e she intends to make of
him," remarked Betsey.

"I don't think she intends him to be a servant here, at any rate," said
Eliza; "or why should she have him put in the maple chamber, when there are
empty rooms enough in the garret?"

"Well, I guess I know what she brought him for," interposed Alfred. "I
asked her before she went away to get a little boy to help me do odd jobs,
now that Reuben is about to leave; we shall want a boy to clean the boots,
run on errands, drive up the cows, and do other little chores.[*] I'm glad
he's a black boy; I can order him round more, you know, than if he was
white, and he won't get his back up half as often either. You may depend
upon it, that's what Mrs. Bird has brought him here for." The gardener,
having convinced himself that his view of the matter was the correct one,
went into the garden for his day's labour, and two or three things that he
had intended doing he left unfinished, with the benevolent intention of
setting Charlie at them the next morning.

[Footnote *: A Yankeeism, meaning little jobs about a farm.]

Charlie, after bathing his face and arranging his hair, looked from the
window at the wide expanse of country spread out before him, all bright and
glowing in the warm summer sunlight. Broad well-cultivated fields stretched
away from the foot of the garden to the river beyond, and the noise of the
waterfall, which was but a short distance off, was distinctly heard, and
the sparkling spray was clearly visible through the openings of the trees.
"What a beautiful place,--what grand fields to run in; an orchard, too,
full of blossoming fruit-trees! Well, this is nice," exclaimed Charlie, as
his eye ran over the prospect; but in the midst of his rapture came rushing
back upon him the remembrance of the cavalier treatment he had met with
below-stairs, and he said with a sigh, as the tears sprang to his eyes,
"But it is not home, after all." Just at this moment he heard his name
called by Betsey, and he hastily descended into the kitchen. At one end of
the partially-cleared table a clean plate and knife and fork had been
placed, and he was speedily helped to the remains of what the servants had
been eating.

"You mustn't be long," said Betsey, "for to-day is ironing day, and we want
the table as soon as possible."

The food was plentiful and good, but Charlie could not eat; his heart was
full and heavy,--the child felt his degradation. "Even the servants refuse
to eat wi