Hidden in the Trees (Bellingwood Stotries #1) (4 page)

Covering his mouth so no one could hear him cough, Andrew hovered over the hole in the floor where the ladder went down into the main room. Sylvie had finally sent him to bed, but he knew they were going to talk about interesting things downstairs and wanted to hear it all.

Daniel and Nelly had taken their little boy out to the root cellar in order to get some much needed sleep. Andrew watched Nelly yawn throughout the evening. Daniel told Ellis that they had been traveling for several days, but never slept because they were afraid of being caught. Andrew couldn't imagine staying awake for days. He tried to stay awake one night to watch the shooting stars, but his mother found him asleep in the yard curled around their dog and sent him to bed.

Sylvie gave them an oil lamp and some matches, reminding Nelly to set it on a shelf rather than the floor with all of the dry hay in there. Ellis had closed the door to the cellar only partway, with assurances that if anyone came looking for them, he would close it up tightly until it was safe again.

It was surprising that the little boy was so quiet. Most four year olds were busy and noisy. He hoped little Jonah was healthy. Maybe he was just tired. Nelly kept touching him and even when he was playing with the men while she had washed dishes, she continually turned to make sure that he was still there. He had played and laughed, but he wasn't a bad little boy at all. Andrew remembered getting into a great deal of trouble when he was little. One day his mother had put him outside of the front door and shut it because she was so angry with him. She had swatted his behind, but he hadn't cared. When she shut the door on him and her eyes had been full of tears, he remembered feeling awful and begged her to forgive him.

Later that evening, she had told him how disappointed she was in his behavior and she cried again. He knew he would never again make her that angry if he could help it.

Jason, Ellis and Sylvie sat around the table after everyone else had left. Andrew stayed quiet above the ladder so he could listen to them.

"I know some people down by Des Moines who are involved in the Underground Railroad," Ellis said to Sylvie. "If Daniel continues to travel on his own, he is going to be caught. Those slave catchers are everywhere and a Negro isn't safe in this state without papers showing that he is free."

"He and his family can stay here as long as they need to," Sylvie declared. "I will not allow them to be taken back to that life. It is no way for a child to be raised."

"It is no way for a man to live," Ellis agreed.

Andrew had an itch on his nose and when he reached up to scratch it, dislodged a bit of dust. It fluttered to the floor of the room below and he knew that his mother had seen it. He held his breath, waiting for her to order him to bed.

"Andrew, come on down here," she called. "You aren't going to get any sleep while we are still up discussing this, are you?"

He scrambled down the ladder and sat beside his mother at the table. She put her arm around him and tucked him in close as he tried to stifle a yawn. There was a glass of milk sitting in front of her and she pushed it toward him.

"Go ahead, have a drink. It will help you sleep when you go back to bed."

"We were discussing how we might help Daniel and Nelly get to Canada," Jason said.

"Is it really a railroad?" he asked. "Is it really under the ground?"

"No, runt. It's just called that," Jason laughed.

Andrew pouted a bit and asked, "Then why do they call it that?"

"Because," Sylvie responded, "there are people who take them from place to place until they are safe. They are like conductors on a train, making sure the passengers get from one place to the next. Some of the places they hide are underground like our root cellar, but sometimes they stay in barns or hidden rooms in houses."

"I'd like to have a hidden room."

"We would need a bigger house. That's one reason I wasn’t worried when those slave catchers arrived. They took one look at our house and realized we wouldn't have room to hide anyone. I didn't think it was necessary to point out to them that we have plenty of places to hide people, and I'm sure there are other people in Bellingwood who would be willing to do the same thing."

"How are we going to get them to these friends of Ellis', Mother?" Jason asked.

"We need to think of some ideas. Ellis could you get a message to your friends that they should be expecting our guests?"

"I will do that in the morning. I believe that old Doug Leon is leaving tomorrow to visit his son. They are expecting a new baby any day now. He will carry the message for me."

"Do you think he's trustworthy?"

"It will be safe enough. I will tell them they should expect three packages from me in a few days and ask them to transfer them on to the next stop so they can reach the boat in Clinton."

Andrew listened and then asked, "Have you ever done this before Ellis?"

The man who had been helping them out on the farm slowly nodded his head. "I was involved with the Underground Railroad in Grinnell for several years when I was younger."

"How long has this been going on?" Andrew gasped.

