Free Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker

Would the slave holders catch him too and put him in jail with Massa Ross?
    â€œDon’t talk at all,” Lester cautioned all of them.
    The wagon jogged along the road. The straw was soft and sweet smelling, but Julilly’s stomach ached with hunger. There had been no time that night to hunt for food. Even if the little man had bread for them, they couldn’t stop now to eat it.
    The rocking wagon and the soft hay tempted Julilly to sleep, but hunger kept her awake, even though her tired legs and arms felt like they were sleeping separate from the rest of her.
    The clopping sound of men on horseback and a sudden jolt of the wagon unsettled the four fugitives. Lester whispered, “Don’t move even if the canvas is pulled back. If they find us, jump over the side of the wagon and run for the woods. They won’t shoot with their guns, they want us alive!”
    Julilly and Liza locked their arms together.
    A loud, harsh voice called out.
    â€œYou Quaker Abolitionist, pull your wagon over by the side of the road. We’re huntin’ this road for runaway slaves from the Riley plantation. We figure this is the way they’d be comin’ toward the North.”
    The voice didn’t belong to Sims. Julilly said a grateful prayer for this. But it was someone sent by Sims and he was looking for the four of them.
    â€œThe devil with you Quakers and your wide-brimmed hats. Nigger lovers, that’s what you are, the whole parcel of you.” The gruff voice came closer.
    There was the scuffling sound of two horses. Julilly knew it was the two men they had seen moments before.
    â€œWhat do you want of me?” the small driver of the wagon asked clearly in a strong voice.
    â€œWe want to know if you’ve seen four slaves— two men and two girls—along this road tonight?”
    â€œNo.” The Quaker didn’t hesitate. “I haven’t seen two men and two girls anyplace along this road.”
    It’s a lie he’s tellin’, Julilly thought, and then checked herself. He wasn’t lying, he had seen two men and two boys running out of the woods. That’s what he thought he had in his wagon. Mr. Ross was a smart man to have them dress in boys’ clothes.
    â€œI don’t trust one word you stealin’ Abolitionists say.” The man on the horse began talking louder. “Did you know that the new Fugitive Slave Act , just passed by Congress, lets the slave owners retake human property in any state—north or south.”
    â€œI am well aware of this cruel and unjust act,” the wagon driver replied quietly.
    â€œUnjust, you say.” Now the slave catcher was shouting. “People like you can be put in jail and fined $1,000 for just givin’ a fugitive a meal.”
    Julilly shuddered. How could they ever escape? They could even be hunted now in the free states of the North.
    â€œWe better see what this farmer has in his wagon.” The other horseman finally spoke. “Get down and turn back the canvas on that wagon!”
    Julilly heard their driver jump from his seat to the ground.
    â€œYou can see that it’s hay I carry to my cousin in the next town.” The Quaker continued to speak softly as he slowly pulled back the canvas from a corner of the wagon.
    Julilly gripped Liza’s arm. She didn’t move, but she did open her eyes. Praise the Lord, it was still dark!
    â€œIt is hay.” The second horseman spoke quickly. “We’d better be ridin’ back to the river before daylight breaks. Those niggers hide themselves in the daylight.”
    They rode away without another word.
    The little driver pulled the canvas back over the wagon. He leaned over it.
    â€œWhen daylight breaks,” he said to the four slaves who lay tense and shaken under the hay, “we’ll stop in a deserted barn along the way and have our breakfast.”

CHAPTER TWELVE
    DAYLIGHT PEELED AWAY the shelter of