Previous - next
I used
to be sometimes employed in assisting an elderly woman slave to cook
and take care of the poultry; and one morning, while I was feeding
some chickens, I happened to toss a small pebble at one of them,
which hit it on the middle and directly killed it. The old slave,
having soon after missed the chicken, inquired after it; and on my
relating the accident (for I told her the truth, because my mother
would never suffer me to tell a lie) she flew into a violent passion,
threatened that I should suffer for it; and, my master being out, she
immediately went and told her mistress what I had done. This alarmed
me very much, and I expected an instant flogging, which to me was
uncommonly dreadful; for I had seldom been beaten at home. I therefore
resolved to fly; and accordingly I ran into a thicket that was hard
by, and hid myself in the bushes. Soon afterwards my mistress and the
slave returned, and, not seeing me, they searched all the house, but
not finding me, and I not making answer when they called to me, they
thought I had run away, and the whole neighbourhood was raised in the
pursuit of me. In that part of the country (as in ours) the houses and
villages were skirted with woods, or shrubberies, and the bushes were
so thick that a man could readily conceal himself in them, so as to
elude the strictest search. The neighbours continued the whole day
looking for me, and several times many of them came within a few yards
of the place where I lay hid. I then gave myself up for lost entirely,
and expected every moment, when I heard a rustling among the trees, to
be found out, and punished by my master: but they never discovered me,
though they were often so near that I even heard their conjectures as
they were looking about for me; and I now learned from them, that any
attempt to return home would be hopeless. Most of them supposed I had
fled towards home; but the distance was so great, and the way so
intricate, that they thought I could never reach it, and that I should
be lost in the woods. When I heard this I was seized with a violent
panic, and abandoned myself to despair. Night too began to approach,
and aggravated all my fears. I had before entertained hopes of getting
home, and I had determined when it should be dark to make the attempt;
but I was now convinced it was fruitless, and I began to consider
that, if possibly I could escape all other animals, I could not those
of the human kind; and that, not knowing the way, I must perish in the
woods. Thus was I like the hunted deer:
--"Ev'ry leaf and ev'ry whisp'ring breath
Convey'd a foe, and ev'ry foe a death."
I heard frequent rustlings among the leaves; and being pretty sure
they were snakes I expected every instant to be stung by them. This
increased my anguish, and the horror of my situation became now quite
insupportable. I at length quitted the thicket, very faint and hungry,
Previous - next
