found men in the room, and one of them, a white man,
was tying my feet."

A crow cawed with a sound of awe in the pine tops, and squirrels were
running tamely all round about as she hesitated.

"I thought then of the kidnappers of Delaware, for I had heard about
them, and I jumped out of bed and fought for my life. They knocked me
down and the rope around my feet tripped me up; but I fought with my
teeth after my hands was tied, too, and I bit that white man's knees,
and then he picked up a fire-shovel, or something of iron, and knocked
my teeth out. My last hope was almost gone when I saw my husband coming
in, and I cried to him, 'Save me! save me, darling!' He had a rope in
his hand, and, before I could understand it, he had slipped it over my
neck and choked me."

"Your own husband? I can't believe it, to save my life!"

"I didn't believe it, neither, till I heard him say, when they loosened
the slipknot that had strangled me--the voice was his I had trusted so
much; I never could forget it!--'Eben,' he said, 'I've took down every
mole and spot on her body and can swear to' em, for I've learned 'em by
heart, and you won't have no trouble a-sellin' her, as she can't
testify."

"The imp of Pangymonum!" Jimmy cried. "He had married you to note down
your marks, and by' em swear you to be a slave!"

"The white man tried to sell me to a farmer, and then I told what I had
heard them say. He believed me, and told them the mayor of Philadelphia
had a reward out for them, for kidnappin' free people, already. 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