th light and
power, as he spoke; it thrilled through the sinner's soul, too, like the
bite of a scorpion. Legree gnashed on him with his teeth, but rage kept
him silent; and Tom, like a man disenthralled, spoke, in a clear and
cheerful voice,

"Mas'r Legree, as ye bought me, I'll be a true and faithful servant to
ye. I'll give ye all the work of my hands, all my time, all my strength;
but my soul I won't give up to mortal man. I will hold on to the Lord,
and put his commands before all,--die or live; you may be sure on 't.
Mas'r Legree, I ain't a grain afeard to die. I'd as soon die as not. Ye
may whip me, starve me, burn me,--it'll only send me sooner where I want
to go."

"I'll make ye give out, though, 'fore I've done!" said Legree, in a
rage.

"I shall have _help_," said Tom; "you'll never do it."

"Who the devil's going to help you?" said Legree, scornfully.

"The Lord Almighty," said Tom.

"D--n you!" said Legree, as with one blow of his fist he felled Tom to
the earth.

A cold soft hand fell on Legree's at this moment. He turned,--it was
Cassy's; but the cold soft touch recalled his dream of the night before,
and, flashing through the chambers of his brain, came all the fearful
images of the night-watches, with a portion of the horror that
accompanied them.

"Will you be a fool?" said Cassy, in French. "Let him go! Let me alone
to get him fit to be in the field again. Isn't it just as I told you?"

They say the alligator, the rhinoceros, though enclosed in bullet-proof
mail, have each a spot where they are vulnerable; and fierce, reckless,
unbelieving reprobates, have commonly this point in superstitious dread.

Legree turned away, determined to let the point go for the time.

"Well, have it your own way," he said, doggedly, to Cassy.

"Hark, ye!" he said to Tom; "I won't deal with ye now, because the
business is pressing, and I want all my hands; but I _never_ forget.
I'll score it against ye, and sometime I'll have my pay out o' yer old
black hide,--mind ye!"

Legree turned, and went out.

"There you go," said Cassy, looking darkly after him; "your reckoning's
to come, yet!--My poor fellow, how are you?"

"The Lord God hath sent his angel, and shut the lion's mouth, for this
time," said Tom.

"For this time, to be sure," said Cassy; "but now you've got his ill
will upon you, to follow you day in, day out, hanging like a dog on your
throat,--sucking your blood, bleeding away your life, drop