of the art of managing them. What was
meant by the "in ox," as against the "off ox," when both were equally
fastened to one cart, and under one yoke, I could not very easily
divine; and the difference, implied by the names, and the peculiar
duties of each, were alike _Greek_ to me. Why was not the "off ox"
called the "in ox?" Where and what is the reason for this distinction in
names, when there is none in the things themselves? After initiating
me into the _"woa," "back" "gee," "hither"_--the entire spoken language
between oxen and driver--Mr. Covey took a rope, about ten feet long and
one inch thick, and placed one end of it around the horns of the "in
hand ox," and gave the other end to me, telling me that if the oxen
started to run away, as the scamp knew they would, I must hold on to
the rope and stop them. I need not tell any one who is acquainted with
either the strength of the disposition of an untamed ox, that this
order{163} was about as unreasonable as a command to shoulder a mad
bull! I had never driven oxen before, and I was as awkward, as a
driver, as it is possible to conceive. It did not answer for me to plead
ignorance, to Mr. Covey; there was something in his manner that quite
forbade that. He was a man to whom a slave seldom felt any disposition
to speak. Cold, distant, morose, with a face wearing all the marks of
captious pride and malicious sternness, he repelled all advances. Covey
was not a large man; he was only about five feet ten inches in height,
I should think; short necked, round shoulders; of quick and wiry motion,
of thin and wolfish visage; with a pair of small, greenish-gray eyes,
set well back under a forehead without dignity, and constantly in
motion, and floating his passions, rather than his thoughts, in
sight, but denying them utterance in words. The creature presented
an appearance altogether ferocious and sinister, disagreeable and
forbidding, in the extreme. When he spoke, it was from the corner of his
mouth, and in a sort of light growl, like a dog, when an attempt is made
to take a bone from him. The fellow had already made me believe him even
_worse_ than he had been presented. With his directions, and without
stopping to question, I started for the woods, quite anxious to perform
my first exploit in driving, in a creditable manner. The distance from
the house to the woods gate a full mile, I should think--was passed over
with very little difficulty; for although the animals ra