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LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY            417
those that he knew would advise to suit him, Brother B. wrote to his lawyer to dispose of the business in the way that seemed to him the most suitable, and remit the pro­ceeds.
The day after the letter arrived in New Orleans, Susan and Emmeline were attached, and sent to the depot to await a general auction on the following morning; and as they glimmer faintly upon us in the moonlight which steals through the grated window, we may listen to their conver­sation. Both are weeping, but each quietly, that the other may not hear.
" Mother, just lay your head on my lap, and see if you can't sleep a little," says the girl, trying to appear calm.
" I have n't any heart to sleep, Em; I can't; it's the last night we may be together! "
" Oh, mother, don't say so! perhaps we shall get sold together, — who knows ? "
" If 't was anybody's else case, I should say so, too, Em," said the woman; " but I 'm so 'feard of losin' you that I don't see anything but the danger."
" Why, mother, the man said we were both likely, and would sell well."
Susan remembered the man's looks and words. With a deadly sickness at her heart, she remembered how he had looked at Emmeline's hands, and lifted up her curly hair, and pronounced her a first-rate article. Susan had been trained as a Christian, brought up in the daily read­ing of the Bible, and had the same horror of her child's being sold to a life of shame that any other Christian mother might have; but she had no hope, — no protection.
" Mother, I think we might do first-rate, if you could get a place as cook, and I as chambermaid or seamstress, in some family. I dare say we shall. Let's both look as bright and lively as we can, and tell all we can do, and perhaps we shall," said Emmeline.
" I want you to brush your hair all back straight, to­morrow," said Susan.