"There have been slaves trying to escape cruel masters since before Iowa was a state," Ellis said. "Probably about twenty-five years now. Something is going to have to change in this world. We can't keep allowing this awful thing to happen in our country if we're ever going to be proud of who we are as a nation. I pray someday we will have a leader who stands up to this and demands that it be stopped."

Sylvie nodded, "But those in the southern states won't know how to run their businesses without them. Their entire economy is based on slave labor. They say that if they had to pay people to do the work of the slaves, we couldn't afford to buy their goods."

"I don't agree with that. We will come up with a way. If we can push our way west and build towns and cities and keep a strong government, we can learn to live without enslaving people."

"After you send your message, we will need to find someone who can safely take these people to your friends," Sylvie said.

Jason pursed his lips and looked at her. "What about the Sheriff? Would he help us?"

Ellis chuckled. Andrew didn't think he'd ever seen the man do that. Sylvie looked at her son in astonishment and then at Ellis, smiling along with his laughter.

"I would have to give that some thought. Maybe we'll ask Miss Giller tomorrow evening when she comes to dinner. She and his wife are very good friends and I know that he thinks the world of her. They were instrumental in helping her settle here and getting the teaching position at the school. She'll know whether or not he would help us out."

“Jason and I could take them,” Ellis said.

Sylvie slowly nodded her head, “Let’s talk about this tomorrow. That’s a hard trip.”

“You’re right, we won’t do anything tonight. Maybe it will sort itself out,” he agreed.

She looked up at the clock sitting on a shelf and said, "It's late. We all need to get some sleep. Now, other than Ellis meeting with Doug Leon tomorrow, everything has to be absolutely normal. Andrew, you can't say a word about this to anyone, not even Miss Giller. It would be awful if someone overheard you talking about it. Jason, you must work in the field just like you normally do. We will try to make Daniel and Nelly as comfortable as possible. They can stay in the barn during the day so that if someone shows up, they can get away before they are caught.”

Sylvie looked pointedly at Andrew. "Andrew, I know this is a great deal of excitement, but you cannot tell anyone about it. Their lives are at stake. Do you understand me?"

"I understand," he said, yawning. "I won't tell anyone. I might faint dead away if I’m tortured, but I won't tell anyone."

She tousled his head and laughed at him, "Go on. Get yourself up to bed. We won't talk any more tonight. I promise."

Jason jumped up and said, "I'll race you to the ladder."

Andrew scowled. "You're on that side of the table and it is right over there. You're hardly fair."

Sylvie blew out all but one of the candles and walked over to the ladder to give them light to climb by. Her room was downstairs behind a curtain. Andrew knew that all she had was another mattress and a curtain that she pulled around a small space. He lay in bed and thought for a few minutes about the family sleeping outside, and before he knew it, Jason was moving out of the bed and pulling his clothes on.

"Is it morning already?" Andrew asked. He didn't think he'd been sleeping nearly long enough.

"Almost, runt. But you have a little more time to sleep. I want to go down and make sure Mother doesn't need help getting Daniel and his family settled in the barn for the day. Go back to sleep. She'll call you when it is time to get up."

Andrew rolled back over, his back to the hole in the floor and fell asleep.

When his mother called him to get up for the day, for the first time in a long time, he shot out of bed immediately. Jumping into his clothes, he hurried down the steps.

"What a surprise!" Sylvie exclaimed. "I didn't expect to see you until I had called for you at least three more times."

"It's a busy day!"

"You're right. I have some breakfast ready for you and then you can start your chores. When you are finished with that, I have four pies and six loaves of bread for you to take to Mr. Ivins."

Andrew quickly ate his breakfast and ran out to the barn. The cows seemed glad to see him and he tried to stay calm and milk each of them, but he wanted nothing more than to hurry through his task and get started with his day. He gathered eggs and fed the chickens and took the pails back to the house. He hadn't yet seen Daniel and Nelly and wondered where they might be, so he was surprised when he saw them at the table eating breakfast.

"There you are," Sylvie said, taking the pails of milk from him. She nodded for him to set the eggs down. "Since you've worked so quickly this morning, would you please go out to the well and draw some more water? We are going to give little Jonah a bath today. Nelly says it has been a very long time since they've been able to do that."

Andrew wanted to protest, but knew it would do him no good and he wanted to impress their guests with his obedience, so he took the water buckets outside the front door and closed it behind him.

He knew that it took exactly five buckets of water to fill the wash tub. This was going to take some work. He and Jason usually did it together on Saturdays when it was time for them to take baths. He sighed and walked to the well.

