yes made her soul
sick, and her flesh creep. Involuntarily she clung closer to the mulatto
woman by her side, as if she were her mother.

"You didn't ever wear ear-rings," he said, taking hold of her small ear
with his coarse fingers.

"No, Mas'r!" said Emmeline, trembling and looking down.

"Well, I'll give you a pair, when we get home, if you're a good girl.
You needn't be so frightened; I don't mean to make you work very hard.
You'll have fine times with me, and live like a lady,--only be a good
girl."

Legree had been drinking to that degree that he was inclining to be
very gracious; and it was about this time that the enclosures of the
plantation rose to view. The estate had formerly belonged to a gentleman
of opulence and taste, who had bestowed some considerable attention
to the adornment of his grounds. Having died insolvent, it had been
purchased, at a bargain, by Legree, who used it, as he did everything
else, merely as an implement for money-making. The place had that
ragged, forlorn appearance, which is always produced by the evidence
that the care of the former owner has been left to go to utter decay.

What was once a smooth-shaven lawn before the house, dotted here and
there with ornamental shrubs, was now covered with frowsy tangled
grass, with horseposts set up, here and there, in it, where the turf was
stamped away, and the ground littered with broken pails, cobs of corn,
and other slovenly remains. Here and there, a mildewed jessamine or
honeysuckle hung raggedly from some ornamental support, which had been
pushed to one side by being used as a horse-post. What once was a large
garden was now all grown over with weeds, through which, here and
there, some solitary exotic reared its forsaken head. What had been a
conservatory had now no window-shades, and on the mouldering shelves
stood some dry, forsaken flower-pots, with sticks in them, whose dried
leaves showed they had once been plants.

The wagon rolled up a weedy gravel walk, under a noble avenue of China
trees, whose graceful forms and ever-springing foliage seemed to be the
only things there that neglect could not daunt or alter,--like noble
spirits, so deeply rooted in goodness, as to flourish and grow stronger
amid discouragement and decay.

The house had been large and handsome. It was built in a manner common
at the South; a wide verandah of two stories running round every part
of the house, into which every outer door opened, the lo