“O, dismal! so I ought; but, as Topsy herself says, ’I ‘s so wicked!’”

In very much this way Topsy’s training proceeded, for a year or two,—­Miss Ophelia worrying herself, from day to day, with her, as a kind of chronic plague, to whose inflictions she became, in time, as accustomed, as persons sometimes do to the neuralgia or sick headache.

St. Clare took the same kind of amusement in the child that a man might in the tricks of a parrot or a pointer.  Topsy, whenever her sins brought her into disgrace in other quarters, always took refuge behind his chair; and St. Clare, in one way or other, would make peace for her.  From him she got many a stray picayune, which she laid out in nuts and candies, and distributed, with careless generosity, to all the children in the family; for Topsy, to do her justice, was good-natured and liberal, and only spiteful in self-defence.  She is fairly introduced into our corps be ballet, and will figure, from time to time, in her turn, with other performers.

CHAPTER XXI

Kentuck

Our readers may not be unwilling to glance back, for a brief interval, at Uncle Tom’s Cabin, on the Kentucky farm, and see what has been transpiring among those whom he had left behind.

It was late in the summer afternoon, and the doors and windows of the large parlor all stood open, to invite any stray breeze, that might feel in a good humor, to enter.  Mr. Shelby sat in a large hall opening into the room, and running through the whole length of the house, to a balcony on either end.  Leisurely tipped back on one chair, with his heels in another, he was enjoying his after-dinner cigar.  Mrs. Shelby sat in the door, busy about some fine sewing; she seemed like one who had something on her mind, which she was seeking an opportunity to introduce.

“Do you know,” she said, “that Chloe has had a letter from Tom?”

“Ah! has she?  Tom ’s got some friend there, it seems.  How is the old boy?”

“He has been bought by a very fine family, I should think,” said Mrs. Shelby,—­“is kindly treated, and has not much to do.”

“Ah! well, I’m glad of it,—­very glad,” said Mr. Shelby, heartily.  “Tom, I suppose, will get reconciled to a Southern residence;—­hardly want to come up here again.”

“On the contrary he inquires very anxiously,” said Mrs. Shelby, “when the money for his redemption is to be raised.”

“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Mr. Shelby.  “Once get business running wrong, there does seem to be no end to it.  It’s like jumping from one bog to another, all through a swamp; borrow of one to pay another, and then borrow of another to pay one,—­and these confounded notes falling due before a man has time to smoke a cigar and turn round,—­dunning letters and dunning messages,—­all scamper and hurry-scurry.”

“It does seem to me, my dear, that something might be done to straighten matters.  Suppose we sell off all the horses, and sell one of your farms, and pay up square?”