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Show 90 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: OR, has the least thing the matter with her; but you never think of me.'' "If it's particularly agreeable to you to have heart discase, why, I'll try and maintain you have it," said St. Clare; ~~I didn't know it was." ' 1 Well, I only hope you won't be sorry for this, when it's too late ! " said ~1aric; " but, believe it or not, my distress n.bout Eva, and the exertions I have made with that dear child, have developed what I have long suspected." What the c~·m·tions were which Marie referred to, it would have been difficult to state. St. Clare quietly made this commentary to himself, and went on smoking, like a hard-hearted wretch of a man as he was, till a carriage drove up before tho verandah, and Eva and :Miss Ophelia alighted. Miss Ophelia marched straight to her own chamber, to put away her bonnet and shawl, as was always her manner, before she spoke a word on any subject; while E,·a, came, at St. Clare's call, and was sitting on his knee, giving him an account of the services they had heard. 'l'hey soon heard loud exclamations from Miss Ophelia's room, which, like the one in which they were sitting, opened on to the verandah, and violent reproof addressed to somebody. "What new witchcraft has 'l'ops been brewing?" askod St. Clare. "That cow motion is of her raising, I'll be bound!'' And, in a moment after, Miss Ophelia, in high indignation, came dragging the culprit along. ''Come out here, now!'' she said. '' I will tell your master!" "What's the case now?" asked Augustine. "'rho case is, that I cannot be plagued with this child, any LIFE AMONG TilE !,OWLY. 91 longer ! It's past all bearing; flesh and blood cannot endure it! Here, I lockod her up, and gave her a hymn to study; and whot docs she do, but spy out where I put my key, and has gone to my bureau, and got a bonnet-trimming, and cut it all to pieces, to make dolls' jackets! I never saw anything like it, in my life!" ''I told you, Cousin,'' said Marie, ''that you'd find out that these creatures can't be brought up, without severity. If I had my way, now," she said, looking reproachfully at St. Clare, "I'd send that child out, and have her thoroughly whipped; I'd have her whipped till she couldn't stand!" "I don't doubt it," said St. Clare. "Tell me of the lovely rule of woman ! I never saw above a dozen women that wouldn't half kill a horse, ot· a servant, either, if thoy had their own way with them! -let alone a man." "11hcre is no usc ln this shilly-shally way of yours, St. Clare!" said Marie. "Cousin is a. woman of sense, and she sees it now, as plain as I do." llliss Ophelia had just tho capability of indignation that belongs to the thorough-paced housekeeper, and this bad been pretty actively roused by the artifice and wastefulness of the child; in fact, many of my lady readers must own that they should have felt just so in her circumstances; but Marie's words went beyond her, and she felt less beat. "I wouldn't have the child treated so, for the world," she said; "but, I am sure, Augustine, I don't know what to do. I've taught nnd taught; I 've talked till I'm tired; I 've whipped her; I 'vc punished her in every way I can think of, and still she's just what she was at first." " Come here, Tops, you monkey ! " said St. C1are, cal1ing the child up to him. 'ropsy came up ; her round, hard eyes glitt~ring and blink- |
