Free Slave Girl by Patricia C. McKissack

slapped me so hard I had to hold onto the table to keep from toppling over. Miz Lilly aine never hit me that hard. She rubbed out the letters with her
foot. At last, my head stopped swimming and the spots before my eyes cleared up. There wasn’t no anger in Aunt Tee’s eyes, only fear.
    “Do you know what happen to slaves the mas’er finds out got learnin’?” she whispered sternly.
    I knew they got beaten, or much worse they got sold to the Deep South. I couldn’t make her understand that I was trusting her. I knew she wouldn’t tell on me.
    “I don’t wanna be trusted,” Aunt Tee say, near tears. “Look at what trust got me. I b’lieved Mas’ Henley would do right by me, ’cause I’d done
right by him. Not so. Look at me now. Trusting got me here. Who teached you, chile?” I was scared to say – and real sorry I’d told her about any of it. I decided to hold back on
all the truth. “I teached myself just a few words.”
    Aunt Tee sucked in her breath and clicked her teeth. Her face was clouded over with worry. “Don’t bring trouble to yo’ own front door,” she say, biting her lip, the way
she did when she was real worried. “Don’t you tell another living soul that you got this little piece of knowing. You hear me?”
    Never have I been more sure of anything. I will not tell another person my secret ever.
    After study time – Monday, September 12, 1859
    Now Mr Harms is on to something! And I brought the trouble to my own front door.
    He and William was reading a play together. As usual I was standing behind them, fanning – up and down, up and down – and reading over their shoulders. William got stuck on the word
“circumstances”. I was so taken by the story, I plum forgot where I was. Suddenly, my mouth got ahead of my thoughts and I blurted out the first part of the word.
“Cir—” I caught myself, but not soon enough.
    Mr Harms jerked around and looked at me – his mouth dropped open a little, like he was surprised. “What did you say?”
    “Cir – yes, sir? Yes. Sir is what I said. Sir. Sir? May I go, please?” I was thinking fast – Lord let me get out of this.
    Mr Harms looked down at the book, then he looked back up at me and where I was standing. He told me I could go, but asked my name. He knows – he knows! Lord! Lord! What’s going to
happen to me?
    Wednesday, September 14, 1859
    I guess I was wrong about Mr Harms being on to me. He aine said a thing, and I’m still fanning during lessons. I let up writing for a few days, ’cause I’ve
been too scared to go near the hiding spot, what with Missy slipping around, and maybe Mr Harms is on to something.
    Thursday, September 15, 1859
    Spicy looks tired when she comes in from the fields. But she says the tobacco don’t slap you in the face, and call you all hours of the night, and send you to do this or
that. Spicy likes the fields better than working in the Big House.
    Missy likes the Big House. She’s struck by all the sparkle and pretty of the Mas’er’s house. She go around touching things and oohing and aahing over it all. She so busy
looking at stuff, she gets careless. I have to redo some of her work sometimes to keep us both out of trouble.
    When I show her where she’s made a mistake, Missy gets mad and starts yelling at me all hateful. “You just think you cute. Make me sick – all the time trying to talk all
proper-like. You’re just a skinny, little thing, so don’t come trying to say I’m stupid.” I never say she’s stupid, even though I think it. And I don’t try to
talk proper-like.
    Then before the evening is over good, she’s back trying to be friends with me again. She always asking me a lot of questions about Hince. I know how to get back at Missy, though. I say,
“Why don’t you ask Spicy.” It’s hard to b’lieve we was ever friends. Missy bears watching.
    Monday, September 19, 1859
    Apple harvest time is almost over. The tall men been knocking apples and then we