Must take things as they come, in this world of ours, Annie;"
and the Master thought thus to assuage the tide of bitter recollection
in the breast of his down-trodden bond-woman, and divert her mind
from the painful future before her and her darling child. In vain.
The tears still fell over the brow of the baby, flowing from the deep
fountain of sorrow and tenderness that springs forth only from
a mother's heart.

"Oh, Massa," she ventured timidly to say amid her sobs, "please don't
never part baby and me."

"Be a good girl, Annie," said he, "and mind your work,
and don't be borrowing trouble. We'll take good care of you.
You've got a nice baby, that's a fact,--the smartest little thing
on the whole plantation; see how well you can raise her now."

The fond heart of the trembling mother leaped back again to its
happiness at the praise bestowed upon her baby; and taking up
the little blossom, she laid it with pride upon her bosom, murmuring,
"Years of good times we'll have, sweety, afore sich dark days come,--
mebbe they'll never come to you and me."

Alas, vain hope! Scarcely a single year had passed, when one
day she came to the cot to look at the little sleeper, and lo,
her treasure was gone! The master had found it convenient,
in making a sale of some field hands, to THROW IN this infant,
by way of closing a satisfactory bargain.

None can tell, but those who have gone through the trying experience,
how hard it is for a mother to part with her child when God calls it