a child, fed you, clothed you, indulged you, and taught you, so that you
have a good education; that is some reason why they should claim you.
But I have been kicked and cuffed and sworn at, and at the best only let
alone; and what do I owe? I've paid for all my keeping a hundred times
over. I _won't_ bear it. No, I _won't_!" he said, clenching his hand
with a fierce frown.

Eliza trembled, and was silent. She had never seen her husband in this
mood before; and her gentle system of ethics seemed to bend like a reed
in the surges of such passions.

"You know poor little Carlo, that you gave me," added George; "the
creature has been about all the comfort that I've had. He has slept with
me nights, and followed me around days, and kind o' looked at me as if
he understood how I felt. Well, the other day I was just feeding him
with a few old scraps I picked up by the kitchen door, and Mas'r
came along, and said I was feeding him up at his expense, and that he
couldn't afford to have every nigger keeping his dog, and ordered me to
tie a stone to his neck and throw him in the pond."

"O, George, you didn't do it!"

"Do it? not I!--but he did. Mas'r and Tom pelted the poor drowning
creature with stones. Poor thing! he looked at me so mournful, as if
he wondered why I didn't save him. I had to take a flogging because I
wouldn't do it myself. I don't care. Mas'r will find out that I'm one
that whipping won't tame. My day will come yet, if he don't look out."

"What are you going to do? O, George, don't do anything wicked; if you
only trust in God, and try to do right, he'll deliver you."