NEGRO LIFE IN AMERICA. 289

“Was he good to you?” said Emmeline. |

“ Mostly, till he tuk sick. He’s lain sick, off and on, more
than six months, and been orful oneasy. ‘Pears like he warnt
willin’ to have nobody rest, day nor night; and got so curous,
there couldn’t nobody suit him. ."Pears like he just grew crosser
every day; kept me up nights till I got farly beat out, and couldn’t
keep awake no longer ; and cause I got to sleep, one night, Lors,
he talk so orful to me, and he telled me he'd sell me to just the
hardest master he could find; and he’d promised me my freedom,
too, when he died.”

‘‘ Had you any friends?’ said Emmeline.

“Yes, my husband—he’s a blacksmith. Mas’r gen'ly hired
him out. They took me off so quick, I didn’t even have time to
see him; and I’s got four children. Oh, dear me!” said the
woman, covering her face with her hands.

It is a natural impulse in everyone when they hear a tale of
distress, to think of something to say by way of consolation. Em-
meline wanted to say something, but she could not think of any-
thing to say. What was there to be said? As by a common
consent, they both avoided, with fear and dread, all mention of
the horrible man who was now their master.

True, there is religious trust for even the darkest hour. The
mulatto woman was a member of the Methodist Church, and had
an unenlightened but very sincere spirit of piety. Emmeline had
been educated much more intelligently—taught to read and write,
and diligently instructed in the Bible, by the care of a faithful
and pious mistress ; yet would it not try the faith of the firmest
Christian to find themselves abandoned apparently of God, in the
grasp of ruthless violence? How much more must it shake the
faith of Christ's poor little ones, weak in knowledge and tender
in years ! |

The boat moved on—freighted with its weight of sorrow—u
the red, muddy, turbid current, through the abrupt tortuous wind
ings of the Red River; and sad eyes gazed wearily on the steep
red-clay banks, as they glided by in dreary sameness. At last
the boat stopped at a small town, and Legree, with his party,
disembarked.

CHAPTER XXXII,
DARK PLACES.
“ The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.”

Torttne wearily behind a rude waggon, and over a ruder road,
Tom and his associates faced onward.
In the waggon was seated Simon Legree; and the two women,
still — together, were stowed away with some baggage in the
U