threads I have so unconsciously spun into it, I can see what a slender one has separated me from what I might have been. If they gather round me now in my misfortune after the squalid life I have led, what might they not have done when I was an innocent child? Yes, I see it all now, it was wicked in me to put no more faith in human kind, to believe they all hated me, and then in turn to hate them with such bitter, cruel hatred. But I was not all to blame, how could I know any better? Didn't I see my mother taken away, and why shouldn't I be afraid of everybody? Yes, I see it all now, how her master came there and knew her, and when she went out to the pump he followed her and gagged her so she could not make any noise, told her she was his slave and threatened her if she gave any alarm, and so she went off. Oh God! why should we live to suffer so much?"
She appeared to be slightly wandering in her manner, but her words were coherent, and impressed one with a strong degree of truthfulness, yet it seemed scarcely credible that such a deed could have been done without being known.
She started up suddenly, and spoke at the top of her voice,
"Yes! you will be brought to judgment! for such deeds as these which you think will never be known, shall this nation yet be clothed in sackcloth and ashes! Oh God! receive my spirit. Thou who art the poor one's friend."
She sunk back exhausted, panting for breath, and soon fell into a quiet slumber. As she lay there