About this story
In New Orleans you read the far country verses to Eva St. Clare; on Legree's plantation you refuse the last order while Cassy's garret ghosts moan on the hour and two veiled women walk out the front door to the boat. Forty-five chapters carry you from a Kentucky hearth to a coffin riding north with the mail.
Who you’ll meet
Aunt Chloe, the household cook; George Shelby, the farm owner's son; and Mose, one of Chloe's boys.
How it opens
Your cabin stood close to the great house, its neat room bright with an evening fire.
Corn cakes browned before the hearth while herbs and climbing vines framed the windows.
Master George will miss his lesson if those boys steal all the bench.
MosePete took my place and says two small places make one large one.
George ShelbyThen arithmetic has already arrived before the slate.
Choose
One bench can hold two boys who keep their elbows peaceable.
The floor has room for anyone who means to wrestle.