ad made up my mind,--yes, I had. I would
never again let a child live to grow up! I took the little fellow in my
arms, when he was two weeks old, and kissed him, and cried over him; and
then I gave him laudanum, and held him close to my bosom, while he slept
to death. How I mourned and cried over it! and who ever dreamed that it
was anything but a mistake, that had made me give it the laudanum? but
it's one of the few things that I'm glad of, now. I am not sorry, to
this day; he, at least, is out of pain. What better than death could
I give him, poor child! After a while, the cholera came, and Captain
Stuart died; everybody died that wanted to live,--and I,--I, though I
went down to death's door,--_I lived!_ Then I was sold, and passed from
hand to hand, till I grew faded and wrinkled, and I had a fever; and
then this wretch bought me, and brought me here,--and here I am!"

The woman stopped. She had hurried on through her story, with a wild,
passionate utterance; sometimes seeming to address it to Tom, and
sometimes speaking as in a soliloquy. So vehement and overpowering was
the force with which she spoke, that, for a season, Tom was beguiled
even from the pain of his wounds, and, raising himself on one elbow,
watched her as she paced restlessly up and down, her long black hair
swaying heavily about her, as she moved.

"You tell me," she said, after a pause, "that there is a God,--a God
that looks down and sees all these things. May be it's so. The sisters
in the convent used to tell me of a day of judgment, when everything is
coming to light;--won't there be vengeance, then!

"They think it's nothing, what we suffer,--nothing, what our children
suffer! It's all a small matter; yet I've walked the streets when it
seemed as if I had misery enough in my one heart to sink the city. I've
wished the houses would fall on me, or the stones sink under me. Yes!
and, in the judgment day, I will stand up before God, a witness against
those that have ruined me and my children, body and soul!

"When I was a girl, I thought I was religious; I used to love God and
prayer. Now, I'm a lost soul, pursued by devils that torment me day
and night; they keep pushing me on and on--and I'll do it, too, some of
these days!" she said, clenching her hand, while an insane light glanced
in her heavy black eyes. "I'll send him where he belongs,--a short way,
too,--one of these nights, if they burn me alive for it!" A wild, long
laugh rang throu