that was needless. I went
there because the barn was a sort of sanctuary to me, whither I fled
when the house was too warm to hold me. I went there to nurse my wrath;
to think what I should do after the new indignities which had been
heaped upon me. I had not been the aggressor in the quarrel. I had been
meanly insulted and assaulted.

After the blows of Captain Fishley, I felt that Torrentville was no
place for me and for my poor sister. The six months which were to
intervene before the coming of Clarence, and the end of my misery,
looked like so many years to me. If it had not been for Flora, I would
not have remained another hour in the house of my tyrants. I would have
fled that moment.

I could not stay long in the barn without another row, for the captain
had ordered me to harness the horse; and I concluded that he and the
squire were going to ride. I was just ugly enough then to disobey; in
fact, to cast off all allegiance to my tyrants. I felt as though I could
not lift my finger to do anything more for them till some atonement for
the past had been made. I gave Darky some hay, and then left my
sanctuary, without knowing where I was going.

Back of the house, and half a mile from it, was a narrow but deep
stream, which flowed into the creek. This branch ran through a dense
swamp--the only one I knew of in that part of the state. In the early
spring its surface was overflowed with water. It was covered with a
thick growth of trees, and the place was as dismal, dark, and
disagreeable as anything that can be imagined.

Hardly any one ever visited the swamp except myself. At this season of
the year it was not possible to pass through it, except in a boat. I was
rather fond of exploring out-of-the-way places, and this deep and dark
morass had early attracted my attention. The year before I had made a
small raft, and threaded its gloomy recesses with Sim Gwynn, a stupid
crony of mine, and, like myself, an orphan, living out and working for
his daily bread.

When I left the barn, I wandered towards the swamp. I was thinking only
of the indignities which had been heaped upon me. I meant to keep out of
the way till dinner-time. At the foot of the slope, as I descended to
the low land, I came across the raft on which Sim and I had voyaged
through the avenues of the dismal swamp the preceding year. It was in a
dilapidated condition; and, after adjusting the boards upon the logs, I
pushed off, and poled the clumsy cr