Now my fate is all narrowing down to a point. To come so near, to be almost in sight, and then lose all. I should never live under it, Eliza."
"Don't fear," said his wife, hopefully. "The good Lord would not have brought us so far, if he didn't mean to carry us through.
I seem to feel him with us, George."
"You are a blessed woman, Eliza!" said George, clasping her with a convulsive grasp. "But,--oh, tell me! can this great mercy be for us? Will these years and years of misery come to an end?--shall we be free?
"I am sure of it, George," said Eliza, looking upward, while tears of hope and enthusiasm shone on her long, dark lashes.
"I feel it in me, that God is going to bring us out of bondage, this very day."
"I will believe you, Eliza," said George, rising suddenly up, "I will believe,--come let's be off. Well, indeed," said he, holding her off at arm's length, and looking admiringly at her, "you _are_ a pretty little fellow. That crop of little, short curls, is quite becoming. Put on your cap. So--a little to one side. I never saw you look quite so pretty. But, it's almost time for the carriage;--I wonder if Mrs. Smyth has got Harry rigged?"
The door opened, and a respectable, middle-aged woman entered, leading little Harry, dressed in girl's clothes.
"What a pretty girl he makes," said Eliza, turning him round.
"We call him Harriet, you see;--don't the name come nicely?"
The child stood gravely regarding his mother in her new and strange attire, observing a profound silence, and occasionally drawing deep sighs, and peeping at her from under his dark curls.
"Does Harry know mamma?" said Eliza, stretching her hands toward him.
The child clung shyly to the woman.
"Come Eliza, why do you try to coax him, when you know that he has got to be kept away from you?"
"I know it's foolish," said Eliza; "yet, I can't bear to have him turn away from me. But come,--where's my cloak? Here,--how is it men put on cloaks, George?"
"You must wear it so," said her husband, throwing it over his shoulders.
"So, then," said Eliza, imitating the motion,--"and I must stamp, and take long steps, and try to look saucy."
"Don't exert yourself," said George. "There is, now and then, a modest young man; and I think it would be easier for you to act that character."
"And these gloves! mercy upon us!" said Eliza; "why, my hands are lost in them."
"I advise you to keep them on pretty strictly," said George.
"Your slender paw might bring us all out. Now, Mrs. Smyth, you are to go under our charge, and be our aunty,--you mind."
"I've heard," said Mrs. Smyth, "that there have been men down, warning all the packet captains against a man and woman, with a little boy."
"They have!" said George. "Well, if we see any such people, we can tell them."
A hack now drove to the door, and the friendly family who had received the fugitives crowded around them with farewell greetings.
The disguises the party had assumed were in accordance with the hints of Tom Loker. Mrs. Smyth, a respectable woman from the settlement in Canada, whither they were fleeing, being fortunately about crossing the lake to return thither, had consented to appear as the aunt of little Harry; and, in order to attach him to her, he had been allowed to remain, the two last days, under her sole charge; and an extra amount of petting, jointed to an indefinite amount of seed-cakes and candy, had cemented a very close attachment on the part of the young gentleman.
The hack drove to the wharf. The two young men, as they appeared, walked up the plank into the boat, Eliza gallantly giving her arm to Mrs. Smyth, and George attending to their baggage.
George was standing at the captain's office, settling for his party, when he overheard two men talking by his side.
"I've watched every one that came on board," said one, "and I know they're not on this boat."