Presently a short, broad man, with a coarse, ugly face and dirty hands, came up to Tom.  He looked him all over, pulled his mouth open and looked at his teeth, pinched his arms, made him walk and jump, and indeed treated him as he would a horse or cow he had wished to buy.

Tom knew from the way this man looked and spoke, that he must be bad and cruel.  He prayed in his heart that this might not be his new master.  But it was.  His name was Legree.  He bought Uncle Tom, several other men slaves, and two women.  One of the women was a pretty young girl, who had never been away from her mother before, and who was very much afraid of her new master.  The other was an old woman.  The two women were chained together.  The men, Uncle Tom among them, had heavy chains put on both hands and feet.  Then Legree drove them all on to a boat which was going up the river to his plantation.

It was a sad journey.  This time there was no pretty Eva, nor kind-hearted Mr. St. Clare, to bring any happiness to the poor slaves.

One of the first things Legree did was to take away all Tom’s nice clothes which Mr. St. Clare had given him.

He made him put on his oldest clothes, then he sold all the others to the sailors.

Legree made his slaves unhappy in every way he could think of.  Then he would come up to them and say, ’Come, come, I don’t allow any sulky looks.  Be cheerful, now, or—­’ and he would crack his whip in a way to make them tremble.

At last the weary journey was over.  Legree and his slaves landed.  His house was a long way from the river.  The men slaves walked, while Legree and the two women drove in a cart.

Mile after mile they trudged along, over the rough road through wild and dreary country, till, hungry, thirsty, and tired, they arrived at the farm, or plantation as it was called.

Legree was not a gentleman like Mr. Shelby or Mr. St. Clare.  He was a very rough kind of farmer.  On his farm he grew cotton.  The cotton had to be gathered and tied into bundles.  Then he sold it to people who made it into calico, muslin, and other things, which we need to use and wear.  Gathering cotton is very hard work.

The house Legree lived in had once been a very fine one, and had belonged to a rich gentleman.  Now, it was old, neglected, and almost in ruins.

The house was bad enough, but the cabins where the slaves lived were far worse.  They were roughly built of wood.  The wind and the rain came through the chinks between the planks.  There were no windows.  The floors were nothing but the bare earth.  There was no furniture of any kind in them, only heaps of dirty straw to sleep upon.

Uncle Tom felt more unhappy than ever.  He had hoped at least to have a little room which he could keep clean and tidy.  But this hole he did not even have to himself.  He had to share it with five or six others.

Now began the saddest time of Uncle Tom’s life.  Every morning very early the slaves were driven out into the fields like cattle.  All day long they worked hard.  The burning sun blazed down upon them, making them hot and tired.  Legree and his two chief slaves, called Quimbo and Sambo, marched about all the time with whips in their hands.  At night they drove the slaves back again to their miserable huts.