And Annie went home more broken-hearted than ever, for his cold, cruel sneers and scorn hurt her on the poor heart made sore by her husband’s brutality.
And Ellick went on worse than ever. And it wuz on that very day that his brother-in-law (and to make it shorter we will call him B. I. L.)—it wuz on the very day that the B. I. L. went to New York on his great Amelioratin’ Human Misery errent, that Ellick, crazy drunk with cider shampain, struck little Rob sech a blow that it knocked the child down, and he laid stunted for more’n a hour. And he threatened Annie that he would take her life, because she interfered between him and the boy.
He raved round, like the maniac that he wuz. He said that he would throw her out doors if she didn’t git a good dinner, when there wuzn’t a mite of food in the house to cook. He raved about the house bein’ so freezin’ cold, when there wuzn’t a stick of wood nor a lump of coal.
Ellick lay drunk in the office.
And finally he reeled off to his usual place of resort. And while the B. I. L. wuz a-raisin’ up in the great meetin’-house, and a-smoothin’ out his phylakricy, and a-layin’ the border of it careful, so’s it would show off well, and then bustin’ out into sech a speech, on the duties of church-members to the sinful and the sorrowin’ round ’em—a speech that riz him up powerful in religious circles—Ellick lay drunk in the office of his cider-mill.
Little Rob lay like a dead child in a cold, bare room, and a white-faced, half-starved mother bent over him with big, despairin’, anxious eyes—bent over him till life come back to his poor, bruised body; and then as darkness crept over the earth she stole away, a-carryin’ him in her arms.
She got a ride with a passin’ teamster, got carried fur off, then got another ride, wuz fed and warmed by pityin’ hearts on the way; so she come to a place nigh Jonesville, onbeknown to anybody.
When Ellick rousted up out of his drunken sleep he went back to a desolate, empty house. His surprise, his grief, sobered him. He flew to the B. I. L., woke him out of a sound sleep filled with visions of his triumphs.
The B. I. L. wuz in a tryin’ place. He wuz about to be riz up to a high position in the meetin’-house. If this story got out, it might and probble would hurt him. Annie must be found and brought back. They jined forces to try to find her. They sot out that very day, but the quest wuz a long one.