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458 UNCLE TOMS CABIN: OR
morrow they '11 be at you again. I know 'em ; I 've seen all their doings ; I can't bear to think of all they '11 bring you to ; and they '11 make you give out, at last! "
" Lord Jesus! " said Tom, " you will take care of my soul ? 0 Lord, do ! don't let me give out! "
" Oh, dear ! " said Cassy ; " I 've heard all this crying and praying before ; and yet, they 've been broken down, and brought under. There 's Emmeline, she 's trying to hold on, and you 're trying, but what use ? You must give up, or be killed by inches."
" Well, then, I will die! " said Tom. " Spin it out as long as they can, they can't help my dying, sometime ! and, after that, they can't do no more. I 'm clar, I 'in set I I know the Lord 11 help me, and bring me through."
The woman did not answer; she sat with her black eyes intently fixed on the floor.
" May be it's the way," she murmured to herself ; " but those that have given up, there 's no hope for them! none! We live in filth, and grow loathsome, till we loathe ourselves ! And we long to die, and we don't dare to kill ourselves ! No hope ! no hope ! no hope ! this girl now, just as old as I was !
" You see me now," she said, speaking to Tom very rapidly ; " see what I am ! Well, I was brought up in luxury; the first I remember is, playing about, when I was a child, in splendid parlors; when I was kept dressed up like a doll, and company and visitors used to praise me. There was a garden opening from the saloon windows ; and there I used to play hide-and-go-seek, under the orange-trees, with my brothers and sisters. I went to a convent, and there I learned music, French, and embroidery, ar vvhat not; and when I was fourteen, I came out to my lather's funeral. He died very suddenly, and when the property came to be settled, they found that there was scarcely enough to cover the debts; and when the creditors took an inventory of the property, I was set down in it. My mother was a slave woman, and my father |
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