UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

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a
LIFE AMONG THE IOWLY. 129
have had such a depthof woe in them as the But the placelooked desolate and uncomfortable
wild notes of the chorus. As if the poor, durah
; some windows stopped up with boardsșome
"
heart,threatened," prisoned, took refuge in witli shattered panes, and shutters hangingby a
that inarticulate sanctuaryof music, and found
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singlehinge, all telling of coarse neglect and
there a language in which to breathe its prayer discomfort.
to God ! There was a prayer in it which Simon j Bits of board,straw, old decayedbarrels and
could not hear. He only heard the boyssingingboxes,garnished
the groundin all directions ; and
noisily, and was well pleased ; he was making three or four ferocious-looking dogs,roused by the
them '" keep up
their spirits.*'
sound of the wagon-wheels,came tearingout,and
"
Well, my
little dear,"said he, turningto were with difficulty restrained from laying hold
Emmeline, and layinghis hand on her shoulder, of Tom and his companions,by the effort of the
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we 're almost home !"
When Legree scolded and stormed, Emmeline
"was terrified ; but when he laid his hand on her,
and spoke as he now did,she felt as if she had
rather he would strike her. The expression of his get, if ye try to run off. These yer dogshas beep
eyes made her soul sick,and her flesh creep. Involuntarilyraised
to track niggers; and they'd jestas soon
she clung closer to the mulatto woman chaw one on
ye up as eat their supper. So, mind
by her side,as if she were her mother.
yerself ! How now, Sambo !" he saidțo a ragged
"You didn't ever wear ear-rings," he said, fellow,without any brim to Ins hat,who was officious
taking hold of her small ear with his coarse fin-
gers.
"No,Mas'r! said Emmeline,trembling and
lookingdown.
"Well. I'll giveyou pair, when we get
home, if you 're a goodgirl. You need n't be
frightened
; I don't mean to make you work "
very Guess I did,did n't I?"
hard. You '11have fine times with me, and live These two colored men were the two principal
like a onlybe lady," a goodgirl."
hands on the plantation. Legree had trainedthem
Legreehad been drinking to that degreethat he in savageness and brutality as systematically as he
was incliningto be very gracious ; and it was had his bu!l-dogs ; and, by longpractice in hardness
about this time that the enclosures of the plantation
and cruelty, broughttheir whole nature to
rose to view. The estate had formerly belonged
about the same
range of capacities. It is a common
to a gentlemanof opulence and taste,who remark, and one that is thoughtto militate
had bestowed some considerableattention to the stronglyagains the character of the race, that
adornment of his grounds. Havingdied insolvent,
the negro overseer isalwaysmore tyrannical and
it had been purchased, at a bargain,by cruel than the white one. This issimplysaying
Legree, who used it,as he did everything else, that the negro
mind has been more crushed and
merely as an implementformoney-making Ṭhe debased than the white. It is no more true of
place had that ragged, forlorn appearance, which this race than of every oppressedrace, the world
is always producedby the evidence that the care over. The slave isalways a tyrant, if he can get
of the former owner has been leftto go to utter a chance to be one.
decay.
Legree, like some potentates we read of in history,
What was once a smooth-shaven lawn before governedhis plantationby a sort of resolution
the house, dotted here and there with ornamental of forces. Sambo and Quimbo cordially hated
shrubs, was now covered with frowsy tangledeach other ; the plantation hands, one and all,
grass, with horse-posts set up, here and there,in cordially hated them ; and, by playingoff one
it,where the turf was stampedaway, and the againstanother,he was prettysure, through one
ground littered with broken pails, cobs of corn, or the other of the three parties, to get informed
and other slovenly remains. Here and there,a of whatever was on foot in the place.
mildewed jessamineor honeysuckle hungraggedly Nobody can live entirely without social intercourse
from some ornamental support,which had been
; and Legreeencouraged his two black
pushed to one side by being used as a horse-post. satellitesto a kind of coarse familiarity with him;
What once was a largegardenwas now all grown familiarity, however,at any moment liable to
over with weeds,throughwhich,here and there, get one or the other of them into trouble ; for,on
gome solitary exoticreared itsforsakenhead. What the slightest provocation,,
one of them always
had been a conservatory had now no window-sashes, stood ready, at a nod, to be a minister of his vengeance
and on the moulderingshelves stood some dry,
on the other.
forsaken
flower-pots, with sticks in them,whose
dried leaves showed theyhad once been plants.
The wagon rolled up a weedy gravelwalk,
under a noble avenue of China trees,whose graceful
forms and ever-springing foliage seemed to be
" like
the onlythings there that neglectcould not daunt
or alter,
goodnessas to flourishand grow stronger amid
noble spirits, so deeplyrooted in
discouragement and decay.
." The house had been largeand handsome. It
was built in a manner common at the South ; a
wide veranda of two storiesrunninground every
part of the house,into which every outer door
opened, the lower tier
VJillars
beingsupportedby brick
raggedservants who came after them.
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Ye see what ye 'd get !" said Legree, the dogs with grimsatisfaction, and
turning
to Tom and his companions. " Ye see what ye '"?.
in his attentions. " How have thingsbeen
going?"
"
Fust rate,Mas'r."
"
Quimbo," said Legree to another,who was
making zealous
"
demonstrations to attract his attention,
ye minded what I telled ye V
As theystood there now by Legreețheyseemed
an
apt illustrationof the fact that brutal men are
lower even than animals. Their coarse, dark,
heavy features ; their greateyes, rolling envuusly
on each other; their barbarous,guttural,halfbrute
intonation ; theirdilapidated garments fluttering
in the wind," were allin admirable keeping
with the vile and unwholesome characterof everything
about the place.
" take thesa
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Here, you Sambo," said Legree,
yer boys down to the quarters; and here 's a gal
I 've got for ?/ow,"said he,as he separated the
mulatto woman from Emmeline,and pushedher
"
towards "
him; I promisedto Iringyou one
you know."