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428 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; OR
" Well, my dear," he said, chucking her under the chin, " keep up your spirits."
The involuntary look of horror, fright, and aversion with which the girl regarded him, did not escape his eye. He frowned fiercely.
" None o' your shines, gal! you 's got to keep a pleasant face, when I speak to ye, — d' ye hear ? And you, you old yellow poco moonshine! " he said, giving a shove to the mulatto woman to whom Emmeline was chained, " don't you carry that sort of face! You 's got to look chipper, I tell ye !"
" I say, all on ye," he said, retreating a pace or two back, " look at me, — look at me, — look me right in the eye, — straight, now! " said he, stamping his foot at every pause.
As by a fascination, every eye was now directed to the glaring greenish-gray eye of Simon.
"Now," said he, doubling his great, heavy fist into something resembling a blacksmith's hammer, " d' ye see this fist ? Heft it! " he said, bringing it down on Tom's hand. " Look at these yer bones! Well, I tell ye this yer fist has got as hard as iron knocking down niggers, I never see the nigger, yet, I could n't bring down with one crack," said he, bringing his fist down so near to the face of Tom that he winked and drew back. " I don't keep none o' yer cussed overseers; I does my own overseeing ; and I tell you things is seen to. You 's. every one on ye got to toe the mark, I tell ye ; quick, — straight, — the moment I speak. That's the way to keep in with me. Ye won't find no soft spot in me, nowhere. So, now, mind yerselves ; for I don't show no mercy !'
The women involuntarily drew in their breath, and the whole gang sat with downcast, dejected faces. Meanwhile, Simon turned on his heel, and marched up to the bar of the boat for a dram.
" That's the way I begin with my niggers," he said, to a gentlemanly man, who had stood by him during his |
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