Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1895-01-03
front Of him sat his two chance ac-
quaintances of the night before. A
pair Of splendid baYs drawing the

pair OF splendid bays drawing the
wagon were iaded and covered with
foam, as though they had beer
travelling all night, and the road
was unfamiliar.
"Marse Aleck," the negro cried,
bewildered, aud starting up.
For reply one Of the men turned
around, dealt him q blow over the
head with the butt of pistol, and
sternly commanded him to shut M
and lie still. He was then in form
ed that his master had lost so heayi-
" the night before at cards that he
had sold him to liquidate the debt,
and they, his present owners, wsrs
taking him to Mississippi. to sell
him to cotton-planter.
"Marse Aleck done sol me-" be
repeated, again and again, in a hope
lessly dazed fashion, his mind ap-
parently incapable of comprehend
ing deed Of such atrocity.
Ali physical pain and discomfort
were engulfed by this mental tor
ture. Slaves were sold every day,
but that such fate should ever
overtake him had never appeared
possible.
The more he thought of it, the
more monstrous grew the act. To
separate him forever from all he
loved-his nanny, an Calline,
whom he had promised to marry as
soon as his master finished school
and settled down-never a word of
good-bye--and Marse Aleck, best
beloved of all, to do this!
For several days and nights, with
out pause. his journey was kept up,
men and horses being changed at
regular intervals. Then, when che
road narrowed to a bridle-path, the
wagon was Abandoned for saddle
horses, and at night they slept in
some secluded place in the woods,
where his owners always found ac-
quaintances with food and fresh
horses awaiting them. At last they
reached the banks of a majestic
river, and he was blindfolded and
placed in a skiff. He could hear
the regular swish of oars for what
seemed an hoar, when the boat must
have turned into narrower stream,
for its progress was slow, and his
face was often struck by overhang-
ing trees.
In short time he was removed
from the boat, led afew yards, and
the bandage taken from his eyes,
when he found himself in a large
cave. dimly lighted by wax candles.
Here he remained all night, chained
to ring, driven in the stone wall.
The next morning he was again
blindfolded, conducted out as he
had been brought in, and sold to q
Mr.. Moss, whose overseer took him
Immediately to his swamp planta-
tion in Louisiana.
Poor Romeo! His lines had fall
len in hard places.
Almost as unaccustomed to work
or discipline as his young master,
he suddenly found himself in q po-
sition where unceasing labor and
singing blows were the order of the
day. What wonder was it then.
that, maddened, and driven to bay
by the overseer's ordering him to
take of his shirt to receive his first
whipping. he replied by well-di-
rected blow, sent straight out from
the shoulder, which felled bis as
sailant like an OK.
Then the wild rush for liberty
the despairing wandering through
cane brsakes and forest--the days
and nights spent in the dank, dis
NAL, moes-draped cypress swamp,
without shelter or food-the capture
by dogs-the terrible punishment,
followed by long, low fever, and
the "5reaking in'' of this "young
buck" had fairly begun.
Slowly and monotonously the
years cfept away. He lived solitary
and alone in his little cabin, on the
outskirts of the quarters, his hot
rebellion and insubordination being
succeeded by a morose and silent
acquiescence. which grew into stolid
indifference as time went by. There
was not so much as a wrath left
of the rollicking. happy-go-lucky
young dandy Of former days. At
forty-five, when he should have been
IN the vigor and prime ofmanhood, 4,
he was q feeble old man, bent and
drawn with rheumatism his sxstem