UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

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LIFE AMONG HE LOWLY.
57
Is itstrangețhen,that some tears fall on the Rooked at her,and by which the dullestand most
pages of his Bible,as he laysit on the cottonbale,
and, with patientfingerțhreadinghis !why". The shapeof her head and the turn of
literal were impressed, without exactlyknowing
slow way from word to word, traces out its promises?
her neck and bust were peculiarly noble, and the
Having learned late in lifeȚom was but longgolden-brownhair that floated like a cloud
a slow reader,and passedon laboriouslyfrom around it țhe deepspiritual gravityof her violet-
verse to verse. Fortunate for him was it that the
book he was intent on was one which slow reading
"
cannot injure, nay, one whose words, like
ingotsof gold șeem often to need to be weighed
glided hither and thither on the boat. Neverthejless,the
littleone was not what you would have
that the mind may take in theirpriceless
value. Let us follow him a moment, as, |called either a
grave child or a sad one. On the
each half
separately,
pointing to each word,and pronouncing
aloud,he reads,
"
Let
" "
your
In " " "
"
mansions. I
go
"
"
"
troubled.
"
"
"
"
"
many
She was always in motion,alwayswith a half
" a
prepare place!smile on her rosy mouth, flying hither and thither.
you."
with an undulating and cloud-like tread,singing
Cicero,when he buried his darlingand only to herself as she moved, as in a happy dream.
daughter, a heart as full of honest grief as
poor Tom's," perhapsno fuller, for both were
only men ; Cicero could pause over no such
sublime word^ of hope, and look to no such future
reunion ; and if he had seen them,ten to one he
would not have believed, he must fillhis head
firstwith a thousand questionsof authenticity iin white,she seemed to move like a shadow
manuscript, and correctness of translation. But,
to poor Tom, there it lay,justwhat he needed,so
evidently true and divine that the possibility of a
question never entered his simplehead. It must
be true ; for,if not true, how could he live ?
As for Tom's Bible,thoughit had no annotations
and helps in marginfrom learned commentators,
stillit had been embellished with certain
way-marks and guide-boards
tion,
of Tom's own inven-
and
and which helpedhim more than the most !him in some dreadful danger. Anon the steerslearned
expositions could have done. It had been 'man at the wheel paused and smiled, as the
his custom to get the Bible read to him by his "
picture-like head gleamedthroughthe window of
master's children, in particularby
young Master the round-house,and in a moment was
gone
in a moment seize upon
his favorite passages,
)fhis
without the labor of spelling out what lay between
kindlyrace, ever yearning toward the sin pieand
them
"
; while it lay there before childlike, watched the little creature wii'h daily
him, every passage breathing of some old home increasing interest. To him she seemed something
Bcene, and recalling some past enjoyment,his
almost divine ; and whenever her golden
Bible seemed to him all of this lifethat remained, head and deep blue eyes peered out upon him
as well as the promiseof a future one.
Among the passengers on the boat was a young
gentleman of fortune and family,resident in New
Orleans,who bore the name of St. Clare. He had
with him a daughter between five and six years
with a ladywho seemed to claim
of age,together
relationship to both,and to have the little one
especially under her chargė
|blueyes, shaded by.heavy fringes of golden
!brown," all marked her out from other children,
' and made
every one turn to look after her,as she
contrary, an airy and innocent playfulness seemed
to flicker like the shadow of summer leaves over
her childishface,and around her buoyantfigure-
Her father and female guardianwere incessantly
Jbusy in pursuitof her," but,when caught,she
melted from them again like a summer cloud ,
and
;as no word of chiding or reproofever fellon her
ear for whatever she chose to do, she pursued
her own way all over the boat. Alwaysdressed
through all sorts of places,
contracting
without
or stain ; and there was not a corner or nook,
had
not
! above or below, where those fairyfootsteps
glided, and that visionary goldenhead,with
| its deep blue eyes, fleeted along.
The fireman,as he looked up
from his sweaty
toilșometimes found those eyes lookjng wonderingly
into the ragingdepths of the furnace,and
"
fearfully
pityingly at him, as if she thought
George; and as theyread, he would designate by again. A thousand times a day roughvoices
bold,strong marks and dashes,with pen and ink, blessed her,and smiles of unwonted softnessstole
the passages which more particularly gratified his over hard faces,as she passed; and when she
ear or affected his heart. His Bible was thus trippedfearlessly over dangerousplaces,rough
marked through, from one end to the other,with sootyhands were stretched involuntarily out to
a variety of stylesand designations ; so he could save her,and smooth her path.
Tom, who had the soft,impressible nature
from behind some dusky cotton-bale,or looked
down upon him over some ridge of packages he
half believed that he saw one of the angi Is
.
steppedout of his New Testament.
Often and often she walked mournfully round
the placewhere Haley'sgang of men and women
sat in their chains. She would glidein among
them,and look at then with an air of perplexed
Tom had often caughtglimpsesof this little and sorrowful earnestness ; and sometimes she
girl, she was one of those busy,trippingwould lift their chains with her slender hands,
creatures țhat can be no more contained in one and then sighwofully, as she glided away.
place than a sunbeam or a summer breeze," nor Several times she appearedsuddenlyamong them,
was she one that,once seen, could be easily forgotten.
with her hands full of
candy,nuts, and oranges,
which she would distributejoyfully w them, and
Her form was the perfection of childishbeauty, then be gone again.
without its usual chubbiness and squareness of Tom watched the little lady a great deal,
outline. There was about it an undulating and before he ventured on
any overtures towards
aerial grace, such as one mightdream of for some acquaintanceship. He knew an abundance of
mythic and allegorical being. Her face was simple acts to propitiate
and invite the ap
remarkable less for its perfectbeautyof feature proachesof the littlepeople,and he resolved to
than for a singularand dreamyearnestness of play his partrightskilfully. He could cut cunning
expression, which made the ideal start when they littlebaskets out of cherry-stones, could