and folks
don't often hear of the troubles of the poor slave--that one day I had
seven children with me, and the next they were all sold; taken off, and I
did not even see them, to bid them good-by. My master sent me, with my
mistress to the country, where her father lived, (for she was sickly, and
he said it would do her good,) and when we came back there was no child to
meet me. I have cried, ma'am, enough for Miss Ellen, but I never shed a
tear for my own.'

"'But what induced him, Lucy, to do such a wicked thing?'

"'Money, ma'am, and drinking, and the devil. He did not leave me one. My
five boys, and my two girls, all went at once. My oldest daughter, ma'am, I
was proud of her, for she was a handsome girl, and light-colored too--she
went, and the little one, ma'am. My heart died in me. I hated him. I used
to dream I had killed him, and I would laugh out in my sleep, but I
couldn't murder him on her account. My mistress, she cried day and night,
and called him cruel, and she would say, 'Lucy, I'd have died before I
would have done it.' I couldn't murder him, ma'am, 'twas my mistress held
me back.'

"'No, Lucy,' said I, ''twas not your mistress, it was the Lord; and thank
Him that you are not a murderer. Did you ever think of the consequences of
such an act?'

"'Lor, ma'am, do you think I cared for that? I wasn't afraid of hanging.'

"'I did not mean that, Lucy. I meant, did you not fear His power, who could
not only kill your body, but destroy your soul in hell?'

"'I didn't think of any thing, for a long time. My mistress got worse after
that, and I nursed her until she died; poor Miss Ellen was a baby, and I
had her too. When master died I thought it was no use for me to wish him
ill, for the hand of the Lord was heavy on him, for true. 'Lucy,' he said,
'you are a kind nurse to me, though I sold your children, but I've had no
rest since.' I couldn't make him feel worse, ma'am, for he was going to his
account with all his sins upon him.'

"'This is the first time Lucy,' I said, 'that I have ever known children to
be sold away from their mother, and I look upon the crime with as great a
horror as you do.'

"'Its the only time I ever knowed it, ma'am, and everybody pitied me, and
many a kind thing was said to me, and many a hard word was said of him;
true enough, but better be forgotten, as he is in his grave.'

"Some persons now entered, and Lucy became absorbed in her present grief;
her old frame shook as