UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

He
the
"
just
126 UNCLE TOM S CABIN I OR,
no more. Kentucky home, with wife and chil
"
"
"
"
"
"
the last syllable of the word " dollars,'''' as the
the trees and banks were now passing, "
Yes,Mas'r." said Tom, firmly.
auctioneer announced his price,and Tom was dren, and indulgentowners ; St. Clare home,
made over. had a master !
with all its refinements and splendors; the golden
He was pushed from the block ; short, head of Eva, with its saint-like eyes ; the proud,
bullet-headed man, seizing him roughlyby the gay, handsome,seemingly-careless, yet ever-kind
shoulder, pushed him to one side,saying,in a St. Clare ; hours of ease and indulgentleisure,
harsh voice,"Stand there,you!"
all gone ! and in placethereof, what remains 1
Tom hardly realized anything; .but still the It is one of the bitterest apportionmentsof a
bidding went on, rattling,clattering, now lot of slaveryțhat the negro, sympathetic French,now English. Down
goes the hammer assimilative, after acquiring, in a refined family,
again, Susan is sold ! She goes down from the the tastes and feelings which form the atmosphere
block,stops, looks back,"
wistfully her daughter of such a place, is not the less liable to
stretchesher hands toward her. She looks with become the bond-slave of the coarsest and most
agony in the face of the man who has boughtbrutal,
as a chair or table, which once
her," a respectablemiddle-aged man, of benevolent
decorated the superbsaloon,comes, at last,battered
countenance.
and defacedțo the bar-room of some filthy
"
0, Mas'r,pleasedo buy my daughter !" tavern, or some low haunt of vulgardebauchery.
"
I 'd like to, but I 'niafraid I can't affordit !" The great difference is,that the table and chair
said the gentleman,looking, painful interest,
cannot feel,and the man can ; for even a lega'l
as the young girlmounted the block, and enactment that he shall be
"
taken, reputed,
looked around her with a frightened adjudged in law, to be a chattel personal,"
glance.
cannot blot out his soul,with its own private
The blood flushes painfully
her otherwise littleworld of memories,hopes,loves,fears,and
colorlesscheek,her eye has a feverish fire,and desires.
her mother groans to see that she looks more Mr. Simon Logree Țom's master, had purchased
beautiful than she ever saw her before. The auctioneer
slaves at one placeand another,in New
sees his advantage, expatiates volubly
Orleans,to the number of eight, and driven them,
in mingledFrench and English, and bids rise handcuffed,in couplesof two and "two, down to
in rapidsuccession.
the good steamer Pirate, which lay at the levee,
"
1 11 do anything in reason,"said the benevolent-looking
readyfor a trip up
the Red river.
gentleman,pressing and joining Having got them fairly and the boat
with the bids. In a few moments theyhave run beingoff,he came round,with that air of efficiency
beyond his purse. He is silent ; the auctioneer which ever characterized him, to take a review
grows warmer ; but bids graduallydrop off. It of them. Stoppingopposite Tom, who had
lies now between an aristocraticold citizen and been attired for sale in his best broadcloth suit,
our bullet-headedacquaintance.The citizen bids with well-starched linen and shiningboots,he
for a few turns, contemptuouslymeasuring his brieflyexpressedhimself as follows :
opponent ; but the bullet-head has the advantage
"
Stand up."
over him,both in obstinacy concealed length Tom stood up.
of purse, and the controversy ; "Take off that stock!" and as Tom, encum
the hammer falls." he has got the girl,body bered by his fetters,proceeded to do it,he as
and soul,unless God helpher !
sisted him, by pullingit,with no gentlehand,
Her master is Mr. Legree,who owns a cotton from his neck, and putting it in his pocket.
plantation
the Red river. She is pushedalong Legree now turned to Tom's trunk,which, previous
into the same lot with Tom and two other men,
to this,he had been ransacking,and, taking
and goes off,weeping as she goes.
ffoinit a pairof old pantaloons and a dilapidated
The benevolent gentlemanis sorry ; but,then, coat, which Tom had been wont to put on
the thinghappensevery day ! One sees girlsabout his stable-work,he said,liberating Tom's
and mothers crying, it can't hands from the handcuffs,
pointingto a recess
be helped,"c. ; and he walks off,with his acquisition,
in among the boxes,
in an" ther direction.
put these on."
"
You there,and
Two days after, the lawyerof the Christian Tom
go
obeyed, and
boots,"
in a few moments returned.
Legree.
firm of B. " Co.,New York, sent on their money
"
Take off your said Mr.
to them. On the reverse of that draft,so obtained,
Tom did so.
let them write these words of the great "There," said the former, throwing him a
Paymaster,to whom they shall make up their pairof coarse, stout shoes,such as were common
account in a future day : "
When he makcth inquisitionamong
the slaves, " put these on."
for blood,he forgetteth not the cry of the In Tours hurried exchange,he had not forgotten
humble!"
to transfer his cherished Bible to his pocket.
It was well he did so ; for Mr. Legree,having
CHAPTER XXXI.
refitted Tom's handcuffs,proceededdeliberately
to investigate the contents of his pockets. He?
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE.
drew out a silk handkerchief, and put it into his
own pocket. Several little trifles, which Tom
"
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil,and canst not
look upon iniquity: wherefore
had treasured
lookest thou upon them that deal
chieflybecause they had amused
treacherously, and holiest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth
Eva, he looked upon with a contemptuous grunt,
the man that is more righteousthan he i "" Hab. 1 : 13.
and tossed them over his shoulder into the river.
On the lower part of a small,mean boat,on Tom's Methodist hymn-book,which, in his
the Red riverȚom chains sat," on his wrists, hurry,he had forgotten,he now held up and
chains on his feet,and a weightheavier than turned over.
chains layon his heart. All had faded from his
"
Humph ! pious țo be sure. So, what 's your
sky," moon and star ; all had passedby him, as
you belongto the church, eh?"
name,