ng
Hasty's condition as a human being, as a sister, never for a moment
occurred to her; indeed, the sickness of the little poodle dog, which
she led by a pink ribbon, would have elicited far more of the sympathies
of her nature. In Hasty she saw only a piece of property visibly
depreciated by sickness.

"What is the matter with you, girl? Why have you not come to pay me my
money?" she asked harshly, as she took the seat that Fanny had carefully
dusted off.

"O missus! I'se been too sick to work dis two weeks; but I'se got five
dollars saved up for you, and if ever I get well I kin pay you the
rest soon."

"Pay the rest soon! Yes, you look very much like that. You are just
making a fool of yourself about your husband; that is the way you
niggers do. You are just trying to cheat me out of the money. I'll never
let one of my women get married again."

While the much-injured lady was delivering this speech, the poodle, who
had been intently watching the face of his mistress, and thinking some
one must be the offender, sprang at Fanny, viciously snapping at her
feet. She, poor girl, had watched every expression in the face of her
mistress, with the same anxiety as the courtiers of the sultan watch
that autocrat, who holds their lives and fortunes in his hand; and
surprised at this assault from an unlooked-for quarter, she jumped
aside, and in doing so trod upon the paw of her tormentor, and sent him
howling to the lap of his mistress.

This was the last drop that caused the cup of wrath to overflow. Without
heeding the protestations of Fanny, she seized her by the arm, and boxed
her ears soundly.

"What did you tread upon the dog for, you great clumsy nigger? I'll
teach you what I'll do, if you do anything of the kind again; I'll give
you a good whipping."

Then turning to Hasty, whose feeble nerves had been intensely excited by
this scene, she said: "I want you to get to work again pretty soon, and
not lie there too lazy to work. You need not think I am going to lose my
money by your foolishness. I shall expect your month's payment as usual,
and if I don't get it, I will hire you out like the rest. And there is
another thing I have to say; you are not going to keep this lazy girl
here to hinder you, and to spend money on. A lady I know wants just such
a girl to go to the door, and to wait on her, who will give me two
dollars a month for her, and it is quite time she was doing something. I
will not take her away no