to help yourself. If you do as I wish, I will do all I can to
help you, but if you will not, thank yourself for what may happen.
Recollect, I am master now; so take your choice."
"Well," replied he, slowly, "it's a judgment upon me, and I must agree
to it. I will do what you wish."
"Well, then, to begin," said I, "I have often asked you what your name
was, and what was mine. I must call you something, and Master I will
not, for I am master now. What is your name?"
He groaned, ground his teeth, and then said, "Edward Jackson."
"Edward Jackson! Very well; and my name?"
"No, I cannot bear the name. I cannot say it," replied he angrily.
"It it so," replied I. "Then I leave you."
"Will you bring me some water for my eyes? They burn," said he.
"No, I will not, nor anything else, unless you tell me my name."
"Frank Henniker--and curses on it!"
"Frank Henniker. Well, now you shall have the water."
I went out, filled a kid, and put it by his side.
"There is the water, Jackson; if you want anything, call me. I shall be
outside."
"I have gained the mastery," thought I,--"it will be my turn now. He
don't like to answer, but he shall, or he shall starve. Why does he
feel so angry at my name? Henniker! What is the meaning of Henniker, I
wonder? I will make him tell me. Yes, he shall tell me everything." I
may here observe, that as for pity and compassion, I did not know such
feelings. I had been so ill-treated, that I only felt that might was
right; and this right I determined upon exercising to the utmost. I
felt an inconceivable pleasure at the idea of my being the master, and
he the boy. I felt the love of power, the pride of superiority. I then
revolved in my mind the daily task which I would set him before he
should receive his daily sustenance. He should talk now as much as I
pleased, for I was the master. I had been treated as a slave, and I was
now fully prepared to play the tyrant. Mercy and compassion I knew not.
I had never seen them called forth, and I felt them not. I sat down on
the flat rock for some time, and then it occurred to me that I would
turn the course of the water which fell into the hole at the edge of the
cliff; so that if he crawled there, he would not be able to obtain any.
I did so, and emptied the hole. The water was now only to be obtained
by climbing up, and it was out of his power to obtain a drop. Food, of
course, he could obtain, as the dried b
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