Read Online Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker - Free Book Online Page A

like a looped rope without an end. When they heard dogs barking or saw men on horse-back, they waded through the water-soaked land of the swamps. When the sun shone they fell exhausted in some dank shelter or beneath dry canebrakes and thorn-covered thickets. Their clothes were torn and dirty, their feet were scarred and blistered with insect bites and they were always hungry. One day they found only pecans and hickory nuts to eat.
    When it was safe and there was time, Adam and Julilly hunted for swamp rabbits and fished for catfish. Liza kindled small fires with flint and spunk that Massa Ross had given her. Lester charted their course.
    He studied the stars on clear nights and when it rained and there were clouds, he felt for moss that grew on the north side of the forest trees.
    â€œHow we gonna know when we’ve reached Tennessee?” Julilly asked one night as they talked of Massa Ross and how much they needed him.
    â€œI can read.” Lester spoke bluntly.
    â€œNo slave I ever heard of was allowed to read. You is just tellin’ a lie, Lester.” Liza gave him a dark look and lapsed into one of her sullen moods. “One time my daddy bought himself a spellin’ book with some money he saved from sellin’ apples. You know what happened when the Massa found him lookin’ at that book?”
    Julilly didn’t want to ask. She knew the answer.
    Liza went on. “Massa grabbed that book and threw it in an open fire. Then he said, ‘No nigger of mine is goin’ to get uppity and try to read.’ He tied my daddy’s hands to a tree and stripped him to the waist. Then he got his whip and gave him fifty lashes. I had to watch. His blood ran all over the ground. I loved my daddy.”
    â€œIt’s no lie. I can read.” Lester stood up and turned away from the three doubtful faces. “On the Hensen Plantation, one of the house slaves could read and Massa Hensen knew. He taught me to read and the Massa knew that too. He just made us promise never to tell anybody—not even Missy Hensen.”
    They sat for a moment on a dry log near the muddy banks of the Mississippi. They ate cold fish which had been cooked before sundown.
    â€œSoon we’ll cross into Tennessee,” Lester said. “I’ll see a sign beside the river when we get there, Massa Ross said. Then we wait until night—maybe two nights. Massa Ross will come with a cart on the nearest road. We listen for three calls of the whippoorwill and then we meet him.”
    â€œHe might not come.” Adam spoke gently. Usually he was silent. When he did speak, the others listened carefully.
    â€œWhy you say that, Adam?” Julilly asked.
    â€œAdam’s right.” Lester answered quickly.
    â€œHe might not come. If something happens to him, he promised to send another man.”
    â€œHow we gonna trust a man we’ve never seen before?” Liza was bent over, resting her head on her knees. She was too tired to look up.
    â€œThere’s a password,” Adam said again very softly. “We say to this man who gives the bird call, ‘Friends with a friend.’ He answers the same thing and then we trust him.”
    â€œFriends with a friend.” Julilly repeated the password to herself over and over again. A mean, hateful man would never make up such words, she decided.
    She would trust whoever said it.
    â€œI don’t trust no white man,” Liza muttered to herself.
    The stars were bright that night and there were only the night sounds of lapping water, croaking frogs, and the hollow, chilling hoot of an owl. They walked near the river.
    Julilly locked Liza’s arm through hers. She could bear her friend’s weight as well as her own. The long night walks were making her legs stronger. But Liza grew thinner and weaker. Lester, especially, was uneasy with her.
    â€œLester won’t slow down for nobody.”
    Julilly knew this in her heart. “Lester