Though you the child's father may happen to be,
That child is a slave,--otherwise, prop-er-ty.

VII.

"I've bred you, my darling, as ladies are bred,
You've got more outside than inside of your head;
But now, that your pa can no longer afford
A daughter to keep, you must go by the board."

CHORUS.--Concerning the manner of going by the board generally
adopted in the land of Chivalry:

The planter on finding his funds getting low,
Right straight to an auctioneer's shambles doth go;
And "Find me a ready-cash buyer," says he,
"To take his own pick out of my fam-i-ly."

VIII.

Miss Linda sprang up with a look of dismay:
"You surely don't mean, dear papa, what you say?"
Then spake the stern parent, nowise looking blue,
But smiling, in fact: "Well, I reckon I do."

CHORUS.--Calculated to account for the complacency of the tender
parent on this trying occasion:

Now what, after all, is a sale to the chit?
Some gallant may buy her and love her a bit;
One half of the women in marriages sought
Are simply and plainly and formally bought.

IX.

"Dear father," said Linda, "step out for a while,
I'll think the thing over, and merit your smile;
For if what I'd bring would relieve you the least,
I'll bring it myself, though I'm sold like a beast."

CHORUS.--Tending to deprecate any imputation on the maiden's
refinement that might follow her use of that last expression:

The culture of woman, as known in the South,
Tends greatly to widen and quicken the mouth;
And if a fair Southerner's language is coarse,
'Tis because nothing finer her style would endorse.

X.

The parent went out, and he stayed for an hour,
Having taken some punch and a Hennessey--sour;
And when he came back, 'twas his daughter he found
Slain by her own scissors, and dead on the ground.

CHORUS.--Suggesting facts to the coroner's jury, and clearing up
all mystery as to the lamentable suicide:

Since scissors for ripping out stitches are made,
A girl in extremity finds them an aid;
She's only to open them fairly and wide,
And give them a cut at the stitch in her side.

XI.

Beside the dead body a billet displayed,
Said, "See, dearest father, the mischief you've made;
I couldn't survive to be sold; for you know,
I'd far rather die than a