he ear that has never heard anything but abuse is strangely
incredulous of anything so heavenly as kindness; and Topsy only thought
Eva's speech something funny and inexplicable,--she did not believe it.

But what was to be done with Topsy? Miss Ophelia found the case a
puzzler; her rules for bringing up didn't seem to apply. She thought she
would take time to think of it; and, by the way of gaining time, and in
hopes of some indefinite moral virtues supposed to be inherent in dark
closets, Miss Ophelia shut Topsy up in one till she had arranged her
ideas further on the subject.

"I don't see," said Miss Ophelia to St. Clare, "how I'm going to manage
that child, without whipping her."

"Well, whip her, then, to your heart's content; I'll give you full power
to do what you like."

"Children always have to be whipped," said Miss Ophelia; "I never heard
of bringing them up without."

"O, well, certainly," said St. Clare; "do as you think best. Only I'll
make one suggestion: I've seen this child whipped with a poker, knocked
down with the shovel or tongs, whichever came handiest, &c.; and, seeing
that she is used to that style of operation, I think your whippings will
have to be pretty energetic, to make much impression."

"What is to be done with her, then?" said Miss Ophelia.

"You have started a serious question," said St. Clare; "I wish you'd
answer it. What is to be done with a human being that can be governed
only by the lash,--_that_ fails,--it's a very common state of things
down here!"

"I'm sure I don't know; I never saw such a child as this."

"Such children are very common among us, and such men and women, too.
How are they to be governed?" said St. Clare.

"I'm sure it's more than I can say," said Miss Ophelia.

"Or I either," said St. Clare. "The horrid cruelties and outrages that
once and a while find their way into the papers,--such cases as Prue's,
for example,--what do they come from? In many cases, it is a gradual
hardening process on both sides,--the owner growing more and more
cruel, as the servant more and more callous. Whipping and abuse are like
laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.
I saw this very early when I became an owner; and I resolved never to
begin, because I did not know when I should stop,--and I resolved,
at least, to protect my own moral nature. The consequence is, that my
servants act like spoiled children; but I think that better than for us
b