and called him cruel, and she would say, 'Lucy, I'd have died before I
would have done it.' I couldn't murder him, ma'am, 'twas my mistress held
me back.'

"'No, Lucy,' said I, ''twas not your mistress, it was the Lord; and thank
Him that you are not a murderer. Did you ever think of the consequences of
such an act?'

"'Lor, ma'am, do you think I cared for that? I wasn't afraid of hanging.'

"'I did not mean that, Lucy. I meant, did you not fear His power, who could
not only kill your body, but destroy your soul in hell?'

"'I didn't think of any thing, for a long time. My mistress got worse after
that, and I nursed her until she died; poor Miss Ellen was a baby, and I
had her too. When master died I thought it was no use for me to wish him
ill, for the hand of the Lord was heavy on him, for true. 'Lucy,' he said,
'you are a kind nurse to me, though I sold your children, but I've had no
rest since.' I couldn't make him feel worse, ma'am, for he was going to his
account with all his sins upon him.'

"'This is the first time Lucy,' I said, 'that I have ever known children to
be sold away from their mother, and I look upon the crime with as great a
horror as you do.'

"'Its the only time I ever knowed it, ma'am, and everybody pitied me, and
many a kind thing was said to me, and many a hard word was said of him;
true enough, but better be forgotten, as he is in his grave.'

"Some persons now entered, and Lucy became absorbed in her present grief;