Bad Hugh

There were no noisy outbursts among the negroes when told their young

mistress was dead, for 'Lina had not been greatly loved. The sight of

Alice's swollen eyes and tear-stained face affected Mug, it is true, but

even she could not cry until she had coaxed old Uncle Sam to repeat to

her, for the twentieth time, the story of Bethlehem's little children

slain, by order of the cruel Herod. This story, told in old Sam's

peculiar way, had the desired effect, and the tears which refused to

start even at the sight of 'Lina dead, flowed freely for the little ones

over whom Rachel wept, refusing to be comforted.

"I can cry dreffully now, Miss Alice, I'se sorry, Miss 'Lina is dead,

very sorry. She never can come back any more, can she?" Mug sobbed,

running up to Alice, and hiding her face in her dress.

And this was about as real as any grief expressed by the blacks for

'Lina. Poor 'Lina, she had taken no pains to win affection while she was

living, and she could not expect to be missed much when she was gone.

Hugh mourned for her the most, more even than his mother or Densie

Densmore--the latter of whom seemed crazier than ever, shutting herself

entirely in her room, and refusing to be present at the funeral. 'Lina

had been ashamed of her, she said, and she would not disgrace her by

claiming relationship now that she was dead, so with eyes whose

blackness was dimmed by tears, she watched from her window the

procession moving from the yard, across the fields, and out to the

hillside, where the Spring Bank dead were buried, and where on the last

day of blooming, beautiful May, they laid 'Lina to rest, forgetting all

her faults, and speaking only kindly words of her as they went slowly

back to the house, from which she had gone forever.