"Spin it out as long as they can, they can't help my dying, some time!--and, after that, they can't do no more.

I'm clar, I'm set! I _know_ the Lord'll help me, and bring me through." The woman did not answer; she sat with her black eyes intently fixed on the floor.
"May be it's the way," she murmured to herself; "but those that _have_ given up, there's no hope for them!--none! We live in filth, and grow loathsome, till we loathe ourselves! And we long to die, and we don't dare to kill ourselves!--No hope! no hope! no hope ?--this girl now,--just as old as I was! "You see me now," she said, speaking to Tom very rapidly; "see what I am! Well, I was brought up in luxury; the first I remember is, playing about, when I was a child, in splendid parlors,--when I was kept dressed up like a doll, and company and visitors used to praise me.

There was a garden opening from the saloon windows; and there I used to play hide-and-go-seek, under the orange-trees, with my brothers and sisters.
I went to a convent, and there I learned music, French and embroidery, and what not; and when I was fourteen, I came out to my father's funeral.

He died very suddenly, and when the property came to be settled, they found that there was scarcely enough to cover the debts; and when the creditors took an inventory of the property, I was set down in it.

My mother was a slave woman, and my father had always meant to set me free; but he had not done it, and so I was set down in the list.
I'd always known who I was, but never thought much about it.