UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

e
e!
oh!
oh
The boat moved
"Ho! ho! ho!
on, freighted with
boys,ho!
itsweight
sorrow, up the red, muddy, turbid
High high
current,
!"
e
of
throughthe abrupt țortuous windingsof the Red It was sung very boisterously, and with a
river ; and sad eyes gazedwearily on the steep forced attempt at merriment ; but no wail of
red-clay banks,as theẏ glidedby in dreary same-
despair, words of impassioned
128 UNCLE TOM S CABIN : OE,
opinion, it is ycu considerate,humane men,
ness.
that
At lastthe boat stopped at a small town,
are responsible for all the brutality and outrage and Legree,with his party,disembarked.
wrought by these -wretches ; because,if it were
not for your sanction and influence, the whole
system could not keep foot-holdfor an hour. If
there were no plantersexcept such as that CHAPTER XXXII.
one,"
said he, pointing with his finger to Legree, who
DARK ri.A( I ".
stood with his back to them, " the whole thing
would go down like a mill-stone. It is your
respectability and humanitythat licenses and
protects his brutality."
" You certainly have a highopinionof my good
nature," said the planter,smiling; "but I advise
"Well, my Mas'r was Mr. lived on
Ellis,"
Levee-street. P'raps you 've seen the house."
said Emmeline.
" Was he good to you?"
"
Mostly țillhe tuk sick. He 's lain sick,off
and on, more than six months, and been orful
oneasy. 'Pears like he warn't willin'to have nobody
rest,day nor night;and got so curous,
" Had you any friends?" said Emmeline.
"
Yes, my he 's a husband," blacksmith.
Mas'r gen'ly hired him out. They took me off
so quick. I didn't even have time to see him ;
and I 's got four children. 0, dear me!" said
the woman, covering her face with her hands.
It is a natural impulse,in every one, when
they hear a tale of distress,
to say by way of consolation. Emmeline wanted
to say something, but she could not think of anything
to say.
What was there to be said ? As
by a common consent,they both avoided,with
fear and dread,all mention of the horrible man
who was now their master.
and tender in years !
to think of something
"
The dark placesof the earth are full of the habitations ofcruelty."
Trailing wearily behind a rude wagon, and
over a ruder road,Tom and his associatesfaced
onward.
In the wagon
was seated Simon Legree; and
you not to talk quiteso loud,as there the two
are
women, still fettered together,were
people on board the boat who mightnot be stowed
quite away with some baggage in the back part
so tolerant to opinion as I am. You had better of it,and the whole company were seekingLegree'splantation,
which lay a gooddistance off.
wait tillI getup to my plantation, and there you
may abuse us all,quiteat your leisure."
It was a wild,forsaken road, now winding
The young gentleman colored and smiled,and through drearypine barrens,where the wind
the two were soon busy in a game of backgammon.
whisperedmournfully,and now over log causeways,
Meanwhile,another conversation was going through long cypress swamps, the doleful
on in the lower part of the boat,between Emnieline
and the mulatto woman with whom she with
trees rising out of the slimy,spongy ground,hung
was long wreaths of funereal black moss, while
confined. As ever was
and
natural,theywere exchanging
anon the loathsome form of the moccasin
with each other some particulars of their snake
history. might be seen sliding among broken stumps
"
Who did you belongto?" said Emmeline. and shattered branches that lay here and there,
rotting the water.
It is disconsolate enough, this riding, to the
stranger,who, with well-filled pocketand wellappointedhorse
țhreads the lonelyway on some
errand of business ; but wilder,drearierțo the
man enthralled,whom every weary step bears
further from all that man loves and prays for.
there couldn't nobodysuit him. 'Pears like he So one should have thought, that witnessed the
sunken and
justgrew crosser, every day; kep me up nights
dejectedexpression
those dark
tillI gotfarly beat out,and could n't keep awake faces ; the wistful,patient weariness with which
no longer; and cause I got to those sad
sleep, one night,
eyes rested, on objectafter objec that
Lors,ho talk so orful to me, and he tell me he 'd passed them in their sad journey.
Bell me to justthe hardest master he could find Simon rode on, ;
however, apparentlywell
and he 'd promisedme my freedom,too,when he pleased, occasionally pullingaway at a flask of
died."
spirit, which he kept in his pocket.
" I say, you ! " he said,as he turned back and
caught a glance at the dispirited faces behind
"
him. Strike up
a boys,"
song, come ! "
The men looked at each other,and the " come'''
was repeated, a smart crack of the whip,
which the driver carried in his hands. Tom began
a Methodist hymn,
"
Jerusalem,my happy home,
Name ever dear to me !
When shall my
sorrows have an end,
"
"
Thy joyswhen shall
"Shut up, you black cuss!" roarfed Legree;
"
did ye think I wanted any o' yer infernal old
"
"
"
Methodism? I say, tune uji, now, something
True,there is religious trust for even the darkest
real quick!"
rowdy,"
hour. The mulatto woman was a member of One of the other men struck up one of those
the Methodist church,and had an unenlightenedunmeaningsongs, among the slaves.
but very sincere spirit of piety. Emmeline had
" Mas'r see'd me eotch a coon,
been educated much more intelligently, taught
High, boys,high !
to read and write,and diligently instructedin the
He laughedto split, d' ye
see the moon,
Bible,by the care of a faithful and pious mistress
Ho! ho! ho! boys,ho!
; yet, would it not try the faith of the
Ho! yo! hi oh !"
firmest Christian, to find themselves abandoned,
apparently, The singerappearedto make up
God, in the grasp of ruthless
song to
his own pleasure,generallyhitting
violence? How much more must it shake rhyme,
the
without much attempt
faith of Christ's poor little ones, weak in knowledge
; and all the
party took up the chorus,at intervals,
prayer, could