The trader was sitting there,--the child was gone! "Why, why,--where ?" she began, in bewildered surprise.
"Lucy," said the trader, "your child's gone; you may as well know it first as last.

You see, I know'd you couldn't take him down south; and I got a chance to sell him to a first-rate family, that'll raise him better than you can." The trader had arrived at that stage of Christian and political perfection which has been recommended by some preachers and politicians of the north, lately, in which he had completely overcome every humane weakness and prejudice.

His heart was exactly where yours, sir, and mine could be brought, with proper effort and cultivation.

The wild look of anguish and utter despair that the woman cast on him might have disturbed one less practised; but he was used to it.

He had seen that same look hundreds of times.