Read Ebook: Harper's Round Table February 25 1896 by Various

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Ebook has 453 lines and 26824 words, and 10 pages

CURTAIN.

Oh let me interjuce myse'f, A gent'man f'om de Souf, What nevah wuks while other folks Puts wittles in his mouf.

Den fetch de 'possum barbacue, Roas' ches'nuts, an' pop-cawn; De darkies' hour fer jamboree Is jes' befo' de dawn.

You see a cullud lady here Dat scrub an' wash all day, An' ev'ry evenin' fer a res' She dance de time away.

So knock it off wid heel an' toe, De night is almos' gone, An' don't fergit de darkies' hour Is jes' befo' de dawn.

I'm sent ter 'rest dis company Fer 'sterbin' of de peace.

Now change yo' min', Mist' P'liceman, do, An' jine us in our feas'.

Come cut de pigeon-wing wid us, An' shore ez you is bawn You'll fin' de liv'les' darkies' hour Is jes befo' de dawn.

PATTY'S STATION.

BY KATHARINE B. FOOT.

It was Patty Miller's seventeenth birthday and a sweet May morning in the early fifties. She sat on the porch step beside her father, who was the doctor of the whole country-side far and near, and they looked out over the superb view of the Connecticut Valley below them. She was an only child, and her father's dear companion and friend, and as dear and familiar friends are apt to do, they sat without speaking for some time, until her father laid an affectionate hand on hers and said, "Are you happy to be home, daughter, on your birthday?"

"Yes, or any other day," and she laid her other hand over his. "And I think I'm more glad than ever since we visited in Virginia. New England for me always."

After another little silence her father said, "Uncle Tom and Fanny seem to enjoy it here."

"Oh yes, or they wouldn't stay. Uncle Tom never stays anywhere unless he's comfortable. But I can't help wondering how he gets on without servants, for Abe is always at his elbow on the plantation, and there's no one at all to wait on him here. I wonder," continued Patty, laughing a little, "what Uncle Tom and Fanny would think if they knew that Wellfield was a station in the underground railroad, and you the station-master, and the particular station our house, and the hiding-place under the closet floor in the very room that he sleeps in?"

Uncle Tom was a Southerner, and was visiting with his daughter his Northern relatives, with whom he was on the best of terms except on the subject of slave-holding.

"I don't know I'm sure," her father said, seriously, "but once, years ago, I told him that I'd help along any of his slaves to freedom if they asked me, and he said that if any of them wanted to run away I was quite welcome to do it. But Tom is a good master, as his father was before him, and if his servants are going to be slaves at all they're probably as well off with him, and perhaps better off than they would be anywhere else."

"It's lucky," said Patty, and she laughed heartily, "that you have always been able to pass your fugitives right on, for I believe that if any one was shut up in that place very long they'd suffocate."

"Well," said her father, slowly and thoughtfully, "it would be cramping, but it's ventilated directly to the air; and 'twas awfully lucky that that trellis with the honeysuckle on it ran up on that side of the house, so that I could make that little window there. That is your station, Patty, and you were a clever girl to find it out. I think that your mother and I were pretty stupid not to see that the ceiling of the closet was so much lower than it was in the room until you told us, for we'd racked our brains for years to think of a secure hiding-place."

"But it wouldn't have been any good if there hadn't been a closet above," said Patty; "and if you hadn't been such a good carpenter that you could cut the little window and fix the trap-door that--well, that no eyes could see."

"And especially with a small trunk over it, and no servants to spy it out," interrupted her father. "Yes," and he smiled, "I think that 'Patty's station' will be a safe one if it ever has to be used. But here comes Uncle Tom now," as a handsome man came toward them from the front door.

"All ready for your birthday jaunt, Patty? Where is Fanny?"

"Coming, papa," and a girl a little younger than Patty ran down stairs just as Mrs. Miller came out of the parlor door.

"I'm sorry you won't go with us, Anna," said Mr. Mason to her.

"I'm sorry too," said Mrs. Miller, "but as I'm my own cook I must stay at home, or you'd starve when you got back."

"I tell you what, Anna, you put yourself up at auction, and I'll bid you in at any price, and then I'll be sure of good cooking for the rest of my life."

Mrs. Miller laughed and shook her head wisely. "Well, you see, Tom, I might die. If I couldn't run away I might take that gleam of liberty."

"Oh, what a fanatic you are!" he laughed.

"Oh, there's Mr. Holman coming in!" said Patty. "I'll run to meet him, for he don't like our steep path."

"Is that your old clergyman?" said Mr. Mason.

"Our minister," said Mrs. Miller. "He likes the old name, and he is a minister, truly. He has probably come for John to go to see somebody who is sick and poor."

"That's a pretty fair partnership, I reckon," said Mr. Mason. "But John is always caring for the lame and the lazy."

The doctor went into his office for his saddle-bags, for when he did not ride he carried them in his chaise.

"Father, will you come down here?" Patty called.

Mr. Holman looked very serious as Dr. Miller approached him, and he looked about him cautiously before he whispered: "There's a fugitive slave at Lem Carter's, and Dimmock and two men are after him. The man seems to be an intelligent fellow, and he says that he thinks that they are not looking for him in particular just now, but are after another man who was with him, and who left him three days ago, for the other fellow knew that he was being chased, and they thought it more prudent to separate. But as this man at Lem's is a fugitive, if they find him they'll take him even if he isn't the man they're after. Lem says that he knows his house is watched, so he doesn't dare to keep him overnight, nor to have you drive down and get him. Now Lem and I thought out this plan: If you can get your Silas out of the way, I will let Lem know, and he will bring the man to your stable after dark, and you can drive him to Northampton to Mr. Brewer's, for there's no other place here where it's safe to keep him."

