illis could not help laughing. "Well, I never did see the like--the cat
has scratched through the bag and swam ashore."

"I b'lieves you," said Bacchus, "and if you had throw'd him into the fire,
he wouldn't a got burned; but I tell you, no cat's a gwine to get the
better of me--I'll kill Jupiter, yet."

Phillis, not wanting the people aroused, got the key, and unlocked the
door, Jupiter sprang in, and took up his old quarters on the hearth, where
he was quiet for the night. In the morning she carried some bread and milk
to him, and told Bacchus not to say any thing about his coming back to any
one, and that after she came home from town, where she was going on
business for Mrs. Weston, they would determine what they would do. But
Bacchus secretly resolved to have the affair settled before Phillis should
return, that the whole glory of having conquered an enemy should belong to
him.

Phillis was going on a number of errands to L----, and she expected to be
detained all day, for she understood shopping to perfection, and she went
charged with all sorts of commissions; besides, she had to stop to see one
or two sick old colored ladies of her acquaintance, and she told Mrs.
Weston she might as well make a day of it. Thus it was quite evening when
she got home--found every thing had been well attended to, children in bed,
but Bacchus among the missing, though he had promised her he would not
leave the premises until her return.

Now, if there is a severe trial on this earth, it is for a wife (of any
color) who rarely leaves home,--to return after a day of business and
pleasure, having spent all the money she could lay her hands on, having
dined with one friend and taken a dish of tea and gossiped with another--to
return, hoping to see every thing as she expected, and to experience the
bitter disappointment of finding her husband gone out in spite of the most
solemn asseverations to the contrary. Who could expect a woman to preserve
her composure under such circumstances?

Poor Phillis! she was in such spirits as she came home. How pretty the
flowers look! She thought, after all, if I am a slave, the Lord is mighty
good to me. I have a comfortable home, and a good set of children, and my
old man has done so much better of late--Phillis felt really happy; and
when she went in, and delivered all her parcels to the ladies, and was
congratulated on her success in getting precisely the desired articles, her
heart was as light