old patriarch, with teers a streamin down his furrowd cheeks,
ejackilated,--

"Farewell, Looizer, my daughter, farewell! I loved yoor mother ez never
man loved nigger. She wuz the solace uv my leisure hours--the companion
uv my yooth. She I sold to pay orf a mortgage on the place--she and yoor
older sisters. Farewell! I hed hoped to hev sold yoo this winter (for
yoo are still young), and bought out Jinkins; but wo is me! Curses on
the tirent who thus severs all the tender ties uv nachur. Oh! it is hard
for father to part with child, even when the market's high; but, Oh God!
to part thus--"

And the old gentleman, in a excess uv greef, swoonded away genteely.

His son Tom hed bin caressin her two little children, who wuz a half
whiter than she wuz. Unable to restrain hisself, he fell on her neck,
and bemoaned his fate with tetchin pathos.

"Farewell, farewell, mother uv my children! Farewell faro, and hosses,
and shampane--a long farewell! Your increase wuz my perquisites, and I
sold em to supply my needs. Hed you died, I cood hev bin resigned; for
when dead you ain't wuth a copper; but to see yoo torn away livin, &
wuth $2,000 in enny market--it's too much, it's too much!"

And he fainted, fallin across the old man.

"Who'll do the work about the house?" shreekt the old lady, faintin and
fallin across Tom.

"Who'll dress us, and wash us, and wait on us?" shreekt the three