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her brother his sweetheart a white overseer another white overseer HARRIET TUBMAN CHARACTERS HARRIET TUBMAN HENRY Ross, CATHERINE, SANDY SABENA THOMAS, EDWARD, FUGITIVE SLAVES Place: Eastern Shore, Maryland. Time: About the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. SCENE: A neck of marsh land on Eastern Shore, Maryland. When the curtain rises, the gray mask of twilight hangs over the swamp. Dark shadows play among the tall, straggly trees and touch threateningly the young Negro Girl and Fellow seated on a fallen log. Only the disconsolate sobbing of the girl breaks the awful stillness. The Fellow puts his arm about the Girl's shaking shoulders. She clings to him hysterically. HENRY. Come on, Cath'rine, thar ain't no use n' yo' breakin' yo'self up lak that. Ain't Ah tole you Ah'm comin' back to git you? CATHERINE. (In a tear-choked voice) You can't git back. HENRY. Ain't Harriet comin' back wid ev'ry slave town 'twixt heah an' Canada offring forty thousand dollars foh huh? CATHERINE. But the Lord leads Harriet. She says she talks wid God. HENRY. An' why can't the Lord lead me? Ah'm Harriet's brother, an' besides Ah love you. Ah won't neber close mah eyes in peace, Ah won't neReprinted by permission of the author. HARRIET TUBMAN / 177 ber dream no sweet dreams, even in Canada, 'til Ah gits you 'way from heah. Freedom won't be nothin' without you. CATHERINE. Ah knows, but Ah'm scared. Mas'r Charles am so mean! HENRY. Well, it ain't too late. You can still make up yo' mind to go wid us. Harriet'll take you. CATHERINE. Ah gis Harriet wouldn't mind. She's jes lak a angel. Ah don' know no other slave what's got free an' come back all the way from Canada nine or ten times to git others free-an' wid 'em watchin' foh huh, too. HENRY. Harriet say when she first crossed the line an' knowed she was free, she made up huh mind that, God helpin' huh, she'd come back to Maryland an' make huh folks free, too. CATHERINE. She really ought'n be a-comin' at this time though-wid Mas'r Charles so mad at huh. He jes' put up a new reward for huh yistiddy. HENRY. She had to come now, if she was a-comin' a-tall. She send word through that this was the bes' time foh huh an' the friends what helps huh 'lon' the way. 'Sides that, if we starts foh freedom tonight, being'st it's Saturday, no advertisements kin be sent on Sunday. That'll put us one day 'head 0' 'em. That's the way Harriet figures. CATHERINE. Ah jes' pray no trouble come up. HENRY. Ain't no trouble Harriet can't beat. You needn't be scared to come wid us. CATHERINE. No, you'd neber git 'way wid me in the band. The other Mas'rs on the Eastern Sho' is kinda lazy, but Mas'r Charles's still mad 'bout Joe runnin' 'way wid Harriet the las' time she came down. Thar ain't no way in the worl' he'd let another slave 0' his'n git to Canada no time soon. If Ah went now, he'd git out the bloodhounds, cover the roads, an' drag the Ches'peake, too; then he'd catch all 0' you. HENRY. But he didn' catch Joe. CATHERINE. But look at them advertisements he's put up all ovah the county-fifteen hundred dollars, they say, he's offred, an all 'spenses clar an' clean foh his body in Eastern Jail. HENRY. An' Joe safe in Canada, laffin' at him. An' we'lliaff, too, when we git thar. CATHERINE. No, Henry, Ah ain't goin' this time, 'cause Ah knows you'll be safer widout me. Ah didn' mean to cry that-a-way. Mah head sees clar; it's jes' mah heart that hates to hab you lebe me behin'. HENRY. An' what 'bout Sandy? CATHERINE. Don' you worry none 'bout him. Ah kin manage him. HENRY. But 'spose Mistah Charles beat you, an' make you marry him? CATHERINE. They kin marry me to him, but ain't no way in the worl' they kin make me hah him. Ah'm gonna watch an' wait ev'ry day, 'til the time Harriet send you back foh me. HENRY. An' Ah'll come. You know Ah...

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