“‘Come, look spry, old woman,’ said he.

“’Could you look spry, massa, if your child, your son you loved as well as your life, was torn away from you?  O God!’ said she, burying her face in her hands, ‘have mercy on me, and help me to be resigned.’

“‘Yes, I’ll make you resigned,’ said he, sneeringly, slapping her across the back.  ’Now you follow me, and don’t let me hear a word out of your head.’

“Judy obeyed, and after arriving at the wharf, they went on board a vessel that was bound for New Orleans.  In about a week after they had started, they arrived at Mr. Martin’s plantation, where Judy saw about one hundred and fifty slaves at work in the field.  Without being allowed a moment to rest herself, after her long walk from the boat, she was given a basket and ordered to the field.  Poor Judy’s head was aching severely, and when she was exposed to the scorching rays of the sun of the south, her temples throbbed wildly, and O! how she longed for some quiet shady place, where she could bathe her fevered brow and rest her weary limbs.  But she must not think of stopping a moment to rest, for the eyes of the brutal overseer were upon her, and the thought of the stinging lash, the smart and pain, came across her mind, and urged her on, and made her work with greater swiftness than before.  At last the weary, weary day drew to a close, and it was getting quite dark, and the dew was beginning to fall, and Judy was expecting every moment to hear the order for them to return home.  But still they worked on, and hour after hour passed, until it was almost midnight, and not till then did the joyful summons come for them to stop.”

“Why, mamma, do they make them work so late as that?” asked Cornelia.

“Yes, my daughter, in the busy season the poor slaves are often kept out very late.  After they had received the order to return home, Judy, with aching limbs, joined the other slaves who were wearily wending their way to the little out-house where the overseer was weighing their cotton.  As they presented their baskets to be weighed, they watched eagerly to see if their baskets were approved of.  Judy gladly heard that hers was the full weight, and after ascertaining where she was to sleep, and receiving her allowance of corn, she went to the shed pointed out to her.  She made her cakes for her supper and for the next morning, and then laid down upon her bed, or rather on a pile of straw with an old piece of sheet spread over it.  Judy was much exhausted, and soon fell asleep, notwithstanding the roughness of her bed.  But it seemed as though she had scarcely closed her eyes before the plantation bell rang, and called them to another weary day’s work.

“Thus many, many months passed, of toiling from day to day, and from morning till night.  One morning they saw one of the house servants running toward them; he told them that their master was dead.  He had died suddenly from a fit of appoplexy.  The tidings were received by Judy with joy.  You must pardon her, my children, for this man had been a cruel master to her, and she thought that, as he had neither wife nor children, his slaves would be sold, and perhaps she would get farther north, and in the neighborhood of her old home, and might meet with some of her old friends who would prove that she was free.