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Show 60 UNCLE TOM's CABIN: OR, CHAPTER XXII. '' TUE GRASS WITilERETII-TIIE FLOWER FADETn.'1 LIFE passes, with us all, a day at a time ; so it passed with our friend Tom, till two years were gone. Though parted from all his soul held dear, and though often yearning for what lay beyond, still was he never positively and consciously miserable; for, so well is the harp of human feeling strung, that nothing but a crash that breaks every string can wholly mar its harmony; and, on looking back to seasons which in review appear to us as those of deprivation and tria 1, we can remember that each hour, as it glided, brought its diversions and alleviations, so that, though not happy wholly, we were not, either, wholly miserable. Tom read, in his only literary cabinet, of one who had " learned in whatsoever state he was, therewith to be content." It seemed to l1im good and reasonable doctrine, and accorded well with the settled and thoughtful habit which he had acquired from the reading of that same book. His letter homeward, as we related in the last chapter, was in due time answered by Master George, in a good, round, school-boy hand, that Tom said might be read " most acrost the room." It contained various refreshing items of home intelligence, with which our reader is fully acquainted: stated how Aunt Chloe had been hired out to a confectioner in Louisville, where her skill in the pastry line was gaining wonderful sums of money, all of which, Tom was informed, LIFE AMONG Tim LOWLY. 61 was to be laid up to go to rnako up tho sum of his redemption mon~y ; l\Iosc and Pete were thriving, and the baby was trottmg all about the house, under the care of Sally and the f.,m ily generally . . ~,om's .c~bin was shut up for the present; but George expatiated bnlhantly on ornaments and additions to be made to it when Tom came back. The rest of this letter gave a list of George's school studies, each one headed by a flourishing capital ; and also told the names of four new colts that appeared on the premises sinco Tom left; nnd stated, in the sa.me connection, that father and mother were well. The style of the letter was decidedly conCJsc and terse; but 11om thought it the most wonderful specimen of composition that had appeared in modern times. He was never tired of locking at it, and even held a council with Eva on the expediency of getting it framed, to bang up in his room. Nothing but the difficulty of arranging it so that beth sides of the page would show at once stood in the way of this undertaking. The friendship between Tom and Eva had grown with the child's growth. I t would be hard to "say what place she held in the soft, impressible heart of her faithful attendant. He loved her as something frail and earthly, yet almost worshipped her as something heavenly and divine. He gazed on her as the Italian sailor ga,zes on his image of the child Jesus,with a mixture of reverence and tenderness ; and to humor her graceful fancies, and meet those thousand simple wants which invest childhood like a many-colored rainbow, was Tom's chief delight. In the market, at morning, his eyes were always on the flower-stalls for rare beuquets for her, and the choicest peach or orange was slipped into his pocket to give to her when he carne back; and the sight that pleased YOI.. II. 6 |