Then
they talked together--a little scared they was--and tied me again, and
brought me on a cart through the woods to the river and fetched me here,
and chained me, and told me if I ever said I was free, to another man,
they meant to sell my baby and to drown me in the river."
She finished with a chilly tremor and a low wail like an infant, but the
sailor passed her baby into her arms to engage her, and said:
"The Lord is still a-countin' of his sparrows, or I wouldn't have been
on this arrand, by smoke! To drift yer, hangin' senseless to that ole
scow, must have been to save you, Mary. This is a island where they
chains up property, I reckon, that is bein' follered up too close.
Time's very precious, Mary, but I've got a sailor's knife yer, an' I'll
stay to cut the staple out o' this ole pine if they come an' kill me.
You take an' wash my face off outen that water-trough while I bite a bit
of the bacon."
He took the child again and amused it while the woman carefully cleaned
his wound and rebandaged it so that he could breathe and see and eat,
though the cotton folds wrapped in much of his face like a mask. He then
examined the chain again, especially where it was rivetted at the feet,
and lifted a large iron ball weighing several pounds, which was also
affixed to her ankle, so that she could not climb the tree. Her ankle he
found blistered by the red-hot rivet being smithed so barbarously close
to the flesh.
Pages:
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343