Page:Dorothy's spy; a story of the first "fovrth of Jvly" celebration, New York, 1776.djvu/51

40 some evidence of the bonfire, because no sooner was he with the children than he seemed to think it his bounden duty to amuse them, and this he endeavored to do by telling stories of the most blood-curdling kind.

He had been captured in Africa by the men-stealers when he was full grown, and remembered distinctly all the tales of the supernatural, or the myths of his people, therefore the fund from which he drew was well-nigh inexhaustible.

First he described the horrors of the slave ship, which led up to the alleged appearance of a ghost on board, the visitor being, as he declared, the spirit of a companion who had died during the passage. From that cheerful topic he wandered off to the Negro plot to burn New York, with which the girls were quite familiar, and described with great detail the sufferings of those burned at the stake, and the contortions of the culprits who were hanged.

In fact, his method of amusing the children was well calculated to make both of them even more nervous and timid than before, and they trembled when the candles flared, or Scip moved his feet across the sanded floor suddenly.

Therefore it was that when, suddenly, the sound of many voices raised in anger was heard from the outside, Dorothy and Sarah leaped to their feet with a cry of fear.