At length Asa, in right of his
years, and moved by the rankling impulse of the recent quarrel, took
on himself the office of interrogator. Instead, however, of braving
the resentment of his father, of whose fierce nature, when aroused, he
had had too frequent evidence to excite it wantonly, he turned upon
the cowering person of Abiram, observing with a sneer--
"This then is the beast you were bringing into the prairies for a
decoy! I know you to be a man who seldom troubles truth, when any
thing worse may answer, but I never knew you to outdo yourself so
thoroughly before. The newspapers of Kentuck have called you a dealer
in black flesh a hundred times, but little did they reckon that you
drove the trade into white families."
"Who is a kidnapper?" demanded Abiram, with a blustering show of
resentment. "Am I to be called to account for every lie they put in
print throughout the States? Look to your own family, boy; look to
yourselves. The very stumps of Kentucky and Tennessee cry out ag'in
ye! Ay, my tonguey gentleman, I have seen father and mother and three
children, yourself for one, published on the logs and stubs of the
settlements, with dollars enough for reward to have made an honest man
rich, for--"
He was interrupted by a back-handed but violent blow on the mouth,
that caused him to totter, and which left the impression of its weight
in the starting blood and swelling lips.
Pages:
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203