Sarny by Gary Paulsen Page A

for the soldiers had come ripe for us.
    We picked enough for a feast and set to eatingthem raw. Tyler Two mostly gummed but he got some down and Lucy nodded. “Maybe we make a fire and roast a few ears he’ll get more into his belly. Raw corn is hard to pull loose.”
    “I’d like some roasted ears myself.”
    So we found some wood and made a small fire at the side of the cornfield and when it burned down I pushed some ears we hadn’t shucked into the coals. “Won’t take but a mite.”
    And looked up to see a carriage coming down the lane from the plantation.
    Ain’t much on knowing carriages. Waller had one he thought was fancy and I ’spect it was pretty—shiny black with leather seats oiled, harness shining in the sun—but it wouldn’t hold a candle to this one.
    Closed in with soft red curtains over the windows and a small door on each side. Muddy here and there but still shiny with big wheels and a team of matched gray horses. Big black man driving the horses, sitting up on top with the reins coming back tight, like he was holding the horses from running. Wearing a black suit and a small round hat with a feather sticking up from it near a foot. He pulled the team up next to our fire and they fidgeted, stamping to go. Little spit from their lips where the bit went through.
    Lucy’s mouth dropped open and so did mine. Whole thing didn’t belong. Not anymore. It was from before, fancy carriage being driven by a black man.
    One of the curtains slid open and a woman’s face appeared. Prettiest white woman I ever saw. Oval face, black hair pulled back with a silk scarf over it, brown eyes as big as a plate and white teeth. I could see Lucy stiffen and knew she wasn’t going to take any sass off this woman and neither was I. Days for that were gone too.
    “Excuse me for interrupting your meal but I wondered if you girls might be looking for employment.”
    Soft voice. Like honey over warm milk. Almost dripped with soft. Didn’t know what employment meant but I didn’t want to sound dumb. Didn’t matter. Lucy jumped in.
    She looked up at the driver. “You don’t have to be working for her like this—slavery is done. Those blue soldiers are killing it. You can get down off that buggy anytime you want.”
    He smiled and shook his head. “I’m not a slave. Not now. I work for Miss Laura for money.”
    “I do not believe in slavery.” The woman she pushed the curtain open wider. “I am offering you both a job helping me travel. I canpay each of you twenty dollars a month for the time I need you, and if you are suitable, the employment may continue after I reach my destination.”
    She talked so fine. Words just floated out of her, lighter than air, all big and said just so. I couldn’t help smiling thinking on it. Was like music. And twenty dollars a month. More money than I ever knew there was, just for a month’s work. Real pay for work, pay in money. Used to dream about it. Working for money to earn enough to buy my freedom. Some did it on other plantations but Waller he would never have allowed it. But I shook my head. “I can’t. I’ve got to find my children in New Orleans.”
    She smiled again. “But my dear, that’s perfect. I’m going to New Orleans.”
    And that’s how we came to be with Miss Laura.
    There’s some to say later that Miss Laura wasn’t a moral person but most of those people have trouble with their own morals. Miss Laura she became a good friend to me, almost a mother like Delie, and without her I maybe wouldn’t have had a life at all so I don’t think too much on her morals. Just think on her as a friend.
    ’Course then I didn’t know what I knownow. She opened the door of the carriage and motioned to the boy. “He can ride inside with me with one of you. I’m worried that he may fall off. The other one can ride on top of the carriage with Bartlett. I’d let you both ride inside but there isn’t any room. I … liberated … some food from Haven