'I don't know what I shall do with you, Topsy.'
'Laws, missis, you must whip me. My old missis always did. I an't used to workin' unless I gets whipped.'
So Miss Ophelia tried it. Topsy would scream and groan and implore. But half an hour later she would be sitting among the other little niggers belonging to the house, laughing about it. 'Miss Feely whip!' she would say, 'she can't do it nohow.'
'Law, you niggers,' she would go on, 'does you know you's all sinners? Well, you is; everybody is. White folks is sinners too—Miss Feely says so. But I 'spects niggers is the biggest ones. But ye an't any of ye up to me. I's so awful wicked, there can't nobody do nothin' with me. I 'spects I's the wickedest crittur in the world.' Then she would turn a somersault, and come up bright and smiling, evidently quite pleased with herself.
CHAPTER XV
EVA AND TOPSY
Two or three years passed. Uncle Tom was still with Mr. St. Clare, far away from his home. He was not really unhappy. But always in his heart was the aching longing to see his dear ones again.
Now he began to have a new sorrow. He loved his little mistress Eva very tenderly, and she was ill.
He saw that she was growing white and thin. She no longer ran and played in the garden for hours together as she used to do. She was always tired now.
Miss Ophelia noticed it too, and tried to make Mr. St. Clare see it. But he would not. He loved his little Eva so much, that he did not want to believe that anything could be the matter with her.