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448 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN- OR
tively to his field companion the respectful form proper to the high-bred with whom he had lived.
" The Lord never visits these parts,'1 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 ye '11 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. " Did n't mean no harm, Misse Cassy ! *'
" Keep your distance, then ! " said the woman. And, 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 dispatch that was perfectly astonishing to Tom. She seemed to work by magic. Before the day was through, her basket was filled, crowded down, and piled, and she had several times put largely into Tom's. Long after dusk, the whole weary train, with their baskets on their heads, defiled up to the building appropriated to the storing and weighing the cotton. Legree 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 basket. — One o' these yer dat will get all der niggers to feelin' 'bused, if Mas'r don't watch him ! " said Sambo. |
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