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 afterwards that he'd been there before, and that was the way he got track of me. He didn't come back again to stay till the winter before he brought you here, and his father was dead then. He never took much notice of me, but I follered him like a ghost. I hadn't any fear of him then, and was so afraid he'd sell my children that every time a stranger was round I listened. Well, one night I listened," then turning to Mrs. Carleton, "be strong honey, and cast all your trouble on the Lord Jesus, that's the way I do, and when I feels very wicked he comes and quiets me and tells me about his crown of thorns, and how he suffered that I might be good, and then I feel's willin' to bear it all, but it will come over me again when I forgets him."

Chrissy here related the substance of the conversation narrated in a previous chapter, and then straightening herself up with an air of triumph, continued, "I kept it all to myself and didn't even let the birds know what I'd heerd, 'cause you know they'll carry things strangely sometimes. When you first came he treated me with his old kindness, and I felt as if I was willin' to forgive him for all he'd done to me; then he brought that young thing here and told me I wan't needed any more and he was goin' to hire me out. All my blood was in a boil then, and I spoke right out and told him what I'd overheard, but didn't let him know I'd overheard it. Says I 'Massa, you know we was children together, and you treated me like a sister, as I was, and when helpless in your power, I wanted to save—your child from bein' the miserable slave that I am, I went off,