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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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“I know it,- I dare say;- but what’s the use of all this?- I can’t help myself.” “Why not make a pecuniary sacrifice? I’m willing to bear my part of the in- convenience. O Mr. Shelby, I have tried-tried most faithfully, as a Christian woman should-to do my duty to these poor, simple, dependent creatures. I have cared for them, instructed them, watched over them, and known all their little cares and joys, for years; and how can I ever hold up my head again among them, if, for the sake of a little paltry gain, we sell such a faithful, excellent, confiding creature as poor Tom, and tear from him in a moment all we have taught him to love and value? I have taught them the duties of the family, of parent and child, and husband and wife; and how can I bear to have this open acknowledgment that we care for no tie, no duty, no relation, however sacred, compared with money? I have talked with Eliza about her boy-her duty to him as a Christian mother, to watch over him, pray for him, and bring him up in a Christian way; and now what can I say, if you tear him away, and sell him, soul and body, to a profane, un- principled man, just to save a little money? I have told her that one soul is worth more than all the money in the world; and how will she believe me when she sees us turn round and sell her child?- sell him, perhaps, to certain ruin of body and soul!” “I’m sorry you feel so about it, Emily,- indeed I am,” said Mr. Shelby; “and I respect your feelings, too, though I don’t pretend to share them to their full ex- tent; but I tell you now, solemnly, it’s of no use-I can’t help myself. I didn’t mean to tell you this, Emily; but, in plain words, there is no choice between selling |
