310 HILLS AND 



leaped overboard, roaring for help, as if all the wild 

 animals, and poisonous serpents of his native jungles, 

 were after him. He could swim like a duck, and he 

 struck out for the shore, screaming with horror at 

 every pull. Upon reaching the shore, he broke like 

 a quarter horse for the house. My father, who was at 

 a short distance, hurried up to know the reason of the 

 outcry. " Massa," cried Shadrach, in all the earnest- 

 ness of terror, " de lake is full of rattlesnakes." " Gret 

 out, you wooly-pated rhinoceros," replied my father ; 

 " who ever heard of rattlesnakes in the water." 

 " Golla ! massa I" replied the African, " he dere now, 

 sure." My father went out in another canoe, to the 

 one in which Shadrach had been fishing, and upon 

 securing the pole which was floating about, found 

 that Shadrach had hooked an enormous eel, a fish by 

 no means common in the lake. But Shadrach regard- 

 ing it as belonging to the family of snakes, never 

 trusted himself alone after that on the water. 



" I've hearn a good deal lately, Squire," said 

 Tucker, after I had finished my story, " about slavery 

 and the slave States, and I've read some tracts and 

 newspapers, that have been sent around to almost 

 everybody in these parts, on the subject. It seems to 



