Page:Fairy Tales for Worker's Children.djvu/49

 large hall, the older men seated themselves at a table and began to play cards.

The rich man had no luck, he lost again and again, until at last his purse was empty. "One more game," said he to his friend who had won all the money. "We will gamble for my strongest and best slave." And he thought to himself, "If I lose Tom, that will not be a misfortune, for lately he is lazy and obstinate, anyhow."

His friend agreed. The whole life and fate of a human being depended upon a few cards, a bundle of paper. The rich man drew a card, his friend did the same. They threw the cards on the table. The rich man had lost.

When Tom came to work the following morning, the overseer told him to go to the house of the rich man, the master had sold him and his new master would take him to his estate at once.

That evening Benjamin waited in vain for the return of his father. Night came, it was quite dark, and his father did not come. Benjamin sat huddled on the threshold, peering anxiously into the darkness. The little grey dog lay near him. He was sad and quiet, he seemed to feel that something was wrong. At last Benjamin could stand it no longer, ran crying to the hut of a neighbor, and asked about his father. The stout negress informed him that a strange master had taken Tom with him that morning; he was sold and would not return.

Benjamin went home crying, afraid of the dark, holding the little dog, his only friend, tight in his arms. And now something strange happened. When Benjamin, sobbing, started to tell the little dog of this sorrow, the dog began to bark softly. But it was not an ordinary bark, but speech, and Benjamin understood very well the words, "Don't cry, little friend, I will take care of you and guard you. And some day we will go to search for your parents." 43