UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

a
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LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY.
157
Bat Legreelocked his door and set a chair [ The first person that struck her, after her aragainst
it ; he set a night-lamp at the head of his rival,was GeorgeShelby, who was stayingthere,
bed ; and he put his pistols there. He examined awaiting the next boat.
the catches and fasteningsof the windows, and Cassy had remarked the young
man from her
then swore he " didn't care for the devil and all !loop-hole in the garret, and seen him bear away
bis angels,"and went to sleep.
the body of Tom, and observed, with secret exultation,
Well, he slept,forhe was tired," sleptsoundly.
his rencontre with Legree. Subsequently,
But, finally, there came over his sleepa !she had gathered, from the conversationsshe had
shadow, a horror, an apprehension of something
1 overheard among the negroes, as she glidedabout
dieadful hangingover him. It was his mother's iin her ghostlydisguise, after nightfall, who he
shroud,he thought; but Cassy had it,holding Jwas, and in what relation he stood to Tom. She
up, and showingit to him. He heard a confused \therefore felt an immediate accession of confinoise
of screams and groanings ; and, with it |dence, when she found that he was, like herself,
all,he knew he was asleep, and he struggled to awaiting the next boat.
wake himself. He was half awake. He was Cassy's air and manner, address,and evident
sure something was cominginto his room. He command of money, preventedany risingdisposition
knew the door was opening, but he could not stir
to suspicion in the hotel. People never
hand or foot. At last he turned,with a start ; inquire too closelyinto those who are fair on the
the door ivas open,
and he saw a hand putting out main point, of a payingwell," thingtvhich
his light.
Cassy had foreseen when she providedherself
It was a cloudy,mistymoonlight, and there he with money.
saw it! "
something white, glidingin! He In the edgeof the evening, a boat was hearc?
heard the still rustle of its ghostlygarments. coming along, and GeorgeOTelbyhanded Cassy
It stood stillby his bed "
; cold hand touched aboard, with the politeness which comes naturally
his ; a voice said țhree times, in a low, fearful to every Kentuekian, and exerted himself to pro
whisper, " Come ! come! come!" And, while vide her with a goodstate-room.
he lay sweating with terror,he knew not when CassykepWie room and bed, on pretextof illness,
or how, the thing was gone. He sprang out of during the whole time they were on Bed
bed, and pulledat the door. It was shut and river;and was waited on, with obsequious devotion,
locked,and the man fell clown in a swoon.
by her attendant.
After this,Legreebecame a harder drinker than When they arrived at the Mississippi river,
ever before. He no longer drank cautiously, prudentlyGeorge,havinglearned
that the course of the
,*butimprudently and recklessly. strangelady was upward, like his own, proposed
There were reports around the country șoon to take a state-room for her on the same boat
afterțhat he was
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sick and dying. Excess had with himself, good-naturedly compassionating
broughton that frightful disease that seems to her feeble health,and desirous to do what he
throw the lurid shadows of a coming retribution
back into the presentlife. None could bear the
horrors of that sick room, when he raved and
screamed, and spoke of sightswhich almost
stoppedthe blood of those who heard him ; and.
at his dyingbed,stood a stern,white,inexorable
figure, saying,
" Come ! come ! come!"
the guards, came to the table,and was remarked
By a singularcoincidence, on the very nightupon in the boat as a ladythat must have been
that this vision appeared to Legree,the housedoor
was found open in the morning, and some From the moment that George got
very handsome.
erfthe negroes had seen two white figures glidinglimpse of her face,he was troubled with one of
down the avenue towards the high-road. those fleeting and indefinitelikenesses, which
It was near sunrise when Cassyand Emmeline
bundles,she made her appearance at the
small tavern, like a ladyof consideration.
could
to assisther.
Behold,thereforețhe whole partysafely
transferred
to the good steamer Cincinnati, and sweeping
head of
up the river under a powerful
steam.
Cassy's health was much better. She sat upon
the first
almost everybody can remember, and has been,
at times, perplexed with. He could not keep
himself from looking at her, and watching her
paused,for a moment, in a littleknot of trees
near the town.
Cassy was dressed after the manner of the perpetually. At table,or sittingat her stateroom
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Creole Spanish ladies, whollyin black. A door,still she would encounter the young
small black bonnet on her head, covered by a veil man's eyes fixed on her,and politely withdrawn,
thick with embroidery, concealed her face. It when she showed,by her countenance, that she
had been agreedthat,in their escape, she was to was sensibleof the observation.
personate the character of a Creole lady, and Cassy became uneasy.
She began to think that
Emmeline that of her servant.
he suspectedsomething; and finally resolved to
Broughtup, from earlylife,in connection with throw herself entirelyon his generosity, and
the highestsociety, the language, movements and
air of Cassy, were all in agreement with this
idea ; and she had still enoughremaining with
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her, of a once splendidwardrobe,and sets of plantation,
a placethat he could not remember
jewels țo enable her to personate the thing to or speak of with "
patience, and, with the courageous
advantage.
disregard of consequences which is charac
She stopped in the outskirts of the town, where ter'istic of his age and state,he assured her that
she had noticed trunks for sale,and purchased a he would do all in his power to protect and
handsome one. This she requestedthe man to bring them through.
send along with her. And, accordingly, thus The next state-room to Cassy's was occupied
qscortedby a boywheeling her trunk,and Emmeline
by a French lady,named He Thoux, who was
behind her,carrying
carpet-bagand sundry
accompaniedby a fine littledaughter, a child of
intrusted him with her whole history.
George was heartilydisposedto sympathize
with any
one who had escapedfrom Legree's
some
twelve summers.
This lady,having gathered, from George's