OCR Text |
Show 38 THE MONTHLY OFFERING. • * * * * " The ungrateful bussey! What! after all that we have done for her; giving her the best room we could spare-feeding her from our own table-clothing her from our own wardrobe-giving her the handsomest and shrewdest fellow for a husband within twenty miles of us --allowing them to live together till a child is born; and now; because we have thought proper to send him away for a while, where he may earn his keep-now forsooth! we are to find my lady discontented with her situation.'' ''Dear father ! " "Hush, child ! " "Ay, discontented-that's the word-actually dissatisfied with her condition ! the jade !-with the best of every thing to make her happy; confits and lux•uies she could never dream of obtaining were she freo to-morrow-and always contented, never presuming to be discontented till now." "And what does she complain of, father 1 "Why, my dear child, the unreasonable thing complains just because we have sent her husband away to the other plantation for a few months : he was getting idle here, and might have grown discontented, too, if we had not packed him off. And ' then instead of being happier, and more thankful-more thankful to her Heavenly Father, for the gift of a man child, Martha tells me that she just found her crying over it, calling it a little slave, and wishing the Lord would tal;e it away from her-the ungrateful wench! • when the death of that child would be two hundred dollars out of my pocket, every cent of it! '' "After all we have done for her, tuo! " sighed the mother. "I declare I have no patience with the jade! " continu-ed the father. "Father-dear father!" "Be quiet, Moggy, don't teaze me now." "But father!" and as she opoke, the child ran up to her father and drew him to the window, and threw back THE INSTINCT OF CHILDHOOD. 39 her sun-shiny tresses, and looked up into his eyes with the face of an angel, and pointed to the cage as it still hung at the window, with the door wide open ! The father understood her, and colored to the eyes ; and tlwn as if more than half ashamed of the wealmess, bent over and kissed her forehead, smoothed down her silky hair, and told her she was a child, now, and must not talk about such matters till she had grown older. " \Vh y not, father 1 " "\Vhy not!-Why bless your little heart !-Suppose I were silly eoough to open my doors and turn the poor thing adrift with her child at her breast-what would become of her? Who would take care of her ?-who feed her?" "Who feeds the young ravens, father? Who takes care of all the white mothers, and all the white babies we see?" ''Yes, child-but then-I know what you are thinking of; but then-there's a mighty difference let me tell you between a slave mother and a white mother-between a slave child and a white child." ''Yes, father." "Don't interrupt me: you drive every thing out of my head. What was I going to say l-Oh-ah ! that in our long winters and cold rains, these poor things who have been brought up in our houses, and who know nothing about the anxieties of life, and have never learned to take care of themselves-and-a-a-" "Yes, father; but could'nt t!tey follow the sun too? or go farther south? " "And why not be happy here?'' " But father-dear father? How can they teac!t t!teir little ones to .fly in a cage ? " . " Child, you are getting troublesome!" " And how teacJ-, their young to provide for tltemselves, father 1" "Put the little imp to bed, directly-do you hear!" " Good night, father! good night mother-Do A~ YOU WOULD BE DONE BY ! " |