"'Now take that for your impudence, and you'll get worse next time you go
disputing with me.'

"'I declare, Mrs. Brown,' said Arthur, 'this is, I thought, a free country.
I did not know you could take the law into your own hands in that style.'

"'That gal's the bother of my life,' said Mrs. Brown. 'Mr. Brown, he was in
New York when a ship come, and that gal's father and mother must die of the
ship-fever, and the gal was left, and Mr. Brown calculated she could be
made to save us hiring, by teaching her a little. She's smart enough, but
she's the hard-headedest, obstinatest thing I ever see. I can't make
nothin' of her. You might as well try to draw blood out of a turnip as to
get any good out of her.'

"'You got some good blood out of her,' said I, 'at any rate,' for Mrs.
Brown was wiping her hands, and the blood looked red and healthy enough;
'but she is not a turnip, that's one thing to be considered.'

"'Well, Mrs. Brown, good evening,' said Arthur. 'I shall tell them at the
South how you Northern people treat your white niggers.'

"'I wish to the Lord,' said Mrs. Brown, 'we had some real niggers. Here I
am sweatin, and workin, and bakin, all these hot days, and Brown he's doin
nothin from morning 'till night but reading Abolition papers, and tendin
Abolition meetings. I'm not much better than a nigger myself, half the
time.'

"Now," said Arthur, "Mr. Hubbard, I have been fortunate in my experience. I
have never seen a slave woman struck in my life, though I've no doubt such
things are done; and I assure you when I saw Mrs. Brown run the risk of