'bout
Ham. Never hearn tell o' Ham afore, only ham in the smoke-house. If
ham's cussed in the Bible, what fur do folks eat it? Hearn Missis read
in the Bible that the Divil went into the swine. Don't see what fur I
must marry Tom 'cause Ham was cussed for his sin." She was silent for a
while, and, being unable to bring any order out of the chaos of her
thoughts, she turned them toward a more pleasant subject. "He didn't say
nothin'," murmured she; "but he looked jest as ef he _wanted_ to say
suthin'." The tender expression of those great brown eyes came before
her again, and she laid her head down on the table and sobbed.

Her protectors, as they styled themselves, never dreamed that she had a
heart. In their thoughts she was merely a bondwoman taken from the
heathen, and consigned to their keeping for their uses.

Tom made another visit to Dinah, and was out of the way when his master
wanted him. This caused the minister to hasten in making his third visit
to Chloe. She met him with the same frightened look; and when he asked
if she had made up her mind to obey her mistress, she timidly and sadly
repeated, "Massa Minister, I don't _want_ to be married."

"You don't want to do your duty; that's what it is, you disobedient
wench," said the minister sternly. "I will wrestle with the Lord in
prayer for you, that your rebellious heart may be taken away, and a
submissive temper given you, more befitting your servile condition."

He spread forth his hands, covered with very long-fingered, dangling
black-silk gloves, and lifted his voice in the following petition to the
Throne of Grace: "O Lord, we pray thee that this rebellious descendant
of Ham, whom thou hast been pleased to place under our protection, may
learn that it is her duty to obey thy Holy Word; wherein it is written
that I am unto her a minister of God, and that she is to obey her
mistress in all things. May she be brought to a proper sense of her
duty; and, by submission to her superiors, gain a humble place in thy
heavenly kingdom, where the curse inherited from her sinful progenitor
may be removed. This we ask in the name of thy Son, our Saviour Jesus
Christ, who died that sinners might be redeemed by believing on his
name; even sinners who, like this disobedient handmaid, were born in a
land of heathens."

He paused and looked at Chloe, who could do nothing but weep. There were
many words in the prayer which conveyed to her no meaning; and why she
was ac