Then he helped Mrs. Pole to a seat beside her.
“And now, Marse Glebe, ef yo’ will jes’ git up dar on dat bench, in front ob de two ladies, yo’ll obleege dis compinny! ’Caze, yo’ see, I’s got to walk at the head ob de creeturs to keep ’em straight on to de road.”
“Is that necessary?” inquired Stuart as he climbed to his place and settled himself comfortably.
“‘N’essary?’” exclaimed ’Sias. “Why, la, bress yer soul, Marse Clebe! dere’s places ’long dis road w’ere ef dis yere nigh beast was to make a misstep, we’d all go ober down free fo’ hunderd feet to the rocks below. No, sah! I’s gwine walk at dis creetur’s head and carry my lantern, too,” concluded ’Sias as the oxen moved slowly and heavily onward as was their manner.
The lantern might have been, and probably was, a help to the vision of ’Sias and so to the safety of his party, but it could show only a small section of the road immediately under the feet of the conductor.
Nothing could be seen of the surrounding country except that it consisted of densely wooded mountains, whose skeleton trees were faintly outlined against the ground of snow.
When their eyes grew accustomed to the darkness the travelers in the cart could see, to their horror, that they were plodding along a rough and narrow road between a high rise of rocks on their right and a deep fall on their left; but the cautious negro guide with his lantern walked by the heads of the oxen between them and the precipice, keeping them out of the terrible danger. For an hour their way lay along this road, and then began slowly to descend a gradual slope, and finally turned to the right and entered a thick wood.
’Sias heaved a deep sigh of relief and said:
“Peoples sez, w’en dey gits out’n dif’culty an’ danger, as dey’s ‘out’n de woods.’ But, la! I allers feels as if I wasn’t safe until I was offen dat dar debbil’s shelf, up dar, an’ got down yere in dese woods.”
“How far are we from the house, ’Sias?” inquired Stuart.