se de woods is full ob dem."

"Now, Tom, I thought you had cut your eye-teeth long enough not to let
them Anderson boys fool you. Tom, you must not think because a white man
says a thing, it must be so, and that a colored man's word is no account
'longside of his. Tom, if ever we get our freedom, we've got to learn to
trust each other and stick together if we would be a people. Somebody
else can read the papers as well as Marse Tom and Frank. My ole Miss
knows I can read the papers, an' she never tries to scare me with big
whoppers 'bout the Yankees. She knows she can't catch ole birds with
chaff, so she is just as sweet as a peach to her Bobby. But as soon as I
get a chance I will play her a trick the devil never did."

"What's that?"

"I'll leave her. I ain't forgot how she sold my mother from me. Many a
night I have cried myself to sleep, thinking about her, and when I get
free I mean to hunt her up."

"Well, I ain't tole you all. De gemman said he war 'cruiting for de
army; dat Massa Linkum hab set us all free, an' dat he wanted some more
sogers to put down dem Secesh; dat we should all hab our freedom, our
wages, an' some kind ob money. I couldn't call it like he did."

"Bounty money," said Robert.

"Yes, dat's jis' what he called it, bounty money. An' I said dat I war
in for dat, teeth and toe-nails."

Robert Johnson's heart gave a great bound. Was that so? Had that army,
with freedom emblazoned on its banners, come at last to offer them
deliverance if they would accept it? Was it a bright, beautiful dream,
or a blessed reality soon to be grasped by his willing hands? His heart
grew buoyant with hope; the lightness of his heart gave elasticity to
his step and sent the blood rejoicingly through his veins. Freedom was
almost in his grasp, and the future was growing rose-tinted and
rainbow-hued. All the ties which bound him to his home were as ropes of
sand, now that freedom had come so near.

When the army was afar off, he had appeared to be light-hearted and
content with his lot. If asked if he desired his freedom, he would have
answered, very naively, that he was eating his white bread and believed
in letting well enough alone; he had no intention of jumping from the
frying-pan into the fire. But in the depths of his soul the love of
freedom was an all-absorbing passion; only danger had taught him
caution. He had heard of terrible vengeance being heaped upon the heads
of some who had sought their freedom