of slaves.

The injured owner sat in the shaded parlor, in a blue-black satin dress,
that might almost have stood upright without assistance from the flesh
or bones inside; with the dress was combined a mass of lace and jewelry
that represented a large amount of money, and the mass as it sat there,
and as I recall it, has made costly attire odious.

This bedizzoned martyr, this costumer's advertisement, sat and fanned as
she recounted her grievances. Her entire allowance for personal
expenses, was the wages of nine women, and her husband would not give
her another dollar. They, knowing her necessities, were so
ungrateful!--nobody could think how ungrateful; but in all her sorrows,
Martha was her crowning grief. She had had two husbands, and had behaved
so badly when the first was sold. Then, every time one of her thirteen
children were disposed of, she "did take on so;" nobody could imagine
"how she took on!"

Once, the gentle mistress had been compelled to send her to the
workhouse and have her whipped by the constable; and that cost fifty
cents; but really, this martyr and her husband had grown weary of
flogging Martha. One hated so to send a servant to the public
whipping-post; it looked like cruelty--did cruelty lacerate the feelings
of refined people, and it was so ungrateful in Martha, and all the rest
of them, to torture this fine lady in this rough way.

As to Martha's ingratitude, there could be no doubt; for, to this, our
hostess testified, and called me to witness, that she had sent her a cup
of tea every day since she had complained of being sick; yes, "a cup of
tea with sugar in it," and yet the old wretch had not gone to work.

When they had finished the recital of their grievances they came down to
business. The owner would remit two week's wages; after that it was the
business of the employer to pay them, and see that they were earned. If
it were necessary now to send Martha to the whipping-post, the lady in
satin would pay the fifty cents; but for any future flogging, the lady
in lawn must be responsible to the City of Louisville.

We adjourned to the kitchen where old Martha stood before her judge,
clutching the table with her hard hands, trembling in every limb, her
eyelids swollen out like puff-balls, and offensive from neglect, her
white curls making a border to her red turban, receiving her sentence
without a word. As a sheep before her shearers she was dumb, opening not
her mouth. Those wrin