"I think I can get Silas out of the way," said the doctor, after thinking a moment. "But suppose they track him to my stable, what shall I do? For you know my brother-in-law, Mr. Mason, is here, and that closet where I made the hiding-place is in his room."

"Well," said Mr. Holman, "sometimes the most absolutely daring thing is the safest thing to do, and if you were hard pressed and had to put him there, no one could possibly dream of your taking such a risk. But I don't think it's at all likely that he'll be followed up so closely as that. I think you'll have time enough to get him out of the way, for, now that I think of it, Mr. Mason's being here is really a protection to you."

So, after a little more talk between them, the matter was settled. Mr. Holman explained matters to Mrs. Miller, and she thought out a plan for the doctor, so that Silas could be sent on an errand in the late afternoon which would take him two or three miles into the country, and so keep him out of the way for the entire evening.

Meanwhile Patty, although this episode was one which she had long desired, carried a really heavy and anxious heart, and felt that she must make a constant exertion to appear like her usual self. She was very anxious about the safety of the poor fugitive, because it seemed such a complication to have her uncle and Fanny with them, and, of course, she knew how hot and close the pursuit was after any fugitive, and especially so when there was a large reward in prospect. She found herself wondering at herself as she laughed and talked all day long, and as she afterwards told all their adventures to her mother and father at the tea-table. After tea was over, and while Patty was helping her mother to clear the table, Mrs. Miller had a few minutes to tell Patty of their plans, and that her part of it was to keep her uncle and Fanny in the parlor, and amused and interested, if possible, so that her uncle would not take it into his head to wander down to the stable, as he often did, or Fanny to wander about the house, where she might possibly look out of a window and see something suspicious going on outside. So Patty went at once into the parlor, and had the happy thought of hunting up an old book of dim old engravings that had been given to her father, and which she knew would interest her uncle Tom, for he was something of a bookworm. It was a happy thought, indeed, for Mr. Mason was soon so deep in his interest in the book, and so interested in telling the girls what he knew about the engravings, which were very old and, as he said, extremely valuable, that Patty felt he was quite safely anchored until the danger should be over. As soon as the late May twilight became darkness, the doctor, saying something about having a call, lit his lantern and went down to the stable. He waited only a few moments before the door opened cautiously, and Lem Carter, a slight, alert-looking man, stepped in, followed by a negro. In one flash the man and the doctor recognized each other, for, strange to say, it was Mr. Mason's Abe--the very man that he and Patty had been talking about that morning.

"Oh, Marse Doctah! Don't gib me up! don't gib me up! I didn't know it was Marse Tom's--Marse Doctah--I wuz comin' to."

"Hush, Abe!" said the doctor, "I'll not give you up; but your master is here, and I must get you safely away as soon as I can. It's my brother's man," said Dr. Miller.

"Abe," said the doctor, "you must be perfectly quiet and do exactly what I tell you, and I will have you safe soon. Come with me." And he took him by the arm, and led him out of the side door of the barn and up the path to the kitchen door. He left him for one moment in the little entry outside of it, and went in and told his wife who it was that had come to them. She was shocked and rather frightened, but very quiet, and made no exclamation; and then they put Abe in the big store-room, just out of the kitchen, and she got him some food while she was saying:

"Go and send Patty to me. Tell her anything you can think of. Oh, I know--tell her to come out and show me where the milk is for the cottage cheese."

When the doctor went away Abe told her in a few frightened words that as soon as Mr. Mason left home, two weeks before, the overseer had given him a pass to go to the next county for some sheep, and as he had to drive them back, which would take some days, he knew that he wouldn't be missed for that time, and so could never have a better opportunity for the escape that he had planned for years; but had kept it such a secret that not even the doctor--whose abolition principles were well known to Abe--had had the least suspicion of such a thing. So he had run away, and, strangely enough, been passed along, until he was under the very roof with his master.

"Patty, be careful not to speak loud," Mrs. Miller said a moment later, when her daughter appeared. "I didn't want to see you about the cheeses; but we've got to hide a man to-night until father can get him away. He's in the store-room now; and, Patty," and her mother laid her hand on her shoulder, "it's a strange thing, and I can hardly believe it myself, but it's somebody we know--it's Uncle Tom's Abe."

"Father will drive him to Northampton just as quick as he can get him away. But Mr. Carter thinks that Dimmock is following him up very closely, and if he comes here Abe has got to be put in the hiding-place."

A moment later Patty and her mother returned to the room, apparently quite calm and composed, and the doctor was just saying, "Well, I have a long drive before me, and must be off," in such a matter-of-fact way that Patty felt almost hysterical.

Just at that moment some one pounded on the knocker in a very imperative way, and Fanny said, "Goodness, somebody must be dying!" The doctor went to the front door and opened it. Even he, for a second, was startled, as he saw three men standing there.

"Good-evening," said the doctor. "Anybody sick? Hello, Dimmock, I didn't see you. What's the matter?"

Mr. Dimmock seemed somewhat embarrassed, and said: "No, we ain't none of us sick; but fact is, doctor, we're after a runaway nigger, and my friends here--Mr. Sterling and Mr. Pratt--say they traced him right up here about ten minutes ago, and they just brought me along to make the warrant right, as I'm United States Commissioner, you know. Have you got the fellow, and will you give him up?"

"Pretty high and mighty, doctor," said the man they called Dimmock. "In the name of the United States, I demand to search this house. We've been through your barn a'ready."

As the men walked into the room, Patty said, "Father, is Mr. Dimmock going up into my room?"

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