Mrs.
Helm appeared to be uneasy unless some of the servants were under the lash.

She came into the kitchen one morning and my mother, who was cook, had just put on the dinner.

Mrs.Helm took out her white cambric handkerchief, and rubbed it on the inside of the pot, and it crocked it! That was enough to invoke the wrath of my master, who came forth immediately with his horse-whip, with which he whipped my poor mother most unmercifully--far more severely than I ever knew him to whip a horse.
I once had the misfortune to break the lock of master's shot gun, and when it came to his knowledge, he came to me in a towering passion, and charged me with what he considered the _crime_ of carelessness.

I denied it, and told him I knew nothing about it; but I was so terribly frightened that he saw I was guilty, and told me so, foaming with rage; and then I confessed the truth.

But oh, there was no escaping the lash.