Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier

Author:James Lincoln Collier [Collier, James Lincoln]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: Library ISBN| 978-0-7927-9096-9
Publisher: AudioGO
Published: 2011-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

8

It seemed like I was carrying my own bad luck in my pocket. No matter where I went it was there, too, coming along right beside me so as to give me a punch anytime it looked like things were going my way. Here I’d finally made it to New York; but Mr. Johnson was in Philadelphia, and the soldiers’ notes was on the Junius Brutus.

Mr. Fraunces went off to do some business, and Nosy was set to work opening oysters. I sat there ramming in the food and thinking about my troubles. There just wasn’t any way I could sneak on board the brig without getting caught, and once Captain Ivers got hold of me he’d lash the tar out of me, and then sell me off to the West Indies as quick as he could. There wasn’t any doubt about that. Nor was there any way for me to get to Philadelphia. If I’d have been white, I could have worked my passage down there in a coastal ship, or even walked down if worse came to worse. But a black boy on his own was bound to raise suspicions that he was a runaway. They generally put out a good reward for runaways. They’d get handbills printed up with a description of me on it, and maybe even a picture, saying fifty dollars reward. Somebody was bound to turn me in. I kept wishing I could think up some smart plan for getting my notes off the Junius Brutus, but nothing came to me. I wondered if Birdsey would have been able to think of something smart.

When I’d rammed as much food in me as I could, I felt a little better. I hadn’t had a really good meal since before the storm, and just filling up my belly with fresh bread and hot stew encouraged me a little. I still had my troubles; but at least I felt warm and peaceful for a change. I was mighty sleepy, though, and I just sat there and by and by I dozed off in my chair, and the next thing I knew, Nosy was shaking me. “Hey, Arabus, wake up,” she said. “You’re supposed to come with me.”

I jumped up, shaking my head to get the sleep out of it. “What?”

“You’re supposed to come with me.”

“Where?”

“Just come along,” she said.

I followed her out of the kitchen to a little hall where the back stairs started up. Through a door I could see into the tap room. It was a big room, almost the whole length of the building. There was tables set about, with people eating and drinking, some of them dressed up mighty fine, too, and waiters in red jackets rushing about serving them. The walls had carved paneling, and there was glass chandeliers filled with candles hanging down from the ceiling. Oh, it was the most fancy place I’d ever seen. I wished I could go out there, but the only way I’d ever get into a place like that was if I got to be a waiter and went out there to serve the white folks.

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