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Show 214 UNCLE '£0..\1 18 CABIN: OR, dogs, of whom we have befOre spoken, had encamped themselves among them, to suit their own taste and convenience. Legree was just mixing himself a tumbler of punch, ]XlUl'ing his hot water from a cracked and broken-nosed pitcher, grumbling, as he did so, "PJaguc on that S<.Lmbo, to kick up this yor row between me and the new hands ! The fellow won't be fit to work for a ·week, now,- right in the press of the season!" ' 1 Yes, just like you," said a voice, behind his chair. It was the woman Cassy, who bad stolen upon his soliloquy. " IIah ! you she-devil ! you 've come back, have you?" "Yes, I ha.vc," she said, coolly; "come to have my own way, too!" " You lie, you jade ! I 'II be up to my word. Either behave yourself, or stay down to the quarters, and fare and work with the rest." "I'd rather, ten thousand times," said the woman, 11 live in the dirtiest hole at the ctuartcrs, than be under your hoof!" 0 But you are under my hoof, for all that," said he, turning upon her, with a. savage grin; "that's one comfort. So, sit Uown hero on my knee, my dear, and hear to reason," sa.ld he, bying hold on her wrist. " Simon Legree, take care! " said tho woman, with a sharp flash of her eye, a glance so wild and insane in its light as to be almost appa.lling. "You 'rc afraid of me, Simon," she said, deliberately; "and you 'vc reason to be! But be cnrcful, for I 1vc got tho devil in me!" The last words she whispered in a hissing tone, close to his car. " Get out! I believe, to my soul, you have ! " said Legree, pushing her from him, and looking uncomfortably at her. LIFJ~ AMONO THE LOWJ..Y. 215 ''After all, Cassy," he said, ('·why can't you be friends with me, ns you used to ? " "Used to! " said she, bitterly. She stopped short,- a world of choking feelings, rising in her heart, kept her silent. Cassy bad always kept over Legree tho kind of influence that a strong, impassioned woman can ever keep over the most brutal man; but, of la.te, she had grown more and more irritable and restless, under the hideous yoke of her servitude, and her irritability, at times, broke out into ra\•ing insanity; and this li<tbility made her a sort of object of dread to Legree, who had that superstitious horror of insane persons which is common to coarse and uninstructed minds. "'When Legree brought Emmeline to the house, all the smouldering embers of womanly feeling flashed up in tho worn heart of Cassy, and she took part with the girl; and a fierce quarrel ensued between her and Legree. Legree, in a fury, swore she should be put to field service, if she would not be peaceable. Cassy, with proud scorn, declared she would go to the field. And she worked there one day, as we have described, to show how perfectly she scorned the threat. Legree was secretly uneasy, all day; for Cassy had an influence over him from which be could not free himself. When she presented· her basket at the scales, he had hoped for some concession, and addressed her in a sort of half conciliatory, half scornful tone ; and she bad answered with the bitterest contempt. The outrageous treatment of poor Tom had roused her still more; and she bud followed Legree to the bouse, with no particular intention, but to upbraid him for his brutality. "I wish, Cassy," said Legree, 1' you'd behave yourself decently." "You talk about behaving decently! And what have you |