The Book of One Syllable | Page 6

stood thus when there was seen far off a dense cloud
like dust.

"They come! they come!" said the white men. "More blacks are on us!
To the ship! to the ship!"
Saib knew not what was said or done, and if he had heard, there would
have been no help for him. He was thrown in the boat with two or three
more blacks, and then from the boat he was flung on board the ship,
and the ship set sail.
Fast did she cut through the sea, and soon was far out of sight of land.
It was well for Saib that he could not feel. Four or five days ran their
course, and still was Saib in this state.
The first words he heard when he came to his senses were--"He is not
dead, I tell you."
"I tell you he is," a voice said: "it is of no use to keep him, so here he
goes--(Saib felt a hand)--and let the sea take the rest of him."
Poor Saib had but so much strength left that he could just raise his arm.
"There, there!" said the first voice, "I told you he was not dead, and
now you see."
"Well, let him be, then, but he shall pay us well for this; he shall bring
us a good price."
Saib could hear no more; but the first man, who was a kind one, went
to get some warm drink to put in Saib's mouth. He put more and still
more, till at length Saib could move and raise his head.
"Boa! Boa!" were the first words he spoke; and he put his hands to his
eyes, and did not speak for a long time. He then gave one loud, deep
sob, and his tears fell fast.
Those tears took a weight from his mind, a weight he felt he could not
have borne long. For some time did these tears fall, and as they fell the
view of things that had been was more clear to his mind.
Saib felt that all joy for him in this world was gone: he felt there was no

one for him to love now; and great was his grief when he thought of
those who would not know what had been the fate of poor Boa and of
him. He thought of these things, and his heart was sad. In this state of
mind he was for two or three days, and the ship was still on the wide
sea.
Saib knew well what would be his fate: he knew that he would be sold
for a slave; and he did all he could to try to bear this thought; nay, lorn
and sad as he was, he could find a source of thanks in the fact that the
pang he would have felt to have seen Boa a slave was not to be his.
Yes, this was a source of deep thanks; and as the ship cut through the
blue waves, Saib would sit for hours with his eyes on some far-off star,
and that star would shed a ray of light on his soul.
He would think it shone so bright, to tell him that it was Boa's world
now. He felt sure that all things there must be pure and bright, and that
Boa might there have more joy than she had had on earth.
"And I shall go there too," he thought, "and so I will not care much for
what I have to bear in this world." Poor Saib!
The ship had not been long at shore, when Saib, and the rest of the
blacks, were all put in a large slave cart that took them to the place
where they were to be sold.
There stood Saib, his eyes bent down: now and then he would raise
them up as a white man came near; but these did not want to buy him.
At last there came one, a man with a hard cross face: he stood close to
him, and Saib felt his stern eyes fix on him. This man spoke to the one
who had to sell the slaves, and poor Saib was sold! He was soon put on
board a ship that was to set sail to that part of the world where white
men may keep slaves; here, in our land, such things are not done.
Saib felt it a hard task to do such things as he was told to do, for he had
to work all day long, and had no will of his own. If he were not so
quick as Mr. Stone thought he ought to be, he would whip him; and so
much would he whip him, that Saib, though he did all he could to