ngth, made a sign of assent.
I fell asleep. When I awoke the sun was up and bright, while all trace
of the night-storm had disappeared. I wondered at first where I was.
Seeing the fresh straw lying about, an idea struck me that I could earn a
few pence by a little handiwork. I thereupon commenced making some straw
baskets, the like of which you have often seen myself and
fellow-prisoners manufacture. By the time I had completed two or three
the men came again into the barn and began to work with their flails. I
stepped forward with my baskets, which seemed to surprise them. The like
they had evidently never seen before--they examined them with the
greatest attention. One of the men, pulling some copper money out of his
pocket, offered it for one of them. Grateful for the shelter I had
received, I pushed back the man's hand which contained the money and
offered him the basket as a present, pointing to my bed of straw. The
honest fellow would not accept it, saying I must have his money. I
therefore sold him one of the baskets, and another was also purchased by
one of the other men. They seemed astonishingly pleased with their
bargains. Just as they had concluded their dealings with me a big man
came into the barn, who I found out was the master. The men showed him
the baskets and pointed to me, telling the farmer that I was a "dumby and
deafy." The big farmer hereupon bawled in my ear the question, "who was
I, and where had I come from?" I put on a perfectly stolid look although
the drum of my ears was almost split by his roaring. The farmer had a
soft heart, however, in his big and burly frame. Leaving the barn, he
beckoned me to follow him. This I did. He went into the farm-house,
and, calling his wife, bade her get dinner ready. A capital piece of
beef, bread, and boiled greens or cabbages were soon on the table, to
which I sat down with the farmer and his wife. Their daughter, soon
after we had commenced eating, came in. Her attention was immediately
attracted by my remaining basket, which I had placed by them. I got up
from the table and presented it to her. Her father then told her of my
supposed infirmities. I could scarcely help laughing while I heard them
canvass my personal appearance, my merits and demerits. Pity, however,
seemed to be the predominant feeling. When the dinner was over, I
happened to look up at an old clock and saw that it had stopped. I went
up to it, and took it from