Andrew was glad to get to school that morning. He knew he couldn't talk about the visitors at his house, but he was ready for anything that might distract him. Miss Giller had asked each of her students to choose a country they wanted to study at the beginning of the school year and then throughout the year they gave presentations on different aspects of that country. There had been history, geography and economic lessons, and now that they were coming to the end of the year, she allowed them extra time to work on their final presentations.

Spain was the country Andrew had chosen and this morning he was working at shading in the large map he had drawn of all the regions in the country. He had spent hours researching its topography and wanted to get the shading just right. It would be the centerpiece of his speech.

The morning passed quickly and after lunch Miss Giller asked him to spend time helping younger students with their math problems. Soon the day was over and he went outside to find Homer waiting for him.

"Just a minute, boy. Miss Giller is going to walk home with us."

Homer sat down, wagging his tail in the dirt. Soon Andrew’s teacher joined him and they began walking toward the edge of town.

"How is your brother doing today?" she asked.

"Those new horses make him happy," Andrew replied. "He treats them like they’re his pets."

"Those are some pretty big horses. How were you able to get them?"

"Ellis heard about a farmer who was selling out and going back East. He said the man's wife threatened to leave him here all alone if he didn't go with her."

"That was very fortunate. Ellis is a good man to have around."

"He sure is! He knows everybody! He even knows people who ..." his voice trailed off.

"People who what?" she asked.

"Oh nothing. I'm not supposed to say anything."

"Then it is probably better that you don't. Your mother wouldn't ask you to keep quiet about something if it wasn't very important."

"It makes it difficult for a little boy like me to remember what I can talk about and what I can't, though."

She laughed and patted his back, "You're getting bigger every day. You've grown quite a bit since I first met you last fall."

He stood up a little straighter and waited while she stepped off the curb onto the road in front of their home. When they got to his front door, he opened it and looked inside.

"Mother? Miss Giller and I are home!"

There was no one inside the house and he stepped back out. Soon Sylvie came around from the side of the house. She hugged his teacher and patted Andrew's head.

"Come on in, Polly," she said. "I was just looking at my supplies in the root cellar to see what I might make tonight. Since we have so many guests on hand, I've butchered chickens and decided to make it a party."

"Guests?" Polly asked.

"There are some very interesting people I'd like you to meet. They'll be in after a while. I think their story will fascinate you as much as it has our family."

"Tell me how I can help you get ready for dinner then," Polly responded.

Sylvie handed her an apron and then said to Andrew, "Go ahead and get your chores done. We have another full evening ahead of us."

He ran up the ladder to his room to change his shirt and pants and tried not to think about how tired he was when he saw the bed, but went back down and headed out to the barn.

Just as he approached the barn door, he turned around to see the same two men knock on the front door of their home again. His mother answered and stood there talking to them. Andrew wondered if they were the slave catchers looking for Daniel and Nelly and Jonah. He went into the barn and climbed up to the haymow. There he found the three runaway slaves.

Jonah was playing with a couple of Andrew's old wooden toy wagons, rolling them back and forth on the floor, making sounds and giggling.

"I think the bad men are back at our house," he said to Daniel. "Mother will send them away, but maybe you should be very quiet up here."

Daniel picked his son up and ran the wagon wheels over his own arm, attempting to distract the little boy. Andrew watched as Nelly's face constricted with fear.

"I'll let you know when they're gone," he whispered and climbed back down to the main level. He headed for the two cows and picked up the pails his mother had brought back out. As he was milking the first cow, he heard voices outside. He picked up the pail and stepped back from the cow, then walked to the doorway of the barn.

The two men were standing in front of the door and had no idea he was on the other side.

"Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to check the barn. The woman said she would bring the Sheriff if we didn't get off her land. Surely she has to leave sometime," one said.

"I don't want to be in this town any longer than necessary. Maybe they've already moved on."

"The bounty on these slaves is very good. Mr. Ellingson was insistent that we bring them back to him. And you know, once one of them gets away with this, it puts notions in the others. He doesn't want to lose all of his coloreds."

Andrew clanged the pail on the front door and pushed it open, then acted as if he were surprised to see the men standing there and said, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Hi there, little boy," the taller of the men said. "Have you seen any coloreds around here?"

"Coloreds?" Andrew asked. "Not here. Why do you think they would be here?"

"They ran away from the man who owns them. Now you wouldn't be lying to us, would you little boy?"

Andrew shook his head. "I don't lie, sir. My mother would have my hide."

"Then you wouldn't mind if we checked your barn. It would be a shame if they were hiding in there and hurt you or your family."

