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| 764 TEE UNDEROJROUND BAIL ROAD. With wonderful swiftness and adroitness she eluded pursuit, and was soon hurried ayay. Speedily reaching oar honse, she hid herself away during the day, and in the evening, as a place of greater safety, she was transferred to the bouse of our uncle, Dr. Fussell, then residing on aa adjoining farm. As was his wont, this kind-hearted man soon entered into a conversation •with her, and in a few minutes discovered that she had once been a pupil of his during bis residence in Maryland many years before. At the moment of recognition she sprang up, overwhelming him with her manifestations of delight, crying: " You Dr. Fussell ? You Dr. Fussell ? Don't you remember me? I'm Rache—Cunninghatu's Rachc, down at Bush River Neck." Then receding to view him better, "Lord bless de child! how he is grown !" Her tongue once loosened, she poured forth her whole history, expressing in every lineament her concentrated abhorrence of her libertine master, " Mort Cunningham." Over that story, it ia needful to pass lightly, simply saying, she endured all outraged nature could endure and survive. For the sake of humanity we may trust there were few such fiends even among southern masters as this monster in human shape. Cnnningham finally sold her to go further South, with a master whose name cannot now be recalled. This man was in ill health, and after a time he and his wife started northward, bringing Rache with them. On the voyage the master grew worse, and one night when he was about to die, a fearful storm arose, which Rache devoutly believed was sent from Heaven. In describing this scene, she impersonated her surroundings with wonderful vividness and marvellous power. At one moment she was the howling wind; at another the tumultuous sea—then the lurching ship—the bellowing cow frightened by the storm—the devil, who came to carry away her master's soul, and finally the •weak, dying man, as he passed to eternity. They proceeded on their voyage and landed at their place of destination. Uache sees the cow snuffing the land breeze and darting off through the crowd. The captain of the vessel points to the cow and motions her to follow its example. She needs nothing more. Again she is acting—she is now the cow; but human caution, shrewdness, purpose, arc lent to animal instinct. She looks around her with wary eye—scents the air—a flash, and she is hidden from the crowd which you sec around her—she is free! Making her way northward, she finally arrived at the house of Emmer Kimbcr, Kimberton, Chester county, Pa., and proving a remarkably capable woman, she remained a considerable time in his family, as a cook. She finally married, and settled in West Chester, where the pair prospered and were soon surrounded by the comforts of a neat home. After several years of peaceful life there, she was one day alarmed, not by the heirs of her dead master, but by the loathed " Mort Cunningham," \vho, without the shadow of legal right, had come to carry her back to Slavery. Fear lent her •wings. |