thus arranged, the magistrate mounted his horse, and went on his way home.

It had been cloudy and rainy during the afternoon, but the western sky
having partially cleared at this moment, I perceived that it was near the
setting of the sun.

My captor had left his hired man most of the day to dig potatoes alone;
but the waggon being now loaded, it being time to convey the potatoes into
the barn, and the horses being all ready for that purpose, he was obliged
to go into the potatoe field and give assistance.

I should say here, that his wife had been driven away by the small-pox
panic about three o'clock, and had not yet returned; this left no one in
the house, but a boy, about nine years of age.

As he went out, he spoke to the boy in Dutch, which I supposed, from the
little fellow's conduct, to be instructions to watch me closely, which he
certainly did.

The potatoe lot was across the public road, directly in front of the
house; at the back of the house, and about 300 yards distant, there was a
thick wood. The circumstances of the case would not allow me to think for
one moment of remaining there for the night--the time had come for another
effort--but there were two serious difficulties. One was, that I must
either deceive or dispatch this boy who is watching me with intense
vigilance. I am glad to say, that the latter did not for a moment
seriously enter my mind. To deceive him effectually, I left my coat and
went to the back door, from which my course would be direct to the wood.
When I got to the door, I found that the barn, to which the waggon, must
soon come, lay just to the right, and overlooking the path I must take to