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224 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; OR
tating my graces and perfections, that he has, at last, really mistaken himself for his master; and I have been obliged to give him a little insight into his mistake."
" How ? " said Marie.
" Why , I was obliged to let him understand explicitly that I preferred to keep some of my clothes for my own personal wearing; also, I put his magnificence upon an allowance of cologne-water, and actually was so cruel as to restrict him to one dozen of my cambric handkerchiefs. Dolph was particularly huffy about it, and I had to talk to him like a father, to bring him round."
" Oh, St. Clare, when will you learn how to treat your servants ? It's abominable, the way you indulge them !' said Marie.
" Why, after all, what 's the harm of the poor dog's wanting to be like his master; and if I have n't brought him up any better than to find his chief good in cologne and cambric handkerchiefs, why should n't I give them to him ? "
" And why have n't you brought him up better ? " said Miss Ophelia, with blunt determination.
" Too much trouble, — laziness, cousin, laziness, — which ruins more souls than you can shake a stick at. If it were n't for laziness, I should have been a perfect angel, myself. I 'm inclined to think that laziness is what your old Dr. Botherem, up in Vermont, used to call the ' essence of moral evil/ It's an awful consideration, certainly."
" I think you slave-holders have an awful responsibility upon you," said Miss Ophelia. "I wouldn't have it, for a thousand worlds. You ought to educate your slaves, and treat them like reasonable creatures, — like immortal creatures, that you 've got to stand before the bar of God with. That 's my mind," said the good lady, breaking suddenly out with a tide of zeal that had been gaining strength in her mind all the morning.
" Oh, come, come," said St. Clare, getting up quickly; " what do you know about us ? " And he sat down to the |
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