“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.
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?”
