Tom silently resumed his task; but the woman,...
- Posted at 7:28 PM on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by baimin615
Tom silently resumed his task; but the woman, before at the last point of exhaustion, fainted
?I?ll bring her to!? said the driver, with a brutal grin?I?ll give her something better than camphire!? and, taking a pin from his coat-sleeve, he buried it to the head in her fleshThe woman groaned, and half rose?Get up, you beast, and work, will yer, or I?ll show yer a trick more!?
The woman seemed stimulated, for a few moments, to an unnatural strength, and worked with desperate eagerness
?See that you keep to dat ar,? said the man, ?or yer?ll wish yer?s dead tonight, I reckin!?
?That I do now!? Tom heard her say; and again he heard her say, ?O, Lord, how long! O, Lord, why don?t you help us??
At the risk of all that he might suffer, Tom came forward again, and put all the cotton in his sack into the woman?s
?O, you mustn?t! you donno what they?ll do to ye!? said the woman
?I can bar it!? said Tom, ?better ?n you;? and he was at his place againIt passed in a moment
Suddenly, the stranger woman whom we have described, and who had, in the course of her work, come near enough to hear Tom?s last words, raised her heavy black eyes, and fixed them, for a second, on him; then, taking a quantity of cotton from her basket, she placed it in his
?You know nothing about this place,? she said, ?or you wouldn?t have done thatWhen you?ve been here a month, you?ll be done helping anybody; you?ll find it hard enough to take care of your own skin!?
?The Lord forbid, Missis!? said Tom, using instinctively to his field companion the respectful form proper to the high bred with whom he had lived
?The Lord never visits these parts,? said the woman, bitterly, as she went nimbly forward with her work; and again the scornful smile curled her lips
But the action of the woman had been seen by the driver, across the field; and, flourishing his whip, he came up to her
?What! what!? he said to the woman, with an air of triumph, ?You a foolin?? Go along! yer under me now,?mind yourself, or yer?ll cotch it!?
A glance like sheet-lightning suddenly flashed from those black eyes; and, facing about, with quivering lip and dilated nostrils, she drew herself up, and fixed a glance, blazing with rage and scorn, on the driver
?Dog!? she said, ?touch me, if you dare! I?ve power enough, yet, to have you torn by the dogs, burnt alive, cut to inches! I?ve only to say the word!?
?What de devil you here for, den?? said the man, evidently cowed, and sullenly retreating a step or two?Didn?t mean no harm, Misse Cassy!?
?Keep your distance, then!? said the womanAnd, in truth, the man seemed greatly inclined to attend to something at the other end of the field, and started off in quick time
The woman suddenly turned to her work, and labored with a despatch that was perfectly astonishing to TomShe seemed to work by magicBefore the day was through, her basket was filled, crowded down, and piled, and she had several times put largely into Tom?sLong after dusk, the whole weary train, with their baskets on their heads, defiled up to the building appropriated to the storing and weighing the cottonLegree was there, busily conversing with the two drivers
?Dat ar Tom?s gwine to make a powerful deal o? trouble; kept a puttin? into Lucy?s basketOne o? these yer dat will get all der niggers to feelin? bused, if Masir don?t watch him!? said Sambo
?Hey-dey! The black cuss!? said Legree?He?ll have to get a breakin? in, won?t he, boys??
Both negroes grinned a horrid grin, at this intimation
?Ay, ay! Let Mas?r Legree alone, for breakin? in! De debil heself couldn?t beat Mas?r at dat!? said Quimbo
?Wal, boys, the best way is to give him the flogging to do, till he gets over his notionsBreak him in!?
?Lord, Mas?r?ll have hard work to get dat out o? him!?
?It?ll have to come out of him, though!? said Legree, as he rolled his tobacco in his mouth
?Now, dar?s Lucy,?de aggravatinest, ugliest wench on de place!? pursued Sambo
?Take care, Sam; I shall begin to think what?s the reason for your spite agin Lucy
?Well, Mas?r knows she sot herself up agin Mas?r, and wouldn?t have me, when he telled her to
?I?d a flogged her into ?t,? said Legree, spitting, only there?s such a press o? work, it don?t seem wuth a while to upset her jist nowShe?s slender; but these yer slender gals will bear half killin? to get their own way!?
?Wal, Lucy was real aggravatin? and lazy, sulkin? round; wouldn?t do nothin,?and Tom he tuck up for her
?He did, eh! Wal, then, Tom shall have the pleasure of flogging herIt?ll be a good practice for him, and he won?t put it on to the gal like you devils, neither
?Ho, ho! haw! haw! haw!? laughed both the sooty wretches; and the diabolical sounds seemed, in truth, a not unapt expression of the fiendish character which Legree gave them
?Wal, but, Mas?r, Tom and Misse Cassy, and dey among ?em, filled Lucy?s basketI ruther guess der weight ?s in it, Mas?r!?
?I do the weighing!? said Legree, shop emphatically
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