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, massa! dis niggar Dio know you; nebber forget you, massa; you
remember de poor slave niggar 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, massa, dis niggar gone coon 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.