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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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dren, seen for the last time,- and though “they that wasted them required of them mirth,” it was not instantly forthcoming. “I’ve got a wife,” spoke out the article enumerated as “John, aged thirty,” and he laid his chained hand on Tom’s knee,- “and she don’t know a word about this, poor girl!” “Where does she live?” said Tom. “In a tavern a piece down here,” said John; “I wish, now, I could see her once more in this world,” he added. Poor John! It twas rather natural; and the tears that fell, as he spoke, came as naturally as if he had been a white man. Tom drew a long breath from a sore heart, and tried, in his poor way, to comfort him. And overhead, in the cabin, sat fathers and mothers, husbands and wives; and merry, dancing children moved round among them, like so many little butterflies, and everything was going on quite easy and comfortable. “O mamma,” said a boy, who had just come up from below, “there’s a negro trader on board, and he’s brought four or five slaves down there.” “Poor creatures!” said the mother, in a tone between grief and indignation. “What’s that?” said another lady. “Some poor slaves below,” said the mother. “And they’ve got chains on,” said the boy. |
