UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

night
and
I
52 UNCLE TOM S CABIN
.
OR,
something at present in the case beyond his stylecounsel,did not feel called on to s'.i.tehis obsei
of operation.He gotup, and the woman turned vations and suspicions, but said he did not know
away, and buried her head in her cloak.
"
She surely could
The trader walked" gotoffin the night
up and down for a time,and at any of the landings, for I was awake, and on
occasionally stoppedand looked at her.
the look-out, wdienever the boat stopped Ị never
"
Takes it hard,rather,"he "
soliloquized, but trust these yer thingsto other folks."
quiet țho' ;"
let her sweat awhile ; she '11 come This speechwas addressed to Tom quiteconfidentially,
right,by and by !"
as if it was somethingthat would be
Tom had watched the whole transaction from specially interesting to him. Tom made no answer.
firstto last,and had a perfectunderstanding of
its results. To him, it looked like something The trader searched the boat from stem to
unutterably and cruel,because, poor, stern, among boxes,bales and barrels,around the
ignorantblack soul ! he had not learned to generalize,
machinery,by the chimneys, in vain.
and to take enlargedviews. If he had
"
Now, I Tom, be fair about thisyer,"he
say,
only been instructed by certain ministersof Christianity,
said,when, after a fruitless search, he came,
he might have thoughtbetter of it,and where Tom was standing. "You know something
seen in it an every-day
a trade which is the vital support
incidentof a lawful trade ;
of an institution
which some American divines tell us has no
evilsbut such as are inseparable from any other
relations in social and domestic life. But Tom,
as we see, being a poor, ignorantfellow,whose
reading had been confined entirely to the New
Testament,could not comfort and solace himself
with views like these. His very soul bled within
him for what seemed to him the wrongs of the
poor suffering thingthat laylike a crushed reed
on the boxes ; the feeling, living, bleeding, yet
immortal thing,which American state law coolly
classeswith the bundles,and bales,and boxes,
among which she is lying.
Tom drew near, and tried to say something;
but she onlygroaned. Honestly,and with tears
running down Ins own cheeks, he spokeof a heart
of love in the skies,of a pityingJesus,and an
eternal home ; but the ear was deaf with anguish,
hard customer, that embarrassed his property
and the palsiedheart could not feel.
operations very unfairly; and so he onlyswore
"
Night came on, calm,unmoved, and that the gal was a baggage, and that he was
gloi'ious, shining down with her innumerable and devilish unlucky, and that,if thingswent on in
solemn angel eyes, twinkling, beautiful, but silent. this way, he should not make a cent on the trip.
There was no speech nor language, no pityingIn short,he seemed to consider himself an illused
man, decidedly; but there was no helpfor
voice nor helpinghand, from that distant sky.
One after another,the voices of business or pleasure
it,as the woman had escapedinto a state which
died away ; all on the boat were
sleeping, and never loillgiveup a "
fugitive, not even at the
the ripplesat the prow were plainly heard. Tom demand of the whole gloriousUnion. The trader,
stretched himself out on a box, and there,as he thereforeșat discontentedly down, with his little
lay, he heard,ever and anon, a smothered sob or account-book,and put down the missingbody
cry from the "0! what and soul under the head of losses!
prostratecreature,"
shall I do? 0 Lord! 0 good Lord,do help "He's a shockingcreature, isn't this
he,"
me !" and so, ever and anon, until the murmur
died away in silence.
At
midnight, Tom waked,with a sudden start.
Something black passedquicklyby him to the
side of the boat,and he heard a splashin the
water. No one else saw or heard anything. He
raised his the woman's head," placewas vacant!
He got up, and soughtabout him in vain. Tift;
poor bleeding heart was still, at last,and the
riverrippled and dimpledjustas brightlyas if it
had not closed above it.
Patience ! patience ! ye whose hearts swell
by the Man of Sorrows,the Lord of Glory.
In his patient, generous bosom he bears the anguish
of a world. Bear thou,like him,in patience,
and labor in love; for sure as he is God, "the
year of his redeemed shall come."
The trader waked up bright and early,and
came out to see to his live stock. It was now
lis turn to look about in perplexity.
"
Where alive is that gal ?" he said to Tom.
Tom, who hai learned the wisdom of keeping
about it,now. Don't tell me,
"
know
you do. I saw the galstretched out here about
ten o'clock,and ag'in at twelve,and ag"in between
one and two ; and then at four she was
gone, and you was a sleepingrightthere all the
time. Now, you know can't
something,"
help it."
you
"
Well,Mas'r," said Tom, " towards
morning
something brushed by me, and I kinder half
woke ; and then I hearn a greatsplash,
and the:*
I clare woke up, and the galwas gone. That 's
all I know on 't."
The trader was not shocked nor amazed ; because,
as we said before,he was used to a great
many. thingsthat you are not used to. Even the
awful presence
of Death struck no solemn chill
upon him. He had seen death many times,"
met him in the way of trade,and gotacquainted
with "
him, he only thoughtof him as a
indignantat wrongs like these. Not one throb
of anguish,not one tear of the oppressed,is for-
trader? so unfeeling ! It 's dreadful,really !"
"0, but nobody thinks anythingof these
traders ! They are universally despised,
"
never
received into any decent society."
But who, sir,makes the trader? Who is most
to blame? The enlightened, cultivated,intelligent
man, who supports the systemof which the
trader is the inevitable result,or the poor trader
himself? You make the publicsentiment that
calls for his trade,that debauches and depraves
him, till he feels no shame in it;and in what
are you better inan he ?
Are you educated and he ignorant, you high
gottenand he low, you refined and he coarse, you
talented
and he simple?
In the day of a future Judgment țhese very
considerations may make it more tolerable for
him than for you.
In concluding these little incidentsof lawful
trade,we must beg the world not to think that
legislators are
entirely
American
destitute of
humanity, as might,perhaps,be unfairlyinferred
from the great effortsmade in our national body
traffic.
to protect and
perpetuate this species of