UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

liccL.
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 131
console the
"
"
"
yearned to
"Them's good words, enough," said the
distress-ed, was forbidden of God to
which in life so comfort and But her eye
was the most remarkable "
feature,
woman
'
'em 1' assume this ministry afterdeath ?
' ' who says
" The Loi-d,"said Tom.
" I jest wish I know'd whar to find It is a beautiful
Him," said
belief,
That ever round our head
"
the woman.
I would go ; 'pearslike I never
should get rested agin. My flesh is Are hovering,on angelwings,
fairly sore,
The spirits of the dead.
and I tremble all over, every day, and Sambo 's
allers a jawin' at me, 'cause I does n't pick faster ;
and nights it 's most midnight 'fore I can get my
supper ; and den 'pearslike I don't turn over
CHAPTER XXXHT.
and shut njy eyes, 'fore I hear de horn blow to
get up, and at it aginin de mornin'. If I knew
whar de Lor was, I 'd tell him."
oppressed, and they had
"
And behold the tears of such as were
Lor, you an't gwine to make me believe " He 's here,he 's everywhere," said Tom.
"
no comforter
pow^r, hut ; and
they had on no the side comforter." their oppressors
4 : 1.
of there was
dat
; It ar ! I know de Lord an't here," said the woman took but a short time to familiarize Tom
"
'tan't no use with talking, though. I 's jestgwine all that was to be hoped or feared in his
to camp down, and sleepwhile I ken."
new way of life. He was an expertand efficient
The women went off to their cabins,and Tom workman in whatever he undertook ; and was,
gat alone,by the smoulderingfirețhat flickered both from habit and principle, prompt and faithful.
up redlyin his face.
Quiet and peaceable in his disposition, he
The silver,fair-browed moon rose in the purplehoped,by unremittingdiligence, to avert from
sky, and looked down, calm and silent,as God himself at least a portion of the evilsof his condition.
looks on the scene of miseryand oppression,
He saw enoughof abuse and misery to
looked calmly on the lone black man, as he sat, make him sick and weary ; but he determined to
with his arms folded,and his Bible on his toil on, with religious patience, committing himself
knee.
to Him that judgethrighteously, not without
"Is God here?" Ah, how is it possible for hope that some way of escape might yet be
the untaughtheart to keep its faith,unswerving, opened to him.
in the face of dire misrule,and palpable, buked injustice 1 In that simple heart Avageda
fierce conflict : the crushing sense of wrong, the felt a secret dislike to the native him," antipathy
foreshadowing of a whole life of future misery, of bad to good. He saw, plainly, when,
the wreck of all pasthopes,mournfullytossing
as was often the case, his violence and brutality
the soul's sight, like dead corpses of wife,and fellon the helpless, Tom took notice of it ; for,so
child,and friend,risingfrom the dark wave, and subtle is the atmosphere of opinion, that it will
surgingin the face of the half-drowned mariner ! make itself felt,without words ; and the opinion
Ah, was it easy here to believe and hold fast the even of a slave may annoy a master. Tom in
greatpass-word of Christian faith țhat " God is, various ways manifested a tenderness of feeling,
and is the rewarder of them that diligently seek a commiseration for his felloAV-suflerers, strange
Kim
' 1
and '
new to them, which was watched with a
Tom rose, disconsolate, and stumbled into the jealouseye by Legree. He had purchased Tcm
iabin that had been allotted to him. The floor with a view of eventually making him a sort cf
*vas alreadystrewn with weary sleepers, and the overseer, with whom he might, at times, intrust
foul au"of the placealmost repelledhim ; but his affairs, in short absences;and,in his view,
the hr*hvynight-dews chill, and his limbs the firstșecond, and third requisite that
weary, and, wrapping about him a tattered place, was hardness. Legree made up
his hdnd,
blanket, which formed his only bed-clothing, that,as Tom was not hard to his hand, he -would
he stretched himself in the straw and fell harden him forthwith ; and some few weeks after
asleep.
Tom had been on the place, he determined to
In dreams, a gentlevoice came over his ear ; commence the process.
he was sitting mossy seat in the gardenby One morning, when the hands were mustered
Lake Pontchar train,and Eva, with her serious for the fieldȚom noticed,with surprise, a new
eyes bent downward, was readingto him from comer among them, whose excited
appearance
his
the Bible ; and he heard her read,
attention. It was a woman, tall and slenderly
"
When thou passestthrough the waters, I formed,with remarkably delicate hands and feet,
will be with thee,and the rivers theyshall not and dressed in neat and respectable garments.
overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the By the appearance of her face, she might have
firețhou shalt not be burned,neither shall the been between thirty-five and forty; and it was a
flame kindle upon thee ; for I am the Lord thy face that,once seen, could never be forgotten.
God, the Holy One of Israel,thy Saviour."
one of those that,at a glance șeem to convey to
Gradually the words seemed to melt and fade, us an idea of a wild,painful, -and romantic history.
as in a divine music ; the child raised her deep
Her forehead was high, and her eyebrows
eyes, and fixed them lovingly on him, and rays of marked with beautiful clearness. Her straight,
warmth and comfort seemed to go from them to well-formed nose, her finely-cut mouth, and the
his heart ; and,as if wafted on the music,she graceful contour of her head and neck, showed
seemed to rise on shiningwings, from which that she must once have been beautiful ; but her
flakesand spanglesof goldfelloff like stars, and face was deeply wrinkled with lines of pain, and
she was gone.
of proud and bitter endurance. Her complexion
Tom woke. Was it a dream 1 Let it pass
for was. sallow and unhealthy, cheeks thin, her
features sharp, and her whole form emaciated.
one. But who shall say that that sweet young
spirit,
Legree took silent note of Tom's availability.
He rated him as a first-classhand ; and yet he