NEGRO LIFE IN AMERICA. 288

sandy eye-brows, and stiff, wiry, sun-burned hair, were rather un-
prepossessing items, it isto be confessed ; his large, coarse mouth
was distended with tobacco, the juice of which, from time to time,
he ejected from him with great decision and explosive force ; his
hands were immensely large, hairy, sun-burned, freckled, and very
dirty, and garnished with long nails, in a very foul condition,
This man proceeded ‘to a very free personal examination of the lot.
He seized Tom by the jaw, and pulled open his mouth to inspect
his teeth; made him strip up his sleeve, to show his muscle;
turned him round, made him jump and spring, to show his paces.

«‘ Where was you raised 2?” he added briefly to these investiga-
tions.

“In Kentuck, mas’r,” said Tom, looking about as if for
deliverance.

‘“« What have you done?”

“Had care of mas’r’s farm,” said Tom. |

“ Likely story!” said the other shortly, as he passed on He.
paused a moment before Dolph; then spitting a discharge of to-
bacco-juice on his well-blacked boots, and giving a contemptuous
umph, he walked on. Again he stopped before Susan and Em-
meline. He put out his heavy, dirty hand, and drew the girl
towards him; passed it over her neck and bust, felt her arms,
looked at her teeth, and then pushed her back against her mother,
whose patient face showed the suffering she had been going
through at every motion of the hideous stranger.

The girl was frightened, and began to cry.

“Stop that, you minx!”’ said the salesman; “no whimpering
oe The sale is going to begin.” And accordingly the sale

gun.

Adolph was knocked off at a good sum, to the young gentle-

man who had previously stated his intention of buying him; and

the other servants of the St. Clare lot went to various bidders.

‘ “Now, up with you, boy! d’ye hear?’ said the auctioneer to
om. ,

Tom stepped upon the block, gave a few anxious looks round ;
all seemed mingled in a common, indistinct noise—the clatter of
the salesman crying off his qualifications in French and English,
the quick fire of French and English bids; and almost in a mo-
ment came the final thump of the hammer, and the clear ring on
the last syllable of the word “dollars,” as the auctioneer an-
nounced his price, and Tom was made over.—He had a, master!
| He was pushed from the block; the short, bullet-headed man
seizing him roughly by. the shoulder, pushed him to one side,
saying, in a harsh voice, ‘‘ Stand here, you !”"

Tom hardly realised any thing; but still the bidding went on
—rattling, clattering, now French, now English. Down goes the
hammer again—Susan is sold. She goes down from the block,
stops, looks wistfully back; her daughter stretches her hands to