UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 49
brother and sisterof the writer,as follows:
She was the woman
giving
that it was a cruelty to tryto hold
who supplied rusks and back the poor littlesuffererfrom the refuge
other articlesof the kind at the house where of the grave ; and it was a reliefto her when
they boarded. Her manners, appearance at lastitswailings ceased,and itwent where
and character, were justas described. One the weary
are at rest. This is one of those
day another servant came in her place, cases which go to show that the interest of
bringingthe rusks. The sister of the the owner willnot alwaysinsurekind treatment
writer inquired what had become of Prue. of the slave.
the
She seemed reluctant to answer for some
time,but at last said that theyhad taken
her into the cellarand beaten her, and that
ordinarypurposes of a cellar. A cook
who
of a
very plain house and yard.
This same lady, while living in the same
place,used frequently to have her compassion
excited by hearing the wailings of a
sicklybaby in a house adjoining their own,
as also the objurgations and tyrannical abuse
of a ferocious viragoupon itsmother. She
oaice got an opportunity to speak to its
mother, who appearedheart-broken and
dejected, and inquired Avhatwas the matter
with her child. Her answer was that she
had had a fever, and that her milk was all
dried away ; and that her mistress was set
against her
child, and would not buy milk
for it She had tried to feed it on her own
and cried continually;
coarse food, but it pined
and in witnessof this she brough the
The lady took the little thing to a
hers in the house who had been recently confined,
borne all the fatigue of the nursing,
and who was suffering from a redundancy
night and by day, sustained in it by his
of milk, and beggedher to nurse it. promise that she should be rewarded for it
The miserable sightof the little, famished, by her liberty, at his death. Overcome by
she one nightfell
wasted thingaffected the mother so as to
overcome all other considerations, and she
placed it to her breast, when itrevived, and
which showed
took food with an
eagerness
how much it had suffered. But the child
was- so reduced that thisprovedonly a transient
alleviation.It was afterthis almost impossible
to get sight of the woman, and the afterțook effect. The
of
violenttemper of her mistress was such as her sentence was that her child was not to
to make it difficulto interfere in the case. be taken with her into this dreaded lot,but
The ladysecretly affordedwhat aid she could, was givento this quadroonfamilyto be
she confessed, with a sort of mis-
broughtinto a freestate.
though, as
which
writer interwove into the historyof the
There is one other incident,
oneasy. 'Pears like he war n't willin' to have
mulatto woman who was boughtby Legree
the flieshad got at her, and she was dead ! for hisplantation. The reader will remember
It is well known that there are no cellars, that,in telling her storyto Emmeline.
properly so called, in New Orleans,- the she says
:
nature of the groundbeingsuch as to forbid
digging. The slave who used the word had "My Mas'r was Mr. "
Ellis, lived on Leveestreet.
P'rapsyou've seen the house."
probably been imported from some state
"
Was he
where cellarswere in use, and applied the
good to you?" said Emmeline.
"
Mostly țill he tuk sick. He 's lain sick,off
term to the place which was used for the and on, more than six months, and been orful
nobody
lived in the writer s
rest,day
family, havinglived
nor night; and got so cur'ous,
there could n't nobodysuit him. 'Pears like he
most of her life on a plantation, alwaysapplied
just grew
crosser
every day; kep me up nights
the descriptive terms of the plantation
tillI gotfairly beat out,and couldn't keep awake
to the very limited enclosuresand retinue
no longer; and 'cause I got to sleep one night.
Lors ! he talk so orful to me, and he tellme he 'd
sellme to justthe hardest master he could find ;
and he 'd promised me my freedomțoo, when he
died."
An incidentof this sort came under the
author's observation in the following manner
: A quadroon slave family,
the will of the master, settled on Walnut
Hills,near
were
baby to her. It was emaciated to a skeleton.
friendof which at
liberated by
her residence, and theirchildren
received into her familyschool,
taught
in her house. In this family was a little
quadroonboy,four or five years
of age, with
a sad,dejected appearance, who excitedtheir
interest.
The history of this child,as narrated by
his friends, was simplythis : His mother
of her master,
had been the indefatigable nurse
during a lingering and
painful
sickness,
last terminated his life. She had
both by
exhaustion and fatigue,
and he was unable to rouse her.
asleep,
The next day, after violently upbraiding
her,'he alteredthe directionsof hiswill,and
soldher to a man who was noted in all the
region round as a cruel master, which sale,
immediately on his death,which was shortly
onlymitigation