A look of fright was on the face of all. "They be gettin' awful beatin' at the post," muttered Nace, whilst a sardonic smile flitted over his hard features. Was it not sad to behold the depths of degradation into which this creature had fallen? He could smile at the anguish of a fellow-creature. Originally, his nature may have been kind and gentle; but a continuous system of brutality had so deadened his sensibilities, that he had no humanity left. _For this_, the white man is accountable. After the breakfast was over, I received a summons to the house. Following Melinda, I passed the door-sill, and stood in the presence of the assembled household. A very strange group I thought them. Two girls were seated beside the uncleared breakfast table, "trying their fortune" (as the phrase goes) with a cup of coffee-grounds and a spoon. The elder of the two was a tall, thin girl, with sharp features, small gray eyes, and red-hair done up in frizettes; the other was a prim, dark-skinned girl, with a set of nondescript features, and hair of no particular hue, or "just any color;" but with the same harsh expression of face that characterized the elder. As she received the magic cup from her sister, she exclaimed, "La, Jane, it will only be two years until you are married," and made a significant grimace at her father (Mr. Peterkin), who sat near the window, indulging in the luxury of a cob-pipe. The taller girl turned toward me, and asked, "Father, is that the new girl you bought at old Nelson's sale?" "Yes, that's the gal. Does she suit you?" "Yes, but dear me! how very light she is--almost white! I know she will be impudent." "She has come to the wrong place for the practice of that article," suggested the other. "Yes, gal, you has got to mind them ar' _wimmen_," said Mr. Peterkin to me, as he pointed toward his daughters. "Father, I do wish you would quit that vulgarism; say _girl_, not gal, and _ladies_, not women." "Oh, I was never _edicated_, like you." "_Educated_ is the word." "Oh, confound your dictionaries! Ever since that school-marm come out from Yankee-land, these neighborhood gals talk so big, nobody can understand 'em." CHAPTER III. THE YANKEE SCHOOL-MISTRESS--HER PHILOSOPHY--THE AMERICAN ABOLITIONISTS. The family with whom I now found a home, consisted of Mr. Peterkin and his two daughters, Jane and Matilda, and a son, John, much younger than the ladies.