ever so good," said
Topsy. "If I could be skinned, and come white, I'd try then."

"But people can love you, if you are black, Topsy. Miss Ophelia would
love you if you were good."

'Topsy gave the short, blunt laugh that was her common mode of
expressing incredulity.

"Don't you think so?" said Eva.

"No; she can't bar me, 'cause I'm a nigger!--she'd's soon have a toad
touch her. There can't nobody love niggers, and niggers can't do
nothin'. _I_ don't care," said Topsy, beginning to whistle.

"O Topsy, poor child, _I_ love you," said Eva, with a sudden burst of
feeling, and laying her little thin white hand on Topsy's shoulder--"I
love you because you haven't had any father, or mother, or
friends--because you've been a poor, abused child! I love you, and I
want you to be good. I am very unwell, Topsy, and I think I shan't
live a great while; and it really grieves me to have you be so
naughty. I wish you would try to be good, for my sake; it's only a
little while I shall be with you."

'The round, keen eyes of the black child were overcast with tears;
large bright drops rolled heavily down, one by one, and fell on the
little white hand. Yes, in that moment a ray of real belief, a ray of
heavenly love, had penetrated the darkness of her heathen soul. She
laid her head down between her knees, and wept and sobbed; while the
beautiful child, bending over her, looked like the picture of some
bright angel stooping to reclaim a sinner.

"Poor Topsy!" said Eva, "don't you know that Jesus loves all alike? He
is just as willing to love you as me. He loves you just as I do, only
more, because he is better. He will help you to be good, and you can
go to heaven at last, and be an angel for ever, just as much as if you
were white. Only think of it, Topsy; _you_ can be one of those spirits
bright Uncle Tom sings about."

"O dear Miss Eva!--dear Miss Eva!" said the child, "I will try--I will
try! I never did care nothin' about it before."'

By such persuasions, Eva had the happiness to see the beginning of
improvement in Topsy, who finally assumed an entirely new character,
and attained a respectable position in society.

Eva, after this, declined rapidly. Uncle Tom was much in her room.
'The child suffered much from nervous restlessness, and it was a
relief to her to be carried; and it was Tom's greatest delight to
carry her little frail form in his arms, resting on a pillow, now up
and down her room, now out into the ver