As she spoke, the old woman's eyes rolled, her lips quivered,
and she looked like a very fury.

"I will have nothing to do with her, if you whip her, Mrs. Miller,"
said the slave-trader. "Niggers ain't worth half so much in the market
with their backs newly scarred," continued he, as the overseer commenced
his preparations for executing Mrs. Miller's orders.

Clotelle here took her father's walking-stick, which was lying on the back
of the sofa where he had left it, and, raising it, said,--

"If you bad people touch my mother, I will strike you."

They looked at the child with astonishment; and her extreme you,
wonderful beauty, and uncommon courage, seemed for a moment to shake
their purpose. The manner and language of this child were alike
beyond her years, and under other circumstances would have gained
for her the approbation of those present.

"Oh, Henry, Henry!" exclaimed Isabella, wringing her hands.

"You need not call on him, hussy; you will never see him again,"
said Mrs. Miller.

"What! is he dead?" inquired the heart-stricken woman.

It was then that she forgot her own situation, thinking only
of the man she loved. Never having been called to endure any
kind of abusive treatment, Isabella was not fitted to sustain