And already in his mind Victor saw the white sails of their boats bearin’ away the fruit of their hands to be exchanged for articles of necessity and comfort.
He could see the little wharf where these boats should come back laden with comforts for his people and news from the great world.
He imagined Genieve and himself standin’ at the door of their tiny cottage, in the golden sunset or the golden dawn, lookin’ down this sparklin’ highway fringed with glistenin’ palm-trees.
He could almost hear the song of the gayly hued birds as they called out to their mates in the glossy foliage overhead.
Here wuz home, here wuz peace, here wuz independence for a long-enslaved and tortured people.
Hard work he knew there must be, and perhaps hard fare for a time; but the reward would be so sweet that it would sweeten toil. It would not be like the hopeless, onthanked-for, onrewarded drudgery for them who returned insults and curses for patient labor, and too often blows and stingin’ lashes.
Felix and Hester wuz makin’ all preparations to go with Victor. On him Victor counted as one who could be relied upon to help the weaker ones, to be a guide and an example of what the black man could do and be.
For Felix, so far as he knew, had not a drop of white blood in his veins, and he wuz faithful, honest, hard-workin’ and intelligent.
Three times he had had his home broken up and his earnings stolen from him by this cursed, unslain spirit of slavery.
But he had agin, by his industry and frugality and by Hester’s help, earned and laid by the sum Victor thought necessary for each colonist to possess, and he and Hester wuz ready to make another start in the New Republic.