‘Then, one day, Uncle Tom had sad news. His master had become very poor and he had to sell Uncle Tom in order to get money.’

‘I have never heard of people being bought or sold,’ said Laura.

‘I should have run away rather than be sold like a horse or a sheep,’ said Paul.

Grandfather shook his head and said, ‘I am afraid that you would soon have been caught, Paul. You see, slaves had heavy iron chains on their feet.’

‘Oh, how cruel!’ cried Laura.

‘Yes, it was cruel,’ agreed Grand-father. ‘Uncle Tom’s new master was a slave merchant; he made a great deal of money by buying and selling slaves.

He had to take Tom and some other slaves to another part of the land to sell them there. In those days there were no trains, so they had to go on a steamboat. For days and days, they sailed down a wide river.

Uncle Tom's new master knew that Tom would not run away, so he allowed him to go about the boat in freedom, without chains on his feet.

Often Tom would sit up on the great bundles of cotton, and watch the lands through which they passed. Sometimes he would read his Bible, for he was very fond of its stories. Often he would sit and think. Perhaps you can guess what his thoughts were.

On the same boat there happened to be a little girl named Eva. She used to run all over the boat; people said that she was like a sunbeam or a summer breeze.

Eva felt very sorry for the slaves whom she saw on the boat. Quite often she came among them and talked to them. She had her hands full of candy, nuts and oranges, which she gave to the poor black people.’