"The Lord forbid, Missis!" said Tom, using instinctively to his field
companion the respectful form proper to the high bred with whom he had
lived.

"The Lord never visits these parts," said the woman, bitterly, as she
went nimbly forward with her work; and again the scornful smile curled
her lips.

But the action of the woman had been seen by the driver, across the
field; and, flourishing his whip, he came up to her.

"What! what!" he said to the woman, with an air of triumph, "You a
foolin'? Go along! yer under me now,--mind yourself, or yer'll cotch
it!"

A glance like sheet-lightning suddenly flashed from those black eyes;
and, facing about, with quivering lip and dilated nostrils, she drew
herself up, and fixed a glance, blazing with rage and scorn, on the
driver.

"Dog!" she said, "touch _me_, if you dare! I've power enough, yet, to
have you torn by the dogs, burnt alive, cut to inches! I've only to say
the word!"

"What de devil you here for, den?" said the man, evidently cowed, and
sullenly retreating a step or two. "Didn't mean no harm, Misse Cassy!"

"Keep your distance, then!" said the woman. And, in truth, the man
seemed greatly inclined to attend to something at the other end of the
field, and started off in quick time.

The woman suddenly turned to her work, and labored with a despatch that
was perfectly astonishing to Tom. She seemed to work by magic. Before
the day was through, her basket was filled, crowded down, and piled, and
she had several times put largely into Tom's. Long after dusk, the
whole weary train, with their baskets on their heads, defiled up to the
building appropriated to the storing and weighing the cotton. Legree was
there, busily conversing with the two drivers.

"Dat ar Tom's gwine to make a powerful deal o' trouble; kept a puttin'
into Lucy's basket.--One o' these yer dat will get all der niggers to
feelin' bused, if Masir don't watch him!" said Sambo.

"Hey-dey! The black cuss!" said Legree. "He'll have to get a breakin'
in, won't he, boys?"

Both negroes grinned a horrid grin, at this intimation.

"Ay, ay! Let Mas'r Legree alone, for breakin' in! De debil heself
couldn't beat Mas'r at dat!" said Quimbo.

"Wal, boys, the best way is to give him the flogging to do, till he gets
over his notions. Break him in!"

"Lord, Mas'r'll have hard work to get dat out o' him!"

"It'll have to come out of him, though!" said Legree, as he rolled his
tobacco in his mouth.