"
"Well, if it does," rejoined Alfred, with a stolid-look, "it don't say that
man isn't to be either, does it? When I see anything in my Bible that tells
me I'm to eat and drink with niggers, I'll do it, and not before. I suppose
you think that all the slaves ought to be free, and all the rest of the
darned stuff these Abolitionists are preaching. Now if you want to eat with
the nigger, you can; nobody wants to hinder you. Perhaps he may marry you
when he grows up--don't you think you had better set your cap at him?"
Eliza made no reply to this low taunt, but ate her breakfast in silence.
"I don't see what Mrs. Bird brought him here for; she says he is sick,--had
a broken arm or something; I can't imagine what use she intends to make of
him," remarked Betsey.
"I don't think she intends him to be a servant here, at any rate," said
Eliza; "or why should she have him put in the maple chamber, when there are
empty rooms enough in the garret?"
"Well, I guess I know what she brought him for," interposed Alfred. "I
asked her before she went away to get a little boy to help me do odd jobs,
now that Reuben is about to leave; we shall want a boy to clean the boots,
run on errands, drive up the cows, and do other little chores.[*] I'm glad
he's a black boy; I can order him round more, you know, than if he was
white, and he won't get his back up half as often either.
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