He told me he had a farm in Delaware, and wanted me to be his
wife; he promised me so much and was so anxious about it, that I
listened to him. Oh, he was a beautiful talker, and I was lonesome and
wanted love. I let him sell my house and give him the money, and started
a week ago to come to my new home. Oh, he did deceive me so; he said he
loved me dearly."
She began to cry again, and her mind seemed to wander, for the next
sentence was disconnected. Jimmy took the baby in his arms and kissed it
without any scruples, and the child's large, black eyes looked into his
as if he might be its own father, while he dandled it tenderly.
"The foxes has come an' barked at me two nights," said the woman; "they
wanted the bacon, I 'spect. The water-snakes has crawled around here in
the daytime, and the buzzards flew right down before me and looked up,
as if they thought I ought to be dead. But I wasn't afraid: that man I
give my love to was so much worse than them, that I just sung and let
them look at me."
"You say he sold you, Mary?"
The woman rubbed her weary eyes and slowly recollected where she had
left off.
"We moved our things on a vessel to Delaware, and come up a creek to a
little town in the marshes, and there we started for my husband's farm.
He said we had come to it in the night. I couldn't tell, but I saw a
house in the woods, and was so tired I went to sleep with my baby there,
and in the night I found men in the room, and one of them, a white man,
was tying my feet.
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