"The consequences would be frightful," exclaimed Bessy. "Were the slaves to get the mastery, imagination itself cannot picture what would be the result. They are so violent in their temper--their passions are so uncontrollable, that the very thought makes one shudder. Did you ever see a negro in a passion, cousin Richard? It is the most frightful thing you ever beheld. He looks, and acts, and speaks, and, I am sure, feels, more like a demon than a human creature. I recollect when I was living with dear Aunt Bab, there was a girl in the house who had taken a peculiar and sort of irrational fancy for one of the small ornaments on the mantelpiece. Twice she had been detected and stopped in attempting to purloin it; but, at length, one day it was gone. Nobody doubted who had got it, and my aunt ordered the girl's room to be searched. I was present, though quite a little thing, and I remember her quite well, standing in the middle of the room, silent and motionless, her eyes following the other servants as they made the examination, with an expression I shall never forget. For some time, they found nothing, and she was beginning to look quite triumphant; but, at length, the object of search was discovered hidden away in the most cunning manner--suspended, hi fact, by threads underneath the bed. The moment it was disclosed, she burst forth, not with any contrition, but with rage and fury, such as I never saw in another human being. She stamped, she raved, she cried, she poured forth words so fast that no one could understand them, and she ended by tearing her clothes to pieces like a mad thing." "And what did my aunt do?" I asked. "Just what might be expected of her," answered Bessy. "'Tis rather a sad story; but aunt Bab was not to blame. She looked at her very gravely, and said,-- "'Have you gone mad, Juno? You must remain here till you have recovered yourself, and are able to listen like a reasonable being, and I will then come and talk to you. Now it would be of no use.' "She then left her, ordering her to be locked in. But we had not been gone five minutes, when one of the servants came running in to say, that Juno had jumped out of the window, and was dreadfully hurt. My aunt would not suffer me to see her, and all, I know further is, that she lingered for about five weeks, and then she died, and Aunt Bab wept very bitterly over the poor misguided creature, as she called her." "It is a sad picture of human nature, indeed," I said, "and from what I see of the negro population I am inclined to attribute less power to education and more to race than I once did."