Merry’s Adventures.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Although I did not know what was before me, and had no scheme even for providing myself with bread for a single day, I felt an indescribable degree of delight at my release from prison. To be shut up by our fellow-men, as if unworthy of enjoying light and liberty, is very hard to bear: to know that one is innocent of crime—and yet to be cast into a dungeon, and made the companion of the wicked and the degraded—is calculated to beget a deep sense of injustice. Such, indeed, was my feeling while in prison; and even when I was free, it still mingled with my joy, impressing me with a sad consciousness that even in society, and surrounded by laws designed to protect us from wrong, we are not wholly secure, and may be called upon, through the weakness or wickedness of our fellow-men, to suffer the most bitter pangs.
I, however, resisted these feelings and poured out my gratitude to Bill Keeler—my deliverer. On inquiry, I learned of him, that while at Salem, he had accidentally heard of my imprisonment; and though he supposed me guilty of some misdemeanor, he still gathered all the money he could, and pushed off on foot to New York, to obtain my release. The success of his endeavors has already been detailed.
Having talked over the events already laid before the reader, Bill asked me what I intended to do. I told him that I had formed no plan. He then urged me to go back with him to Salem; but as I seemed very reluctant to do so, his mind appeared to be turned to some other project. We walked along the street for a considerable distance in silence, and with an uncertain and sauntering gait—my companion evidently in great perplexity. At last his countenance brightened, and turning round on his heel, he led me on, with a decided step, in a direction opposite to that which we had pursued.
“Well, well,” said Bill, cheerfully, “when one door shuts, another opens: if the mountain doesn’t come to you, you must go to the mountain. How would you like to become a traveller, Bob?”
“I should like it of all things.”
“So I thought—and I’ll get it all fixed.”
“But how am I to pay the expenses?”
“I brought a couple of friends with me, who’ll do that for you: they’r queer chaps, but you’ll learn to like ’em. You remember old Sarah’s cave? well, as I was climbing among the rocks just below it, a few days ago, in search of a woodchuk that had just duv into his burrow, a large stone gave way under my feet, and down the ledge I went, for more than three rod. A great mass of rubbish came down with me, and it’s a kind of miracle I wan’t smashed. I was a little stunned, but by-and-by I came to myself. There I lay, half covered with stones, leaves and gravel. Thinks I, what’s this all about? Just then I put out my hand to get up, and I felt something mighty cold. Well, what do you think it was? Why, ’twas a rattle-snake, and just by his side lay seven others! It was cold weather, and they were as straight and stiff as bean poles. Well, says I, there’s nothin made in vain—so I took tew on ’em, and doubled ’em up and put ’em into one of my stockins, and carried ’em home.