Page:From the West to the West.djvu/76



"The devil!" Don't swear, John. She didn't name herself." And the name of the coon?"

"Geo'ge Washin't'n, sah. I named him for de faddah o' de kentry. He's as han'some a coon as ebber had a white daddy. Ain't ye, honey?" And the mother held him close. "Yo's a flower o' slavery, ain't ye, dawlin'?" a hidden meaning in her voice.

Again the deep baying of the bloodhounds was heard. But they were taking the back trail. The fugitive laughed.

"De way we larn 'em dat trick is a niggah's secret," she said, as she again hid herself and child.

"My massa didn't use to b'lieve in slavery, missus," she said, as the baying of the dogs grew faint and distant. "When massa first 'herited his slaves, he used to tell us he'd set us free. But he got a habit o' holdin' on to us, an' it jist growed on him. It was like de whiskey habit. It got fastened on him good an' ha'd, and he didn't talk 'bout manumittin' us no mo'. He didn't want to sell me, he said, but I was prope'ty, an' times got bad, an' he was 'bleeged to have money to pay his debts. His new wife's'spensive, awful, an' he had to sell some o' de niggahs. If he'd sol' me an' Geo'dy Wah too, I wouldn't 'a' runned away. But when he said he'd sell me, an' keep my coon to be his new wife's niggah, I couldn't Stan' it nohow, so I scooted!" and the negress laughed heartily.

"Do you think you can hide her for a week, Annie? We'll be across the Missouri River by that time."

"I'll do my best, John. We're running a terrible risk, though. Sometimes, when I think of the sins of this so-called free government, all committed in the name of Liberty, I long to turn rebel, and do my best to destroy it, root and branch."

"I had a husban' once, suh. But massa tuk a likento me, so he sol' him down Souf," said the fugitive.