My mistress was always good to me.'
'What could make you leave a good home, then, and run away, and go
through such danger?'
'They wanted to take my boy away from me--to sell him--to sell him down
south, ma'am. To go all alone--a baby that had never been away from his
mother in his life. I couldn't bear it. I took him, and ran away in the
night. They chased me, they were coming down close behind me, and I
heard 'em. I jumped right on to the ice. How I got across I don't know.
The first I knew, a man was helping me up the bank.'
It was such a sad story, that the tears came into the eyes of everyone
who heard her tell it.
[Illustration]
'Where do you mean to go to, poor woman?' asked the lady.
'To Canada, if I only knew where that was. Is it very far off, is
Canada'? said Eliza, looking up in a simple, trusting way, to the kind
lady's face.
'Poor woman,' said she again.
'Is it a great way off?' asked Eliza.
'Yes,' said the lady of the house sadly, 'it is far away. But we will
try to help you to get there.' Eliza wanted to go to Canada, because it
belonged to the British. They did not allow any one to be made a slave
there. George, too, was going to try to reach Canada.
'Wife,' said the gentleman, when they had gone back again into their
own sitting-room, 'we must get that poor woman away to-night.
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