t
gleamings arise in the _east_, they must wear their chains. Except when
some strong-minded female steps forth from the degraded ranks, and asserts
her position, whether by giving loose to that unruly member the tongue, or
by a piece of management which will give "an old fool a lesson that will
last him all the days of his life."

CHAPTER X.

Phillis was at her ironing early in the morning, for she liked to hurry it
over before the heat of the day. Her cabin doors were open, and her
flowers, which had been watered by a slight rain that fell about daybreak,
looked fresh and beautiful. Her house could be hardly called a cabin, for
it was very much superior to the others on the plantation, though they were
all comfortable. Phillis was regarded by the Weston family as the most
valuable servant they owned--and, apart from her services, there were
strong reasons why they were attached to her. She had nursed Mrs. Weston in
her last illness, and as her death occurred immediately after Arthur's
birth, she nourished him as her own child, and loved him quite as well. Her
comfort and wishes were always objects of the greatest consideration to the
family, and this was proved whenever occasion allowed. Her neatly
white-washed cottage was enclosed by a wooden fence in good condition--her
little garden laid out with great taste, if we except the rows of
stiffly-trimmed box which Phillis took pride in. A large willow tree shaded
one side of it; and on the other, gaudy sunflowers reared their heads, and
the white and Persian lilacs, contrasted with them. All kinds of small
flowers and roses adorned the front of the house, and you might as well
have sought for a diamond over the whole place, as a weed. The back of the
lot was arranged for the accommodation of her pigs and chickens; and two
enormous peacocks, that were fond of sunning themselves by the front door,
were the handsomest ornaments about the place.

The room in which Phillis ironed, was not encumbered with much furniture.
Her ironing-table occupied a large part of its centre, and in the ample
fireplace was blazing a fire great enough to cook a repast for a moderate
number of giants. Behind the back door stood a common pine bedstead, with
an enormous bed upon it. How any bedstead held such a bed was remarkable;
for Phillis believed there was a virtue in feathers even in the hottest
weather, and she would rather have gone to roost on the nearest tree than
to have slept