Evening star., 1924-10-21


come you here?"
He saw the thing she apprehended.
and he laughed. Faith, now, it's a
! long story" said he.
And one perhaps that you would
prefer not to tell?'
Briefly on that he told IL her.
"My God! What an infamy." she
| cried. when he had done.
"Oh. it's a sweet country-England
| under King James! There's no need
to commiserate me further. All
things considered. l prefer Barbados.
Here at least one can believe in God"
He looked first to right. then to
left as he spoke. from the distant
shadowy bulk of Mount Hillbay to
the limitless ocean ruined by the
winds of heaven. Then, as II the
fair prospect rendered him conscious
of his own littleness and the fnsis-
nificance Of his woes. he fell thought
full.
"1s that so dinicult elsewhere?
she asked him, and she was very
grave. 80
Men make it So"
II see" She laughed a little. on
a note Of sadness, 1t seemed to him.
IT have never deemed Barbados the
earthly mirror of heaven" she con-
fessed. But no doubt you know
your world better than l." She
touched her horse with her little Sill
on this easing OF your misfortunes" :"
He bowed, and she moved on. Her
negroes sprang up, and went trotting
after her.
Awhile Peter Blood remained stand
ing there, where she left him. con-
ming the sunlit waters Of Carlisle Bay
below, and the shipping in that spa
cious haven, about which the gulls
were futtering noisily.
1t was a fair enough prospect, he
reflected. but It was a prison, and in
England he had INDUCED that almost
1audable form Of boasting which lies
in belittling our misadventures.
He turned, and, resumine his way,
| went of in long. swinging strides
toward the little huddle of huts built
| of mud and wattles--a miniature viii
lage inclosed in a stockAde which
the plantation slaves inhabited, and
| where he, himself, was lodged with
them.
Through his mind sang the line OF
Lovelace:
"Stone walls do not q prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage"
But he gave it a fresh meaning, the
very converse Of that which it's au-
thor had intended. A prison, he re-
neither wallis nor bars, however spa.
! oious It might be. And as he realized
it that morning SO he was to realize
it increasingly as time sped on.
Daily he came to think more Of his
clipped wings, Of his exclusion from
the world. and less Of the fortuitous
liberty he enjoyed. Nor did the con-
trasting of his comparatively easy
! lot with that Of his unfortunate fell
low-conviets bring him the satisfac.
ton differently constituted mind
| might have derived from 1t. Rather
did the contemplation Of their misery
| increase the bitterness that was
| gathering In his soul. .'g.-T -
or the forty-two who had been
landed with him from the Jamaica
Merchant. Colonel Bishop had pur-
chased no less than 25. The remain
der had gone to lesser planters, some
OF them to Speightstown, and others
still farther north. What may have
been the lot of the latter he could
| not tell. but among Bishops slaves
| Peter Blood came and went freely,
sleeping In their quarters, And their
lot he knew to be a bfutalising mis-
cry. They toiled in the sugar planta-
/ tions from sunrise to sunset, and IL
their labors fiakged, there were the
whips of the ovefseer and his men to
quicken them. They went in rags,
some almost naked: they dwelt in
| squalor, and they were ill-nourished d
on salted meat and mAise dumplines
food which to many OF them was
for season at least 80 nAuSAatfnk
that two OF them sickened and. died
before Bishop remembered that their
lives had a certain value in labor to
him and yielded to Blbods interees-
siens for better care Of such as fell
Ill. To curb characterization. one OF
/ them who had rebelled against Kent,
the brutal ovefseer, was lashed to
death by negroes under his comrades
eyes. and another who had been SO
misguided as to run away into the
woods was tracked, brought back,
fogged, and then branded on the
| forehead with the letters "F. t." that
all might know him for 4 fugitive
traitor as long as he lived. Fortu-
nately for him. the poor ftiio~e died
as a consequence OF the fioggine.
After that q dull, spifitiess resig-
nation settled down upon the re-
mainder The most mutfnous were
quelled. and accepted their uhspeak-
able lot with the tragic fortitude OF
despair
i fCnnSfnu>d ;v, Yo,vr rnrrouss o%~rN