He had tied my ankles to the lower rung of the chair himself, and
when I says to the nigger, "Those cords have plum stopped my
circulation, just ease 'em up a little," he went straight up.

"Don't you touch them knots, Sam!" he roared. "I know how to secure
a man, and don't you try any of your games in my house, either, you
young fiend. I'd never forgive myself if you escaped."

I ate everything I could reach, which wasn't much, and when I asked
for the butter he glared at me and said: "Butter's too good for
horse-thieves; eat what's before you."

Every time I'd catch the eye of one of the girls and kind of grin and
look enticing, she'd shiver and tell Jim that the marks of my
depravity stood out on my face like warts on a toad.

Jim and the boys would all grin like idiots and invent a new crime
for me. On the square, if I'd worked nights from the age of three I
couldn't have done half they blamed me for.

They put it to the old man so strong that when he turned in he
chained me to Sam, the cross-eyed nigger that stood behind me at
supper, and made us sleep on the floor.

I told Sam that I cut a man's throat once because he snored, and that
nigger never closed an eye all night. I was tryin' to get even with
somebody.

After breakfast, when it came time to leave, Donnelly untied my feet
and led me out into the yard, where the girls were hangin' around the