UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

they
there?"
" when
"
came oack ; and the sightthat pleased him most
was her sunny
head looking out the gate for his
distant approach, and her childish question,
"
Well,Uncle Tom, what have you got for me today
? ' '
Nor was Eva less zealous in kind offices, in
return. Though a child, she was a beautiful
reader ;
"
a fine musical ear, a quickpoeticfancy,
and an instinctive sympathy with what is grand
and noble,made her such a reader of the Bible as
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 99
Tom had never before heard. At first, she read to
please her humble friend " Where do
; but soon her own earnest
you suppose
new Jerusalem is,
nature threw out its tendrils, and wound Uncle Tom'!" said Eva.
"
itself around the majesticbook,and Eva loved it,
0, up in the clouds,Miss Eva."
because it woke in her strangeyearnings, and
"
Then I think I see it,"said Eva. " Look in
strong, dim emotions, those clouds!
such as impassioned, imaginative
look like "
greatgates of
children love to feel.
pearl;'and you
can see beyond them "
far,far
The parts that off" it 's
pleasedher most were the Revelations
allgold. Tom, singabout ' spirits
"
and the Prophecies, partswhose dim
and wondrous imagery, and fervent language, impressed
Tom sung the words of a well-known Methodist
her the more, that she questioned vainlyhymn,
"
I see a band of spiritsbright,
of their meaning;" and she and her simple
friend țhe old child and the young one, felt just
"
alike about it. All that theyknew was, that they
spoke of a glory to be revealed, a wondrous
somethingyet to come, wherein their soul rejoiced,
yet knew not why ; and thoughit be not so
eternal past,
"
in the physical, yet in moral science that which
cannot be understood is not alwaysprofitless. For
the soul awakes,a trembling stranger, between two
dim eternities, the the eternal future.
those
The light shines only on a small space
around her ; thereforeșhe needs must yearn
towards the unknown ; and the voices and shadowy
movings which come to her from out the cloudy
pillar of inspiration
in her own expecting
have each one echoes and answers
Its mystic
nature.
imagery are so many talismans and gems
inscribed
with unknown hieroglyphics ; she folds them in
her bosom, and expects to read them when she
passes beyondthe veil.
țhe whole St. Clare
At this time in our story
establishment is,for the time being,removed to
their villa on Lake Pontchartrain. The heats of
summer had driven all,who were able to leave the
sultry and unhealthycity țo seek the shores of
the lake,and itscool sea-breezes.
and Tom thought how often he ' had noticed,
St. Clare's villawas an East Indian cottage, within six months, that Eva's little hands had
surrounded by light verandas of bamboo-work, grown thinner, and her skin more transparent, and
and opening on all sides into gardens and pleasure-grounds.
her breath shorter ; and how, when she ran or
The common sitting-room opened played in the garden, as she once could for hours,
on to a largegarden,fragrant with every picturesque
she became soon so tired and languid. He had
plantand flower of the tropics, where winding
heard Miss Opheliaspeakoften of ..i cough,that
pathsran down to the very shores of the lake, all her medicaments could not cure ; and even
whose silvery sheet of water lav there,risingand now that fervent cheek and littlehandwere burning
falling
the a sunbeams," picture never for an with hectic fever ; and yet the thoughtthat
hour the same,- yetevery hour more beautiful. Eva's words suggested had never come to him till
It is now one of those intensely golden sunsets
now.
which kindle the whole horizon into one Has there ever been a child like Eva? Yes,
blaze of glory, and make the water another sky. there have been ; but their names are always on
The lake layin rosy
or goldenstreaksșave where grave-stones, and their sweet smiles,their heavenly
white-winged vessels glided hither and thither,
"
What, Miss Eva-?"
"Don't you see,
"
said the child,
pointing to the it
glassywater,which,as rose
and fell,reflected the goldenglow of the sky.
"
There 's a
' sea of glass,mingledwith fire.""
"
True enough,Miss Eva,"said Tom ;
bright.'
"
"
0, had I the wings of the morning,
I 'J flyaway to Canaan's shore ;
Brightangelsshould convey
uie home,
To the new Jerusalem."
That taste the gloriesthere :
They all are robed in spotlesswhite,
And conqueringpalms they bear."
"
Uncle Tom, I 've seen them,'''' said Eva.
and Tom
Tom had no doubt of it at all ; it did not surprise
him in the least. If Eva had told him she
had been to heaven, he would have thought it
entirely probable.
"
They come to me sometimes in my sleep,
spirits ;" and Eva'" eyes grew dreamy,and
she hummed, in a low voice,
"
They all are robed in spotlesswhite,
And conqueringpalms they bear."
"
Uncle Tom," said Eva, " I 'm going there."
"Where, Miss Eva?"
The child rose, and pointedher littlehand 'to
the sky ; the glow of eveninglit her goldun hair
and flushed cheek with a kind of unearthly
radiance, and her eyes were bent eamcstlv on the
skies.
"
I'm going'there,'''' she said, " to the spirits
bright, ; I 'in goingbefore long."
The faithful old heart felt a sudden thrust ;
eyes, their singular words andways, aro
like so "many spirits, and little golden stars among the buried treasures of yearning hearts
twinkled throughthe glow,and looked down at In how many familiesdo you hear the legend that
themselves as theytfcembled in the water.
all the goodness and graces of the living aro
Tom and Eva were seated on a little mossy seat, nothin"- to the peculiar charms of one who is ? at f
in an arbor,at the foot of the garden. It .was It is as if heaven had an especial band of angels,
Sundayevening, and Eva's Bible lay open
on her whose officeit was to sojournfor a season here,
knee. She " And I read," saw a sea of glass,
and endear to them the wayward human heart,
mingledwith fire."
that they might bear it upward with them in
"
Tom," said Eva, suddenlystopping, and their homeward flight Ẉhen you see that deep,
pointing to the lake, " there 'tis."
spiritual lightin the eye,
the little soul
reveals itselfin words sweeter and wiser than