ight was out of the question.
Ally proposed that Mulock should oversee his gang for a time while he
remained about home and kept watch over her. None of the negroes could
be induced to whip her in his presence; and if Dawsey or any other white
man attempted it, he was free--he would meet them with their own
weapons. Mulock agreed to this, and the next day went to the swamp.

Learning of his presence on the plantation, the mistress sent for him,
and, by means of a paltry bribe, induced him to reveal all! Selma
thought he loved Phyllis as much as his brutal nature was capable of
loving, and that he betrayed her to save her mother from further ill
usage.

The next morning, four strong men entered Ally's cabin before he had
left his bed, bound him hand and foot, and dragged Phyllis away, to be
again whipped for having refused to betray Selma. Unable to stand, she
was tied to a stake, and unmercifully beaten. Weak from the effects of
the previous whipping, and crushed in spirit by anxiety for her child,
nature could no longer sustain her. A fever set in, and, at the end of a
week, she died.

Selma was told of their relation to each other. The nurse, so devotedly
attached to her, and whom she had so long loved, was her own mother! She
learned this only in time to see her die, and to hear her last blessing.

Then Selma experienced all the bitterness of slavery. She was set at
work in the kitchen with the other slaves. It seemed that Mrs. Preston
took especial delight in assigning to the naturally high-spirited and
sensitive girl the most menial employments. Patiently trusting in God
that He would send deliverance, she endeavored to perform,
uncomplainingly, her allotted tasks. Wholly unaccustomed to such work,
weary in body and sick at heart, she dragged herself about from day to
day, till at last Mrs. Preston, disgusted with her 'laziness,' as she
termed it, directed her to be taken to the quarters and beaten with
fifty lashes!

Ally had been ordered away by the mistress, and that morning had gone to
Trenton to consult the administrator, and get his permission to stay on
the plantation. That gentleman--a kind-hearted, upright man--not only
told him he could remain, but gave him a written order to take and keep
Selma in his custody.

He returned at night, to find she had been whipped. His blood boiling
with rage, he entered the mansion, and demanded to see her. Mrs. Preston
declined. He then gave her the order of the ad