UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

"
1
but
you
Well,of
nobody
I believe we 've been round and round this old
track five hundred times,more or less. What do
you say to a game of back-gammon?"
The two brothers ran up the veranda steps, and
were soon seated at a light bamboo stand, with
the backgammon-board
were setting their men, Alfred said,
tell you, Augustine, if I thought as
1 should do something."
" I dare say you
"
would, are one of the
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 103
between them. As they
"
Well, I can't helpit,as I know of. I can't
get his mother, and I can't love him myself, nor
you do, anybodyelse,as I know of."
"
Why can't you ?" said Eva.
"Love Dodo ! Why, Eva, you would n't have
"
doing son what!"
me ! I may likehim well enough ; but
"
"Why, elevate your own servants, for a specimen,"
face your servants."
you don't
said Alfred,with a half-scornfulsmile.
"
I do, indeed."
How odd !"
" You might as well set Mount .Etna on them
"
cousin, as theycame on. one was dressed in a
with a cap of the same color.
flat,and tell them to stand up
under it,as tell
everybody
"
Don't the Bible say
we must love
me to elevate my servants under all the superincumbent
?"
mass of society upon them. One
"
man 0, the Bible ! To be sure, it says
a great
can do nothing,agains the whole action of a many such things; but, then, nobody ever
community. Education,to do anything, thinks of doingthem," you know, Eva, nobody
a state education ; or there must be enough does."
agreedin it to make a current."
Eva did not speak; her eyes were fixed and
"
You take the first throw," said Alfred ; and thoughtful, for a few moments.
the brothers were soon lost in the game, and "At any rate," she said,"dear cousin,do
heard no more till the scraping of horses' feet love poor Dodo, and be kind to him, for my
was heard under the veranda.
sake !"
"There come the children," said Augustine,
"
I could love anything, for your sake,dear
rising. " Look here, Alf ! Did you ever see cousin ; for I really think you are the loveliest
anything so beautiful ?" And, in truth,it was a creature that I ever saw !" And Henriquespoke
beautiful sight.Henrique,with his bold brow, with an earnestness that flushed his handsome
and dark,glossycurls,and face. Eva received it with glowingcheek,was
perfectsimplicity,
lauo-hino- sravlv, as he bent towards his fair without even a change of feature ; merelysaying.
"
I 'm glad you feel so, dear Henrique! I hope
blue riding-dress,
Exercise had givena brillianthue to her cheeks,
and heightened the effectof her singularly transparent
skin,and golden hair.
"
Good heavens ! what perfectly dazzling beauty!"
said Alfred. "I tell you, Auguste,won't
"
she make some hearts ache, one of these days?"
" She will,too truly, God knows I 'in afraid
so!" said St. Clare,in a tone of sudden bitterness,
as liehurried down to take her off her horse.
"Eva, darling!yon 're not much tired?" he
said,as he clasped her in his arms.
"How eould you
ride so fast,dear? "
you
know it 's bad for you."
" I felt so well, papa, and liked it so muoh, I
forgot."
St. Clare carried her in his arms into the parlor,
and laid her on the sofa.
"Henrique,you must be careful of Eva," said child's graduallydecaying health and strength,
"
he ; you must n't ride fast with her."
because she was completely absorbed in studying
"I 'iltake her under my care,"said Henrique, out two or three new forms of disease to which
seatinghimself by the sofa,and taking Eva's she believed she herself was a victim. It was the
hand.
firstprinciple of Marie's belief that nobodyever
Eva soon found herself much better. Her father was or could be so a
great sufferer as herself.
and uncle resumed their game, and the children and, therefore șhe always repelledquiteindig
were left together.
nantlyany suggestion any one around hei
" Do you know, Eva, I 'm so sorry papa is only could be sick. She was alwayssure, in such a
going to stay two days here,and then I shan't
see
you again for ever so long! If I stay with
you, I 'd try to be good,and not be cross to Dodo, she had, theywould soon know the difference.
and .so on. I don't mean to treat Dodo ill ; but, Miss Ophelia had several times tried to awakeu
were no* one creature in the worlj near
you to
love you
"
"
I? "
course not."
"
And you have taken Dodo away from all the
friends he ever had, and now he has not a creature
"
to love him; can be good that
way."
you will remember."
The dinner-bell put an end to the interview.
CHAPTER
F^-RESHADOWINGS.
Two days after this, Alfred St. Clare ant?
Augustineparted ; and Eva, who had been stim
ulated,by the society of her young cousin,to
exertions beyond her strength,began to fail rapidly.
"
No, papa," said the child; but her short, St. Clare was at last willingto call in
hard breathing alarmed her father.
medical advice," a thingfrom which he had
XXIV.
always shrunk, because it was the admission of
an unwelcome truth.
But, for a day or two, Eva was so unwell as to
be confined to the house ; and the doctor was
called.
Marie St. Clare had taken no notice of the
case, that it was nothingbut laziness,or want of
energy ; and that, if they had had the suffering
you know, I 've got such a quicktemper. I 'm her maternal fears about Eva ; but to n" avail.
not really bad to him, though. I give him a
picayune, and then ; and you see he dresses
well. I think, on the whole,Dodo 's pretty well
off"
""Would you think you were well off,if there
"
I don't see as anything ails the child," she
would say ; " she runs about,and plays."
"
But she has a cough."
"Cough! you don't need to tell me about a
cough. I've always been subjec to a cough, all
my days. When I was of Eva's age, theythought1
was in a consumptionṆight afternight,Mainmj