e a sign over the door with a bottle and
cake on it."

_Amy_. But how did this man get hold of thee, if thy father and mother
are free people? Thee can't be bound to him, or he need not hide thee.

_Dinah_. Oh, I know, I ain't bounded to him; I expect he stole me.

_Amy_. Stole thee! What, here in the free state of Pennsylvania?

_Dinah_. I was out picking huckle-berries in the woods up the roads,
and I strayed off a big piece from home. Then the tinman comed along,
driving his cart, and I run close to the side of the road to look, as I
always does when anybody goes by. So he told me to come into his cart,
and he would give me a tin mug to put my huckle-berries in, and I might
chuse it myself, and it would hold them a heap better than my old Indian
basket. So I was very glad, and he lifted me up into the cart; and I
choosed the very best and biggest tin mug he had, and emptied my
huckle-berries into it. And then he told me he'd give me a ride in his
cart, and then he set me far back on a box, and he whipped his creatur,
and druv, and druv, and jolted me so, I tumbled all down among the tins.
And then he picked me up, and tied me fast with his handkercher to one
of the back posts of the cart, to keep me steady, he said. And then,
for all I was steady, I couldn't help crying, and I wanted him to take
me home to daddy and mammy. But he only sniggered at me, and said he
wouldn't, and bid me hush; and then he got mad, and because I couldn't
hush up just in a minute, he whipped me quite smart.

_Orphy_. Poor little thing!

_Dinah_. And then I got frightened, for he put on a wicked look, and
said he'd kill me dead if I cried any more, or made the least noise.
And so he has been carrying me along in his cart for two days and two
nights, and he makes me hide away all the time, and he won't let nobody
see me. And I hate him, and yesterday, when I know'd he didn't see me,
I spit on the crown of his hat.

_Amy_. Hush! Thee must never say thee hates anybody.

_Dinah_. At night I sleeps upon the bag of feathers; and when he stops
anywhere to eat, he comes sneaking to the back of the cart, and pokes in
victuals (he has just now brung me some), and he tells me he wants me to
be fat and good-looking. I was afeard he was going to sell me to the
butcher, as Nac Willet did his fat calf, and I thought I'd axe him about
it, and he laughed and told me he was going to sell me, sure enough, but
not to a butcher. And