“Fine place dat, Caesar, for niggar to hide away if de white massa not know it,” observed Peter to his companion.
“Berry good for hide ’way, but bad for de food; nothing but rats and crickets to eat dare.”
Uncle Denis, jumping up on the box, shouted “Erin-go-bragh,” and away we dashed as fast as we had come. It was dark long before we reached the farm; my mother appeared pretty well tired out. We remained a couple of days more to recruit, and then set out on our return home. Uncle Denis accompanied us part of the first day’s journey.
“Keep clear of Master Silas Bracher,” he observed as we were about to part. “I have no wish to meet him again, for he is more likely to pick a quarrel and send a bullet through a man’s body than to do him any good.”
“I’ll follow your advice,” answered my father; “I wish from my heart, though, that I could get the black, Dio, out of his power. I really believe that he is jealous of the poor slave.”
“You may as well try to draw sunbeams out of a cucumber, as to get him to agree to your offer; keep clear of him altogether, and should I have the chance, I will not forget your wish to obtain the black, whom, should I succeed, you can either set free or keep in bondage, as you may decide; probably, were you to give him his choice, he would prefer remaining your slave.”
After an affectionate farewell, Uncle Denis turned his horse’s head, and rode back, while we continued our journey to “Uphill,” the name my father had given to his property. Avoiding Mr Bracher’s location, we drove down to the ford, and as the water was much lower than when we before crossed it, we got over in safety, though my mother naturally felt very nervous as we were making the passage.
We found all going on well at home, Martin Prentis, the overseer, also giving a favourable account of affairs on the estate. It may seem strange that, young as I then was, I should be able to give so minute an account of some of the incidents of our journey: but in the first place they made a deep impression on me; in the second, my parents have since assisted me to brush up my recollections of those days.