e for Hasty. Here she had
no difficulty, for the neighbors of Hasty willingly offered their
services. Selecting one who appeared thoughtful and tidy, Mrs. Jennings
returned home with a heart lightened by a consciousness of duty well
performed.

For some days Hasty lay in a kind of stupor, without taking any notice
of transpiring events, or seeming to recur to those of the past. She was
daily supplied with various little dainties and luxuries suitable to an
invalid, and received many other attentions from the kind-hearted Mrs.
Jennings. Fanny's health improved each day, and, as the buoyancy of
youth threw off the remains of disease, she regained her strength, and
at the end of the following week she was able to take almost the entire
charge of her mother. Hasty's eyes followed every movement of her child
with the in tensest eagerness, as if fearing that she too would be
taken from her.

When Fanny was fully recovered she learned the fate of her father. She
did not weep, or sob, or complain, but for the first time she realized
the shadow that slavery had cast over her; and the change was
instantaneous, from the mirthful, happy child, to the anxious, watchful
slave girl. Hereafter there was to be no trusting confidence, no
careless gayety, but this consciousness of slavery must mingle with
every thought, with every action.

One day, about a week after Hasty was taken sick, her mistress entered
her room. This lady was the widow of a Frenchman, one of the early
settlers of St. Louis, who had, by persevering industry, gained a
competency. Before he had an opportunity of enjoying it he died, and
left his property, consisting of a dwelling, five or six negroes, and
a good sum in the stocks, to his widow. Mrs. Le Rue, on breaking up
housekeeping, allowed Hasty to hire her time for two dollars a week,
on condition that at the end of each month the required sum was to be
forthcoming, and in the event of failure, the revocation of the
permission was to be the inevitable consequence.

The monthly pay-day found Hasty prostrated on a bed of sickness, and of
course it passed without the payment of the stipulated sum. This was the
immediate cause of her visit.

The anxiety depicted in the countenance of Mrs. Le Rue did not arise
from any sympathy for the emaciated and suffering woman before her, but
only from that natural vexation with which a farmer would regard the
sudden falling lame of a valuable horse. The idea of commiserati