“At las’ I got tired of bein’ cuffed an’ knocked round, an’ den I yearde dat if our people, any of dem, got to de Fedral lines dey was free, so I said, ’Cum, ‘Bijah,—­freedom’s wuth tryin’ for’; an’ one dark night I did up some hoe-cake an’ a piece of pork an’ started.  I trabbeled hard’s I could all night,—­’bout fifteen mile, I reckon,—­an’ den as ‘twas gittin’ toward mornin’ I hid away in a swamp.  Ye see I felt drefful bad, for I could year way off, but plain enuff, de bayin’ of de hounds, an’ I knew dat de men an’ de guns an’ de dogs was all after me; but de day passed an’ dey didn’t come.  So de next night I started off agen, an’ run an’ walked hard all night, an’ towards mornin’ I went up to a little house standen off from de road, thinking it was a nigger house, an’ jest as I got up to it out walked a white woman scarin’ me awfully, an’ de fust ting she axed me was what I wanted.”

“Tight slave!” interrupted Jim,—­“what d’ye do then?”

“Well, massa, ye see I saw mighty quick I was in for a lie anyhow, so I said, ‘Is massa at home?’ ‘Yes,’ says she,—­an’ sure nuff, he cum right out.  ‘Hello, nigger!’ he said when he seed me, ’whar you cum from? so I tells him from Pocotaligo, an’ before he could ax any more queshuns, I went on an’ tole him we cotched fifty Yankees down dere yesterday, an’ massa he was so tickled dat he let me go to Barnwells to see my family, an’ den I said I’d got off de track an’ was dead beat an’ drefful hungry, an’ would he please to sell me suthin to eat.  At dat de woman streaked right into de house, an’ got me some bread an’ meat, an’ tole me to eat it up an’ not talk about payin,’—­’we don’t charge good, faithful niggers nothin’,’ she said,—­so I thanked her an’ eat it all up, an’ den, when de man had tole me how to go, I went right long till I got out ob sight ob de little house, an’ den I got into de woods, an’ turned right round de oder way an’ made tracks fast as I could in dat direcshun.”

“Ho! ho! you’re about what I call a ’cute nigger,” laughed Jim.  “Come, go on,—­this gets interesting.”

“Well, directly I yearde de dogs.  Dere was a pond little way off; so I tuck to it, an’ waded out till I could just touch my toes an’ keep my nose above water so’s to breathe.  Presently dey all cum down, an’ I yearde Mass’ George say, ’I’ll hunt dat nigger till I find him if takes a month.  I’se goin’ to make a zample of him,’—­so I shook some at dat, for I know’d what Mass’ George’s zamples was.  Arter while one ob de men says, ‘He ain’t yere,—­he’d shown hisself before dis, if he was,’ an’ I spose I would, for I was pretty nearly choked, only I said to myself when I went in, ‘I’ll go to de bottom before I’ll come up to be tuck,’ so I jest held on by my toes an’ waited.