A great lubber like you traipsin' around idle, and my woman bringin' a doctor's bill on me by workin' night an' day to make up your wages to me--and lyin' to her husband! I'll track you by the blood! Take that--and that--and that!" I had never resisted him: and even now I only tried to wiggle away from him.

He held me with one hand, though; and at every pause in his scolding he cut me with the whip.

Weeks after the welts on my back and shoulders turned dark along the line of the whip, and greenish at the edges.

I did not cry.

I felt numbed with fright and rage.