"I don't think you should go in there. Our cows are awful skittish and they are especially mean when I haven't had time to milk them."

"You go on and milk your cows. We're just going to check around."

Andrew planted himself in front of the barn door. "You wouldn't want to spoil their milk would you? My father left us and we don't have much. If you upset them, it would make my mother cry."

"Why aren't you letting us into the barn little boy?" the shorter and uglier man asked.

"Because our mother has asked you to leave our property." Andrew nearly dropped with relief when he heard his older brother's voice.

"I've sent our hired man to get the Sheriff," Jason continued. "He'll be here soon and he doesn't appreciate having to deal with trespassers."

"The Sheriff is bound by law to assist us in recapturing runaway property. He won't send us away."

"Since you don't have any runaway property on you and you are trespassing on our land, I don't think you are going to win this argument. Now leave my little brother alone so he can finish his chores."

"You don't know what kind of trouble you are getting yourself into young man. You are just two little boys who are going to make fools of yourselves."

Jason came over to stand beside his younger brother in the door of the barn. Andrew's hand crept up and he looped his forefinger in Jason's back belt loop. He'd never known that his older brother had this much courage and couldn't believe he was standing up to these men. Maybe his brother really was becoming a man.

The boys watched as their mother and Polly both came out of the house. Sylvie was carrying the cast iron skillet she used to fry chicken and Polly gripped a rolling pin.

As they approached the barn, Ellis came riding up on one of the black Percherons and Sheriff Merritt was riding beside him on his own horse, a dappled Appaloosa. They rode to the barn and dismounted, the Sheriff coming to stand beside the two boys.

"How can I help you gentlemen?" he asked.

"We are looking for some runaway coloreds," the taller one said. "We want to check this barn to see if they are hiding in there and these boys will not get out of our way."

"Have they given you permission to search?"

"No sir, but the law gives us the right to recapture any slaves we find."

"It doesn't give you the right to trespass, especially when you have been asked to leave. I assume they have asked you to leave?"

He looked down at Jason and Andrew, who both nodded in the affirmative.

"Then since you have refused to leave and continue to press this issue, maybe it would be a good idea for you to spend a night in my house. It seems that you continue to pose a threat to this fine family and they are not going to spend tonight in fear that you will return and disturb their livestock or their home."

"Ellis?" He turned to the other man who was standing beside the horses, holding their reins. "I believe we will take these men back to the jail with us and get them settled in. They can resume their search tomorrow and I suspect they will find nothing in Bellingwood of any significance."

"Yes sir," Ellis responded.

"May I borrow your horses to get them into town?"

"I will ride with you," Ellis said.

The two men were flabbergasted and began to protest, but Sheriff Merritt ignored them and helped them up onto the big black horse. Jason quickly brought the other in from the pasture and Ellis mounted it and took the reins of the first horse, guiding it as they followed Aaron out onto the road.

Andrew turned to his brother. "You were wonderful!" He looked at Sylvie and said, "You should have heard him stand up to those two men."

Sylvie bent down and hugged both of her sons. "You both did well this evening. I'm proud of you. Thank you."

Jason looked at Miss Giller and asked, "What were you planning to do with that rolling pin?"

She chuckled. "I don’t know, but I wasn't coming out here without something in my hand and your mother had the heavy weapon."

"Andrew, you should finish your chores," Sylvie said, "Jason, when Ellis returns, help him with the horses. Dinner will be ready for you when you are finished. Bring Daniel, Nelly and Jonah to the house after dark. At least we don't have to worry about those two slave catchers watching us tonight."

"Mother, the Sheriff gave us tonight. We have to get them out of town before tomorrow," Jason said.

"Don't worry, son. We have a plan and we'll tell you all about it at dinner."

The boys went into the barn. Andrew climbed back up the ladder and asked, "Did you hear everything that happened out there?"

Daniel nodded and Nelly wiped tears from her eyes.

"Why are you crying? The bad men are in jail."

"No one has ever been this nice to us," she responded. "How can we repay you?"

"That's not necessary," Andrew said. "This is an adventure! Mother says we should come get you when it is time for dinner. She's making fried chicken! She only does that on special Sundays."

He went back down and finished milking the cows, then helped Jason sweep out all the stalls and lay fresh bedding down for the animals. Ellis came back with the horses as Andrew was leaving.

"You did fine today, Andrew," the older man said.

"Thank you, sir," Andrew said and walked away, carrying the milk pails to the house.