e, and comely, though dejected and sad
appearance, instantly raised a dozen bids. First here, now there, might
be heard the voice of the competitors; the noise of the hammer ceased,
and Judy was the property of Mr. Carter. After his purchase Mr. Carter
was taking Judy to the boat, when she felt some one catching hold of her
arm; she turned around and immediately recognized the person as a
gentleman whom she had known while living with Mrs. Madison's daughter.
He said to her:
"'Why, Judy, where are you going?'
"She answered in a kind of wicked despair:
"'To hell, I believe.'
"This gentleman inquired about her condition, and finally rescued her,
and sent her to Vincennes, where she labored for many years and found
some good friends, but she never felt safe after she had been stolen
away from there. She made inquiries about her children, but never
learned anything of them. Not having anything to attach her to
Vincennes, she left and came to Terra Haute, where she resided a little
while, and then came further into the interior of the state.
"Her children are scattered, and gone she knows not where; and after a
long life of toil and suffering she is here, old, infirm, and a beggar.
Every wrinkle on her brow could tell a tale of suffering; her youth is
gone; her energies are all spent, and her long life of toil has been
for naught."
Mrs. Ford ceased, her tears were falling fast, and the children were
sobbing around her. The fire, from neglect, had gone out, and there were
only a few smoking embers left in the fire-place, reminding them of the
time that had been spent in hearing "AUNT JUDY'S STORY."
[Illustration: AUNT JUDY.]
* * * * *
[Illustration: "ME NEBER GIB IT UP!"]
"ME NEBER GIB IT UP!"
"Please, massa, teach me to read!" said an aged negro one day to a
missionary in the West Indies.
The missionary said he would do so, and the negro became his scholar.
But. the poor old man, trained in ignorance through threescore years,
found it difficult to learn. He tried hard, but made little progress.
One day the missionary said:
"Had you not better give it up?"
"No, massa," said the negro, with the energy of a noble nature, "me
neber gib it up till me die!"
He then pointed to these beautiful words in his Testament: "God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotton Son, that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "There
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