UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

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a
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will
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justthat
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nature,an idea of the dignity and worth of the gang of seven hundred,whom I could not know
meanest human soul. I have looked in her face personally, any individual interest in,
with solemn awe, when she would pointup to the bought and driven,housed,fed,worked like so
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY.
87
' I was a littlefellow then,but I had the same stars in the evening, say tc me ' See there,
1 we that I have now for all kinds of human Auguste ! the poorest, soul on our place
things,
a kind of passion for the studyof humanity,
will be living, when all these stars are
gone forever,
come in what shape it would. I was
live as longas God lives !'
found in the cabins and among the field-handsa
paintings ; one, in particular,
"
She had some fine old
greatc'eal,and, of course, was a greatfavorite; of Jesus healinga blind man. They were
and all sorts of complaiuts grievances very fine,and used to impressme strongly. ' See
breathed in my
ear ; and I told them to mother, there,Auguste,' say ; ' the blind man
and wo, between us, formed a sort of committee was a beggar,poor and loathsome ; therefore,he
for a rodress of grievances Ẉe hindered and would not heal him afaroff ! He called him to
repressed a great deal of cruelty, and congratulatedhim, puthis hands on him ! Remember this,
ourselveson doinga vast deal of good,till, as often my boy.' If I had lived to grow up
under her
happens,my zeal overacted. Stubbs complainedcare, mighthave stimulated me to I know not
to my
father that he could n"t manage the hands, what of enthusiasm. I might have been a saint,
and must resign his position.Father was a fond,
but,alas ! alas ! I went from
reformer,martyr,"
indulgent husband, but a man that never flinched her when I was onlythirteen, and I never saw her
from anythingthat he thought necessary ; and so again !"
he put down his foot,like a rock, between us and St. Clare rested his head on his hands, and did
the field-hands. lie told my mother, in languagenot speak for some minutes. After a while,ho
perfectly respectful and deferential, but quiteexplicit
looked up, and went on :
that over the house-servants she should be
poor,
mean trash this whole business
"
What
entire mistress,but that with the field-hands he of human virtue is ! A.mere matter, for the most
could allow no interference. He revered and respectedpart,
of latitude and longitude, geographical
her above all livingbeings; but he would position, acting with natural temperament. The
have said it all the same to the VirginMary herself,'
greaterpart is nothing but an accident ! Your
if she had come in the way of his system. father,for exampleșettlesin Vermont, in a town
reasoning
where all are, in fact,free and equal; becomes a-
"
I used sometimes to hear my mother
cases with him, endeavoring excite his regularchurch member and deacon,and in duo
sympathies ḷie would listen to the most pathetictime joinsan Abolitionsociety, and t!;inksus all
appeals with the most discouraging politeness and littlebetter than heathens. Yet he is,for all the
equanimity. ' It all resolvesitselfinto this,'he world,in constitutionand habit,a duplicate of
would
'
say ; must I part with Stubbs,or keep my father. I can see it leakingout in fiftydifferent
him ? Stubbs is the soul of punctuality, honesty, ways,
same strong,overbearing,
and efficiency, thoroughbusiness hand,and dominant spirit Ỵou know very well how iaipossibleit
as humane as the generalrun. We can't have
is to persuade some of the folks in your
perfection ; and if I keephim, I must sustain his village that SquireSinclair does not feel above
administration as a whole,even if there are, now them. The fact is,thoughlie has fallenon democratic
and then,things that are exceptionable. All government
times,and embraced a democratic theory,
include some necessary hardness. General
he is to the heart an aristocrat, as much as
my
rules will bear hard on particular cases.' father,who ruled over five or six hundred slaves."
This last maxim my father seemed to consider a Miss Opheliafelt rather disposedto cavil at
settlerin most allegedcases of crueltyẠfter he this picture, laying down her knitting
had said that,he commonly drew up his feet on to begin,but St. Clare stopped her.
the sofa,like a man that has disposed of a. business,
"
Now, I know word you
are going to
every
and betook himself to a or
nap, the newspaper,
say. I do not say theywere alike,in fact. One
as the case might be.
fellinto a conditionwhere everything against
the natural tendency, the other where everything
" The fact is, my lather showed the exact sort
of talent for a statesman. He could have divided acted for it ; and so one turned out a pretty
Poland as easily
or
orange,
trod on Ireland wilful,stout,overbearing democrat, and the
as quietly systematically as
any man living. other a wilful ștout old despot. If both had
At last my mother gave up, in despair Ịt never owned plantations in Louisiana,they would have
will be known, till the last account, what noble been as two old bullets cast in the same mould."
and sensitivenatures like hers have
"
felt,cast, What an undutiful are
boyyou
!*'said Miss
utterlyhelpless, into what seems to them an abyssOphelia.
of injustice and cruelty, and which seems so to
" I don't mean them any disrespect," said St.
nobodyabout them. It has been an
age of long Clare. " You know reverence is not my forte.
sorrow of such natures,in such a hell-begotten But, to go back to my history :
sort of world as ours. What remained for "
her, When father died,he left the whole property
but to train her children in her own views and to us twin boys țo be divided as we should agree.
sentiments? Well, after all you say about training,
There does not breathe on God's earth a noblersouled,more
generous fellow țhan Alfred,in all
childrenwill grow up substantially what they
are by nature, and onlythat. From the cradle, that concerns his equals; and we
got on admirably
Alfred was an aristocrat ; and as he grew up, instinctively,
with this propertyquestion, without a singleunbrotherly
feelingẈe undertook to work
all his sympathiesand all his reasonings
were in thatline,and allmother's exhortations the plantation together; and Alfred, whose outr
went to the winds. As to me, theysunk deep ward lifeand capabilities had double the strength
into me. She never contradicted, in form, anything
of mine, became an enthusiastic planter, a
that my father said,or seemed directlyto wonderfully successful one.
differfrom him ; but she impressed,burnt into my
years' trialsatisfiedmd that I could
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But two
very soul,with all the force of her deep, earnest not be a partner in that matter. To have a great