other night wid
little Massa Eddie.' O my sakes alive! but Massa Nelson was mad den; he
said: 'You, you black nigger, dare to talk to me about rights;' and he
struck Mark over de face wid de big carriage whip, and said 'he'd 'tend
to him in de mornin'.'"

"And did Mark say nothing more than that?" inquired Mrs. Jennings;
thinking that Hasty, like any other wife, would endeavor to hide her
husband's faults.

"No, missus, dat was every ting he said, and just went away and got de
carriage round for Massa Nelson to go to church. Well, de next mornin'
Massa Nelson told him to put on his coat and follow him, and he toted
him down to old M'Affee's pen, and sold him to go down some river way
down South; and I have cum dis mornin'," she said, looking up
inquiringly into Mrs. Jennings's face, "to see if you, Missus, or Massa
Jennings, wouldn't do something for him."

"Well, Hasty, I'm sorry, very sorry for you," said Mrs. Jennings; "but
don't be down-hearted; I will postpone going East this week, and see
what can be done for you; and if my husband can't buy Mark, he probably
knows some one who wants a trusty servant, such as I know Mark to be.
However, Hasty, you may be assured that I will do all in my power to
prevent your husband from going."

Hasty dried her tears, and with many thanks took her departure, feeling
much comforted by the confident tone with which Mrs. Jennings spoke.

After Hasty had gone, Mrs. Jennings pondered, as she had never before
done, on the evil effects of slavery. She thought of Hasty's grief, as
poignant as would have been her own, had her husband been in Mark's
place, and which had changed that usually bright countenance to one
haggard with suffering. She thought of the father torn from his wife and
child; of the child fatherless, though not an orphan; of that child's
future; and as it presented itself to her, she clasped her own little
girl closer to her heart, almost fearing that it was to share that
future. Ah! she was putting her "soul in the slave soul's stead."

CHAPTER II.

Mrs. Jennings, true to her promise, acquainted Mr. Jennings with the
transaction, and entreated him to make an effort immediately to rescue
Mark from his fearful doom.

"Well, my dear," he answered, "it appears that the boy has been
impudent, and I don't know that it would be right for me to interfere,
but Mark has always been such a good servant that if I had been his
master I would have overlooked it, or