It will be long after sun-up, then, and when you ask for help, you tell them your folks are all down with chills and fever. Don't be a fool again, and let people guess what is the matter. Now we're trying to do you a kindness; so you just put twenty miles between us, that's a good boy. It wouldn't do any good to land yonder where the light is- it's only a wood-yard. Say- I reckon your father's poor, and I'm bound to say he's in pretty hard luck. Here- I'll put a twenty dollar gold piece on this board, and you get it when it floats by. I feel mighty mean to leave you, but my kingdom! it won't do to fool with smallpox, don't you see?"
? ? ? ? "Hold on, Parker," says the other man, "here's a twenty to put on the board for me. Good-bye, boy, you do as Mr. Parker told you, and you'll be all right."
? ? ? ? "That's so, my boy- good-bye, good-bye. If you see any runaway niggers, you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it."
? ? ? ? "Good-bye, sir," says I, "I won't let no runaway niggers get by me if I can help it."
? ? ? ? They went off, and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me to try to learn to do right; a body that don't get started right when he's little, ain't got no show- when the pinch comes there ain't nothing to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat.
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