anybody. Now, Mammy," said she, throwing off her hat, and looking
soberly into the fire, "if I had my way, he should never be a slave."

"And why can't you have your way? I'm sure master humors you in
everything."

"I know that; Pa does everything I wish him to do; but I don't know how
I could manage about this. If his mother were living, I would beg Pa to
set them both free, and send them North; but his mother is gone; and,
Mammy, we couldn't spare you. And besides, it is so cold in the North,
you would freeze to death, and yet, I can't bear the thought of his
being a slave. I wonder," said she, musing to herself, "I wonder if I
couldn't save him from being a slave. Now I have it," she said, rising
hastily, her face aglow with pleasurable excitement. "I was reading
yesterday a beautiful story in the Bible about a wicked king, who wanted
to kill all the little boys of a people who were enslaved in his land,
and how his mother hid her child by the side of a river, and that the
king's daughter found him and saved his life. It was a fine story; and I
read it till I cried. Now I mean to do something like that good
princess. I am going to ask Pa, to let me take him to the house, and
have a nurse for him, and bring him up like a white child, and never let
him know that he is colored."

Miriam shook her head doubtfully; and Camilla, looking disappointed,
said, "Don't you like my plan?"

"Laws, honey, it would be fustrate, but your Pa wouldn't hear to it."

"Yes, he would, Mammy, because I'll tell him I've set my heart upon it,
and won't be satisfied if he don't consent. I know if I set my heart