UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

" it
exotic
"
anythingthat
I
'
"
in
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 67
directionsand chargesthat ahead less systematic men are constitutionally selfishand inconsiderate
and business-likethan Miss Ophelia's would have to women. That, at least,is my impression."
been utterlydizziedand confounded.
Miss Ophelia,who had not a small share of
" And now," said Marie, " I believeI 've told the genuine New Englandcaution,and a very
you everything ; so that, when my next sick turn particular horror of beingdrawn into familydifficulties,
comes on, you '11be able to go forward entirely,
now began to foresee somethingof this
"
without consulting me ; only about she kind Eva," impending; so, composingher face into a
requires watching."
grimneutrality, and drawing out of her pocket
"She seems to be a goodchild,very," said about a yard and a quarter of stocking, which she
Miss Ophelia; " I never saw a better child." keptas a specific against what Dr. Watts asserts
"Eva's peculiar," said her mother, "very. to be a personalhabit of Satan when people have
There are things about her so singular ; she idle hands, she proceeded to knit most -energetically,
isn't like me, now, a particle;" and Marie shutting her lipstogether in a way that
'sighed, as if this was a trulymelancholyconsideration.
said,as plain as words could, " You needn't try
to make me speak. I don't want anythingto do
Miss Ophelia in her own heart "
I hope with said," your affairs, factșhe looked about as
she isn't,"but had prudenc enough to keep it sympathizing as a stone lion. But Marie did n't
down.
care for that. She had got somebody to talk to,
" Eva alwayswas disposed to be with servants ; and she felt it her duty to talk, and that was
and I think that well enoughwith some children. enough; and reinforcing herself by smelling again
Now, I
,
alwaysplayed with father's little negroes at her vinaigrette, she went on.
" never did me any harm. But Eva somehow
You see, I brought my
own property and
alway seems to put herself on an equality with servants into the connection,when I married St.
every creature that comes near her. It 's a Clare,and I am legally entitled to manage them
strangethingabout the child. I never have been my own way. St. Clare had his fortune and his
able to break her of it. St. Clare, I believe, servants,and I 'm well enoughcontent he should
encourages her in it. The fact is,St. Clare indulges
manage them his way ; but St. Clare will be in-
every creature under this roof but his own
He lias wild, extravagant notions
wife."
about things,particularly about the treatment of
AgainMiss Opheliasat in blank silence.
servants. He reallydoes act as if he set his
"
Now, there 's no way with servants,"said servants before me, and before himselfțoo ; for
Marie, " but to put them down, and keep them he lets them make him all sorts of trouble,and
down. It was always natural to me, from a never lifts a finger.Now, about some things,
child. Eva is enough to "
spoila whole house-full. St. Clare is reallyfrightfulhe "
frightens me
What she will do when she comes to keep house good-natured as he looks,in general.Now, he
herself,I 'm sure I don't know. I hold to beinghas set down his foot that,come what will,there
"
kind to servants alwaysam; but you must shall not be a blow struck in this house,except
make 'ein know tlieirplace. Eva never does ; what he or I strike ; and he does it in a way
that
there 's no getting into the child'shead the first I really dare not cross him. Well, you may see
beginning of an idea what a servant's place is ! what that leads to; for St. Clare wouldn't raise
You heard her offering to take care of me nights, his hand, if every
one of thein walked over him,
"
to let Mammy sleep! That 'sjusta specimenof and I
you
see how cruel it would be to require
the way the child would be doing all the time,if me to make the exertion. Now, you know these
she was left to herself."
servants are nothing but grown-up children-"
" "
Why," said Miss Ophelia,bluntly, "I suppose
I don't know anything about it, and I thank
you think your servants are human creatures,
the Lord that I don't!" said Miss Ophelia,
and ought to have some rest when theyare shortly.
"
tired!"
Well,but you
will have to know something,
"
Certainly, of course. I 'm very particular in and know it to your cost,if you stay here. You
lettingthem have everything that comes convenient.
don't know what a provoking, stupid,careless,
doesn't put one at all unreasonable, childish, ungrateful set of wretches
out of the way, you know. Mammy can1 make theyare."
up her deep, some time or other ; there 's no difficultyabout
that. She's the sleepiest concern when she got
Marie seemed wonderfullysupported, always,
that r-fer I saw ; sewing,standing or sitting,
upon this topic; and she now
that opened her eyes, and seemed quite to forget her
creature will go to sleep,and sleepanywhere and languor.
"
everywhere. No danger but Mammy gets sleep You don't know, and you can't, the daily,
enough. But this treating servants as if they hourlytrialsthat beset a housekeeper from them,
-
were flowers,or china vases, is reallyeverywhere and every way. But it 's no use to
ridiculous," said Marie, as she plungedlanguidly complain to St. Clare. He talks the strangest
into t'.iedepths of a voluminous and pillowystuff. He says we have made them what they
lounge, and drew towards her an elegant cutglassvinaigrette.
faults are all owingto us, and that it would be
are, and ought to bear with them. He says tlieir
"
You see,"she continued,
a faint and ladylike
cruel to make the fault and punish it too. He
voice,like the last dyingbreath of an Arabian says we should n't do any better,in their place ,
jessamine, or somethingequallyethereal,"you just as if one could reason from them to us, you
see, Cousin Ophelia,I don't often speak of myself.
know."
It isn't my hcdnl
"
; 'tisn't agreeableto me. Don't you believe that the Lord made thera
In fact,I haven't strengthto do it. But there of one blood with us!" said Miss Ophelia.
are pointswhere St. Clare and I differ. St. Clare shortly.
"
never understood me, never appreciatedme. I No, indeed,not l! A prettystory țruly'
think it lies at the root of all my ill health. St. They
Clare means well,I am bound* are a degraded race."
to believe: but "Don't you think they've got immortal
terfering