UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

"
do,"he
there
"
to
"
why
i
"
theycan't
nobodyelse
There was a piercing wildness in the cry ; the
Hood flushed into St. Clare'* white, marble-like
face,and the firsttears he had shed since Eva died
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 113
"
wonderful to think how hard-hearted and unfeeling
stood in his eyes.
he was, when he must know how she suffered."
" Get up, child,"said Miss Ophelia, softened
"
voice ; don't cry so. Miss Eva is gone
to So much are people the slaveof their eye and
heaven ; she is an angel."
ear, that many of the servants reallythoughtthat
"But I can't see her !" said Topsy. " I never Missis was the principal suffererin the case,
shallsee her!" and she sobbed again.
especially
They all stood a moment in silence.
spasms, and sent fur the doctor,and at last declared
"
She siid she loved me," said Topsy,"
herself dying; and, in the running and
"
she
did! 0,dear! 0, dear ! there an't nobodyleft scampering, bringingup hot bottles,and
now, an't !"
heating of flannels, and chafing, fussing, "That's true enough," said St. Clare; "but ensued,there was quitea diversion.
said to Miss Ophelia,
see Tom, however,had a feelingat his own heart,
if you can't
comfort the poor creature."
that drew him to his master. He followed him
"
I jist wish I hadn't never been born," said wherever he walked, wistfullyand sadly; and
Topsy. " I did n't want to be born,no ways ; and
I don't see no use on't."
Miss
Ophelia raised her gently, but firmly, and
took her from the room ; but,as she did so, some
tears fellfrom her eyes.
"
Topsy,you poor child,"she said,as she led
"
her into her room, don't giveup ! I can love In a few days the St. Clare familywere back
you, though I am not like that dear littlechild. again in the city; Augustine, with the restlessness
I hope I 've learnt something of the love of Christ of grief, longing for another scene, to change
from her. I can love you ; I do, and I '11 try to the current of his thoughts. So they left the
helpyou to grow up a good Christian girl." house and garden, with its little grave, and came
Miss Ophelia's voice was more than her words, back to New Orleans ; and St. Clare walked the
and more than that were the honest tears that fell streets busily, and strove to fill up the chasm in
down her face. From that hour,she acquiredan his heart with hurry and' bustle,and change of
influence over the mind of the destitutechild that place; and people who saw him in the street,or
she never lost.
met him at the cafe,knew of his loss onlyby the
"0, my Eva,whose littlehour on earth did so weed on his hat ; for there he was, smiling and
much of good,"thought St. what account talking, and reading the newspaper, and speculating
Clare,"
have I to give for my long years
1 ' '
on politics, and attending to business matters
There were, for a while,softwhisperings and ; and who could see that all this smiling outside
foot-falls in the chamber,as one after another stole
was but a hollow shellover a heart that was
in,to look at the dead ; and then came the littlea dark and silent sepulchre?
coffin ; and then there
" was a funeral,and carriages Mr. St. Clare is a singular man," said Marie
-
"
.
"
drove to the door,and strangers
came and were to Miss Ophelia, in a complainingtone. "
I
used to think, if there was anything the world
he did love,it was our dear little Eva ; but he
seems to
crape,
be forgetting her very easily Ị cannot
and prayers offered ; and St. Clare lived,and ever get him to talk about, her. I reallydid
walked, and moved, as one who has shed every
think he would show more feeling tear ; the last he saw only one thing țhat "Still waters run deepest, they used to tell
golden head in the coffin ; but then ha saw the me," said Miss Ophelia,oracularly.
cloth spreadover it țhe lid of the coffin cl : "0,1 don't believe in such things ; it 's all
and he walked,when he was put besidethe others, talk. If people have feeling, theywill show it.
down to a littleplace at the bottom of the garden,
help it ; but,then, it 'sa greatmisfortune
and there,by the mossy seat where she and Tom
to have feelingỊ 'd rather have been
had talked,and sung, and read so often, was the made like St. Clare. My feelings prey,upon
me
little grave. St. Clare stood beside looked so !"
it,"
vacantly down ; be saw them lower the littlecoffin
"Sure,Missis,Mas'r St. Clare is gettin' ; he heard,dimly țhe solemn words, " I am as a shader. They say
he don't never eat
"
the resurrectionand the Life ; he that believeth nothin',"said Mammy. I know he don't forget
in me, thoughhe were dead,yet shall he live ;" Miss Eva ; I know there could n't nobody,"
and, as the earth was cast in and filled up the little dear,little, blessed cretur!" she added,wiping
grave,
he could not realize that itwas his Eva that her eyes.
they were hiding from his "
sight.
Well,at all events, he has no consideration
Nor was it! not Eva,but onlythe frail seed for me," said Marie; "he hasn't spoken oneword
of that bright, immortal form with which she shall
of sympathy, and he must know how much
yet come forth, in the day of the Lord Jesus ! more a mother feels than man
any can."
And then all were
gone, and
"
the mourners went The heart knoweth itsown bitterness,"
oack to the place which should know her no more ; Miss Ophelia,gravely.
said
and Marie's room was darkened,and she
"
layon That 'sjust what I think. I know just what
the bed,sobbingand moaningin uncontrollable I fe^
seems to. Eva used to,but
grief, calling every moment for the attentions she 's gone !" and Marie lay back on her lounge,
of all her servants. Of course, theyhad no time and began to sob disconsolately.
to cry, they1 the grief grief, Marie was one of those unfortunately constituted
and she was fullyconvinced that nobodyon earth mortals,in whose eyes whatever is lost and
did,could,or would feelit as she did.
gone assumes a value which it never had in j,Q9
8
seated ; and there were white scarfs and ribbons,
and crape bands, and mourners dressed in black
and there were words read from the Bible,
"
St. Clare did not shed a tear,"she said ;
"
be
did n't sympathizewith her ; it was perfectly
as Marie began to have hysterical
when he saw him sitting, so pale and quiet, in
Eva's room, holdingbefore his eyes her little open
Bible,though seeingno letter or word of what
was in it,there was more sorrow to Tom in that
still, fixedțearless eye,
than in allMarie's moans
and lamentations.