The Yankee Champion — page 139: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

132 THE YANKEE CHAMPION. CHAPTER XVI, THE FLIGHT—DEVELOPMENTS. For along and tedious hour Luke Soper and his - young charge kept on their way through the woods. They were obliged to keep the path, for the tangled underbrush would have impeded their progress too much; yet their path was but a narrow one, one hardly distinguishable in the darkness, and often had they lost it and been obliged to retrace their steps in order to regain it, They had no opportunity to think of the cold, nor did they notice it, for ex- citement and labor kept their blood:in feverish cir- ‘culation. “We may walk slower now,’’ said Luke, ‘‘for I don’t believe they’ll find us if they come after us; and you must be tired, too.’’ ‘“‘T am tired, Luke.”’ ‘So I should think. You breathe hard, an’ your slender legs tremble, for I hear ’em.”’’ ‘““Yes, they are weak. We have walked fast, Luke.’’ ‘‘So we have; but we had to. I declare, it’s kind o’ hard that a poor little feller like you should have to run away for fear his own father’d kill him.”’ ‘‘Father! did you say?’’ quickly uttered the boy, gazing up through the darkness upon the indistinct - outlines of his protector’s countenance. “Yes, that’s what I said, certainly,’’ Luke, with a sudden start. “T am not fleeing from my father.” nh 7? ‘“You know I am not, Luke.’’ returned co c 900 . a ra. \ oy ~ : et Ne * eee) +. i + & - A « ‘