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438             UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; OR
with the vile and unwholesome character of everything about the place.
" Here, you Sambo," said Legree, " take these yer boys down to the quarters ; and here 's a gal I 've got for you" said he, as he separated the mulatto woman from Emme-line, and pushed her towards him; — "I promised to bring you one, you know."
The woman gave a sudden start, and, drawing back, said suddenly, —
" Oh, Mas'r ! I left my old man in New Orleans."
" What of that, you ------; won't you want one here ?
None o' yer words, — go 'long! " saicl Legree, raising his whip.
" Come, mistress," he said to Emmeline, " you go in here with me."
A dark, wild face was seen, for a moment, to glance at the window of the house; and, as Legree opened the door, a female voice said something, in a quick, imperative tone. Tom, who was looking, with anxious interest, after Emme­line, as she went in, noticed this, and heard Legree answer, angrily, " You may hold your tongue ! I'll do as I please, for all you ! "
Tom heard no more; for he was soon following Sambo to the quarters. The quarters was a little sort of street of rude shanties, in a row, in a part of the plantation, far off from the house. They had a forlorn, brutal, forsaken air. Tom's heart sunk when he saw them. He had been com­forting himself with the thought of a cottage, rude, indeed, but one which he might make neat and quiet, and where he might have a shelf for his Bible, and a place to be alone out of his laboring hours. He looked into several; they were mere rude shells, destitute of any species of furniture, except a heap of straw, foul with dirt, spread confusedly over the floor, which was merely the bare ground, trodden hard by the tramping of innumerable feet.
" Which of these will be mine ? " said he, to Sambo, submissively.