THE LITTLE EVANGELIST

"I am sure, Augustine , I don't know what to do. I've taught and taught; I've talked till I'm tired ; I've whipped her; I've punished her in every way I can think of and still she's just what she was at the first time . "'Come here, Tops, you monkey ' said St. Clare, calling the child up to him. "Topsy came up; her round, hard eyes glittering and blinking with a mixture of apprehensiveness and their usual odd drollery. "'What makes you behave so ?' said St. Clare, who could not help being amused with the child's expression . "'Spects it's my wicked heart,' said Topsy, demurely, 'Miss Feely say so.' "'Don't you see how much Miss Ophelia has done for you ? She says she's done everything she can think of.' "'Lor , yes mas'r! old missis used to say so too. She whipped me a heap harder , and used to pull my har , and knock my head agin the door; but it didn't do me no good!' I 'spects if they's to pull every spear o' har out of my head it wouldn't do me no good, neither!--I's so wicked ! Laws ! I 's nothing but a nigger, no ways !' "Well, I shall have to give her up,' said Miss Ophelia ; 'I can't have that trouble any longer.'... "Eva, who had stood a silent spectator on the scene thus far , made a silent sign to Topsy to follow her.... "There sat the two children on the floor... Topsy , with her usual air of careless drollery and unconcern; but to the opposite of her, Eva, her whole face fervent with feeling . "'What does make you so bad, Topsy? Why don't you try and be good ? Don't you love 'anybody,' Topsy?' "Dun no nothing 'bout love; I loves candy and sich, that's all,' said Topsy . "'But you love your father and mother?' "'Never had none, ye know. I tell you that, Miss Eva.' "'Oh, I know,' said Eva, sadly; but hadn't you any brother, or sister, or aunt , or--' "'No, none on'em--never had nothing or nobody.' "'But, Topsy, if you 'd only try to be good, you might --' "Couldn't never be nothing but a nigger, if I was ever so good,' said Topsy . 'If I could be skinned, and come white , I'd try then.' "But people can love you, if you are black , Topsy. Miss Ophelia would love you if you were good.'.... "No; she can't bar me, cause I'm a nigger--she'd's soon have a toad touch her! There can't nobody love niggers, and niggers can't do nothing. I don't care,' said Topsy, beginning to whistle. "'O Topsy, poor child, ! I love you!' said Eva, with a sudden burst of feeling, and laying her little thin white hand on Topsy's shoulder; 'I love you because you haven't got any father , or mother, or friends--because you have been a poor, abused child! I love you and I want you to be good.....' "The round, keen eyes of the black child were overcast with tears; large, bright drops rolled heavily down, one by one, and fell on the little white hand. Yes in that moment, a ray of real belief , a ray of heavenly love, had penetrated the darkness of her heathen soul... "'Poor Topsy!' said Eva, 'don't you know that Jesus loves all alike? He is just as willing to love you as me. He loves you just as I do, really more, because he is better . He will help you to be good; and you can go to Heaven at last, and be an angel forever , just as much as if you were white. Only think about it , Topsy, 'you ' can be one of those spirits bright , Uncle Tom sings about .' "'Oh dear Miss Eva, dear Miss Eva!' said the child, "'I will try! I will try! I never did care nothin' about it before.'.... "'I've always had a prejudice against negroes,' said Miss Ophelia , 'and it's a fact, I never could bear to have that child touch me; but I didn't think she knew it.' "'Trust any child to find that out ,' said St. Clare, 'there's no keeping it from them. But I believe all the trying in the world to benefit a child, and all the substantial favors you can do for them, will never excite one emotion of gratitude, while that feeling of repugnance remains in the heart ; it's a queer kind of fact , but so it is .' "'I don't know how I can help it,' said Miss Ophelia , 'they are disagreeable to me--this child in particular.... "'It wouldn't be the first time a little child had been used to instruct an old disciple...said St. Clare." P. 260-262, "The Little Evangelist," UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)