y, that a law is now
in operation which will soon set all the slaves free. In a very short
time, the negroes will be at liberty like other working men; and the
masters, instead of buying them, must hire them like servants, and pay
them wages; and they will be able to leave their master if he does not
treat them well, and get another place, as our servants do."

"Ah, how glad I am," said Charles, "that will be a good thing for the
poor blacks. I do not wish to have a slave now, papa; I would not have
one for the world. But Peter's father's slaves do not work in the gold
mines, they make sugar: why is that?"

"Because there are no gold mines now in the West-Indies worth working,"
said Mr. Barker; "the Spaniards took care to get all the gold there was,
but people still make large fortunes there, by growing sugar; and there
are still gold mines in other parts of America, where negro slaves
work."

"How does sugar grow?" enquired Charles.

"It is made from the juice of reeds, called sugar canes," said his
papa.--"A plantation of sugar canes is very pretty, they grow very high,
and are of a beautiful gold colour, streaked with red; and at the top of
this yellow cane are long green leaves, which hang down round it: but
this is not all, for out of the midst of these leaves, there grows a
long stem, like a thin silver wand; and at the top of it, is something
that looks like a plume of white feathers, edged with lilac."

"Oh, how beautiful!" exclaimed Charles:--"I should like to go to the
West-Indies, if it was only to see a sugar plantation; but how do they
get the sugar, papa?"

"When the canes are ripe, Charles, the negroes cut them down, and tie
them up in bundles, and carry them to a mill, where the juice is pressed
out.

"This juice is boiled several times in large coppers, and the coarse
parts separated from the fine, which at last dries into sugar. It is all
brown at first, or what you call moist sugar; but by mixing different
things with it, and boiling it again in a particular manner, they can
make lump sugar, and sugar candy; and this is done by the black slaves,
who have been dragged away from their own country to be sold to the
planters: so you see Charles, that even so simple a thing as a lump of
sugar, is the cause of a vast deal of cruelty and injustice."

[Illustration: Man (Drawing).]

CHAP. III.

A VISIT TO THE THEATRE.

Charles had never seen a play; but his papa and mamma had always
pro