But had the Sparrow suffered so much and died in vain?
No, the little black-haired boy on the ship had paid special attention to the story which the Sparrow had told him and had listened to what the Sparrow wanted to do for his Sparrow brothers, and this the little boy wanted to do for his fellow-humans. He grew up, and wherever oppressed workers struggled against their oppressors, he was the leader. But the story of the black-haired boy, of his life and his death, is another tale and does not belong here. [[35]]
THE
LITTLE GREY DOG
[[36]]
“The Little Grey Dog”
[[37]]
He was an ugly grey dog with long silken-soft ears and a bushy tail. He was born in a splendid stable that belonged to a rich man. This rich man lived on a large estate in which were fields and meadows. And in these fields grew sugarcane, in great quantities, great, round, smooth canes that contained the sweet sugar. On the sugar plantations worked hundreds of Negroes, men and women, and the Negroes belonged to the rich man who had bought them in the market as he would buy cattle, for this story happened [[38]]long ago, in those days when slavery existed in America. The rich man could do anything he wished with his slaves. If he was in a bad mood he would permit them to be whipped; if they dared to protest against this cruel treatment they were more cruelly punished—they were stripped naked, smeared with honey, and tied to a tree. The smell of the honey attracted the bees that came in large swarms, settled on the body of the slave, sucked the honey and stung the bound man till he collapsed with pain. Also, the master could sell his slave, did this frequently, without the least consideration, tearing mother from child, separating man and wife, sister and brother. The poor Negroes were completely helpless, they had to work all day long in the hot sun, received very poor food, lived in wretched huts, separated from the house of the rich man by a mighty river. Here lived the Negroes, crowded together; the children played about in front of these huts, played happily, because they did not yet know that they were slaves and that a hard, difficult life awaited them.
