Incidents in the life of a slave girl.: Written by herself. Edited by L. Maria Child.

18 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
cold looks, cold words, and cold treatment. We we,re
glad when the night came. On my narrow bed I
moaned and wept, I felt so desolate and alone.
I had been there nearly a year, when a dear little
friend of mine was buried. I heard her mother sob,
as the clods fell on the coffin of her only child, and I
turned away from the grave, feeling thankful that I
still had something left to love. I met my graidmother, who said, " Come with me, Linda;" and from
her tone I knew that something sad had happened.
She led me apart from the people, and then said, " Mv
child, your father is dead." Dead! How could I
believe it? lIe had died so suddenly I had not
even heard that he was sick. I went home with my
grandmother. My heart rebelled against God, who
had taken from me mother, father, mistress, and
friend. The good grandmother tried to comfort me.
Who knows the ways of God?" said she. "Perhaps
they have been kindly taken from the evil days to
come." Years afterwards I often thought of this.
She promised to be a mother to lher grandchlildren, so
far as she might be permitted to do so; and strengthened by her love, I returned to my master's. I thought
I should be allowed to go to my father's house the next
morlling; but I was ordered to go for flowers, that my
mistress's house might be decorated for an evening
party. I spent the day gathering flowers and weaving'
them into festoons, while the dead body of my father
was lying within a mile of me. What cared my
owners for that? he was merely a piece of property.
Moreover, they thought lie had spoiled his childreni, by
teaching them to feel that they were hluman'beings.
I