Phillis saw that he would be more docile for the rest of his life; for a moment, the thought of restoring the shirt to its original splendor occurred to her, but she chased it away as if it had been a fox, and took the greatest satisfaction in “having given the old fool a lesson that would last him all the days of his life.”

“To you, generous and noble-minded men and women of the South, I appeal, (I quote the words of a late writer on Abolitionism, when I say,) Is man ever a creature to be trusted with wholly irresponsible power?  Can anybody fail to make the inference, what the practical result will be?"[A] Although she is here speaking of slavery politically, can you not apply it to matrimony in this miserable country of ours?  Can we not remodel our husbands, place them under our thumbs, and shut up the escape valves of their grumbling forever?  To be sure, St. Paul exhorts “wives to be obedient to their own husbands,” and “servants to be obedient to their own masters,” but St. Paul was not an Abolitionist.  He did not take into consideration the necessities of the free-soil party, and woman’s rights.  This is the era of mental and bodily emancipation.  Take advantage of it, wives and negroes!  But, alas for the former! there is no society formed for their benefit; their day of deliverance has not yet dawned, and until its first 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.