"What are these niggers about, that these fires are not all going long ago?"
"O, they had to sleep this mornin'; they say Aunt Winnie didn't wake 'em."
"I'll wake the young devils; I'll see whether they'll sleep till broad daylight. It's their business to have these fires going an hour ago;" and out he went.
At breakfast, I noticed Jim, the waiter, was missing, and Jack was not at his wood-chopping as usual. Soon after, as I passed through the rear porch, I saw the two little boys hanging, as I supposed, by their wrists, to a pole over the bay in the barn. The door was just opened by Joe Shears, to commence his day's work of whipping, as I soon heard the cries of one, then the other, alternating in stripes heard with their cries, by spells, until noon. During this time Joe Shears was sitting before the fire, playing cards and sipping his brandy between the whippings. Whenever he was out the whipping and cries were heard.
At noon little Jim was let down, very hoarse from crying, and his eyes red and swollen. By his walk I knew the little fellow had suffered intensely. But the little wood-chopper was not at his post. Soon after dinner the lash was again heard, with the hoarse cry of little Jack; and each time Joe Shears sat down to his card-table I looked for Jack, but after a game or two of cards he was out again, and the lash and cries resumed. I became so distressed that at four o'clock I took a walk on the street, ostensibly to rest by exercise after a day of sewing, but really to give vent to tears that had been all day pent up, for all appearance of sympathy must here be restrained. On my return I heard the battling of the paddle, with the cries of poor Jack, so hoarse that I could hardly have recognized it as a human voice had I not known what it was. I got no glimpse of the poor child until the next morning.
As the tailor, Joseph Brink, came in, the sister-in-law said, "We ought to have a lamp or candle lit before this time."
Said the mother, "We don't feel half thankful enough for this grate-fire. Just think, Joe Shears has been whipping those two little boys all this blessed day, and I should think they must be half dead to-night."
"What have they done?" said Joseph.
"I don't know; do you, Mrs. Smith?"
"Yes; you know I slept in Mrs. Shears's room last night; and the boys came in at nearly daylight with their pan of fire and kindling, and the mistress wanted to know why their fires were not all built before, and they said Aunt Winnie didn't wake them. And she whipped them with her shoe quite a while; then Joe Shears came in, and swore at them, and said he would wake them."