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Jim again. I got down there all out of breath but loaded up with joy, and sung

out --

"Set her loose, Jim, we're all right, now!"

But there warn't no answer, and nobody come out of the wigwam. Jim was

gone! I set up a shout -- and then another -- and then another one; and run this

way and that in the woods, whooping and screeching; but it warn't no use -- old

Jim was gone. Then I set down and cried; I couldn't help it. But I couldn't

set still long. Pretty soon I went out on the road, trying to think what I better

do, and I run across a boy walking, and asked him if he'd seen a strange nigger,

dressed so and so, and he says: ssssssssss

"Yes." ssssssssss

"Wherebouts?" says I.

"Down to Silas Phelps's place, two mile below here. He's a runaway nigger,

and they've got him. Was you looking for him?"

"You bet I ain't! I run across him in the woods about an hour or two ago,

and he said if I hollered he'd cut my livers out -- and told me to lay down and

stay where I was; and I done it. Been there ever since; afeard to come out."

"Well," he says, "you needn't be afeard no more, becuz they've got him.

He run off fm down South, som'ers." ssssssssss

"It's a good job they got him."

"Well, I reckon! There's two hunderd dollars reward on him. It's like

picking up money out'n the road." ssssssssss

"Yes, it is -- and I could a had it if I'd been big enough; I see him first.

Who nailed him?" ssssssssss

"It was an old fellow -- a stranger -- and he sold out his chance in him for

forty dollars, becuz he's got to go up the river and can't wait. Think o' that,

now! You bet Pd wait, if it was seven year."

"That's me, every time," says I. "But maybe his chance ain't worth no

more than that, if he'll sell it so cheap. Maybe there's something ain't straight

about it." ssssssssss

"But it is, though -- straight as a string. I see the handbill myself. It tells

all about him, to a dot -- paints him like a picture, and tells the plantation he's

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