Emmeline wanted to say something, but she could not think of anything to say.
What was there to be said?
As by a common consent, they both avoided, with fear and dread, all mention of the horrible man who was now their master.
True, there is religious trust for even the darkest hour.

The mulatto woman was a member of the Methodist church, and had an unenlightened but very sincere spirit of piety.

Emmeline had been educated much more intelligently,--taught to read and write, and diligently instructed in the Bible, by the care of a faithful and pious mistress; yet, would it not try the faith of the firmest Christian, to find themselves abandoned, apparently, of God, in the grasp of ruthless violence?
How much more must it shake the faith of Christ's poor little ones, weak in knowledge and tender in years! The boat moved on,--freighted with its weight of sorrow,--up the red, muddy, turbid current, through the abrupt tortuous windings of the Red river; and sad eyes gazed wearily on the steep red-clay banks, as they glided by in dreary sameness.

At last the boat stopped at a small town, and Legree, with his party, disembarked..