Ma.s.sa, me tell you de tru"s. Dat cruel man, Bracher, him make de poor n.i.g.g.ar"s back sore wid de lash, and den, when he find I lub one darkey girl, him beat her too and den sell her for fifty dollars, "cos she almost dead. It almost break her heart, and her jump into de riber and drown herself. Den Dio tink if him stay him shoot Ma.s.ser Bracher, so him run "way and say him find de good cap"n, de only white man who eber say one kind word to poor Dio. Him wander in de wood, and at last, when he hab noting to eat, him sink down and tink him die. Den come de tall doctor and de young gentleman, dey put new life into dis n.i.g.g.ar. Ah!
ma.s.sa, let Dio stay here, him ready to be always your slave, an" nebber, nebber want run "way."
"Though I cannot let you be my slave, I will gladly protect you and allow you to remain here until you have sufficiently recovered to make your way northward into Canada, where alone you can be safe," said my father.
"Dis n.i.g.g.ar wish always to be de cap"n"s slave, no want to go to Canada," answered Dio.
"But, my poor fellow, if you remain here, you will be recaptured to a certainty, as your former master would find you out before long, and would place men on the watch to seize you out of doors, even though I might protect you in the house."
Still Dio entreated that even when he had recovered his strength he should not be sent away; but my father was firm in declining to make any promise both on his own account and for the sake of the black himself.
It was in fact an illegal act to a.s.sist a slave in escaping, and much more to harbour one, and my father knew full well that possibly a party of Kentuckian slaveholders would come across and capture Dio. The black, although much recovered, was still somewhat weak. My father seeing this, and considering that it would be imprudent to allow him to sleep in the huts with the other negroes, ordered a small inner room to be prepared for him where he could remain in tolerable security even should any of those in search of him come our way. Peter was charged to be cautious not to mention that he had brought Dio to the house, while fortunately none of the other farm hands, (as far as we knew), had seen him arrive. Mr Tidey was fully alive to the importance of keeping the matter secret, and was as anxious as any of us to prevent the fugitive being retaken. The negro himself seemed perfectly satisfied that he was safe from capture now that he was with us.
My father"s intention was, as soon as he had recovered, to supply him with a suit of clothes and some money, and to carry him off during the night northward. He was then to make his way through Indiana to Ohio, whence he could cross Lake Erie into Canada. My father was acquainted with a quaker family residing not much more than a hundred miles from us in the former state on the Wabash, and they were sure to be ready to a.s.sist him on his journey by forwarding him on to other friends who held their principles. At that time what was called "the underground railway" was not regularly established, but there were a large number of persons in the northern states, including all the members of the Society of Friends, who objected to slavery as much as my father did, and were always ready to a.s.sist fugitives running away from their cruel taskmasters. The movement in England in favour of the abolition of the slave-trade had been commenced by Wilberforce in 1787. From that time the British emancipists gained strength, and in 1792 resolutions for the abolition of the slave-trade were carried in the House of Commons. The following year, however, the House did not confirm its former vote, and though Wilberforce annually brought forward a motion, for seven years it was regularly lost until in 1799 a bill was carried limiting the traffic to a certain extent of coast. It was not, however, until 1807 that a bill for the total abolition of the British slave-trade received the royal a.s.sent. At first a penalty in money was alone inflicted on British subjects captured on board slave-ships, but in 1811 an act carried by Lord Brougham made slave-dealing felony. This being found an inadequate check, in 1824 the slave-trade was declared to be piracy and the punishment death. This was enforced until 1837, when the punishment for trading in slaves was changed to transportation for life. Other nations imitated England in prohibiting their subjects from trafficking in slaves; the United States of North America and Brazil making the traffic piracy, and punishable with death. All, with one exception, the United States, agreed to permit their ships to be searched at sea by the vessels of other nations. Unhappily, however, the profits on the trade were so enormous, that the traffic in slaves continued to be carried on from the coast of Africa to the Brazils, Cuba, and the more southern of the United States in spite of the activity of the British cruisers. Of course it will be understood that there is a wide distinction between the abolition of the slave-trade, and the abolition of slavery. Great Britain abolished slavery in her colonies in 1833, at the same time slavery existed, with all its abominations, in the more southern of the United States, as well as in the Brazils and Cuba, and on the other side of the continent. At the time of which I am speaking negroes were bought and sold and driven from one state to another. Parents were separated from their children, husbands from their wives, and if any one was daring enough to speak a word in favour of the much-suffering race, he ran the risk of having his house fired, and his plantations devastated, or of being put to death, as John Brown was in subsequent years.
My father was well aware of the danger he ran in harbouring Dio. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances he would have hazarded much to save a slave from being recaptured, but he felt himself doubly bound to preserve our negro guest, and thus repay in the most effectual manner, the debt of grat.i.tude he owed to him for saving my mother"s life and mine.
The fact of his being in the house was kept a profound secret from all the outdoor servants, and my father knew that he could trust Peter and Black Rose, who were the only persons in the family, besides ourselves, including Mr Tidey and our Irish servant Biddy O"Toole. The latter was cautioned not to speak about a negro being in the house, should any strangers come to look for him.
"Arrah! thim spalpeens w"d be mighty claver to get onything out of Biddy O"Toole," she answered, with a curl of her lips and c.o.c.k of her nose, while her eyes twinkled; "sure if they force themselves into the house while the master is away, I"ll bid them dare to disturb my old mither, whose troubled with a fever. If they come near the room, I"ll give them a taste of the broomstick."
A couple of days had pa.s.sed away, and we began to hope that Dio"s pursuers had given up the search, and would not suspect where he was concealed. He was rapidly recovering under the kind treatment he received, for he had never before in his life been so well tended.
Either Dan, Kathleen, or I took him in his food, and Peter slept in the same room and looked after him at night, but of course in the day-time had to attend to his usual duties. Kathleen became Dio"s special favourite. I am sure from the way he spoke of her, he would have died to do her a service.