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Show 186 UXCLE TOM'S CABIN: OR, den 'pears like I don't turn over and shut my eyes, 'foro hear de horn blow to get up, aml at it agin in de mornin'. If I knew whar de Lor was, I'd tell him." "He's here, he's everywhere," said ':l'om. ' 1 Lor, you an't gwinc to make mo believe dat a.r! I know de Lord an't here," said the woman; "'tan't no usc tn.lking, though. I 's jest gwinc to camp down, and sleep while I ken." The women went off to their c..1.bins, and ':rom sat alone, by the smouldering fire, that flickered up redly in his face. The silver, fair-brewed moon rose in the purple sky, ::mel looked down, calm and silent, as God looks on the scene of misery anU oppression,- looked calmly on the lone black man, as he sat, with his arms folded, and his Bible on his knee. '(Is God HERE? " Ah, how is it possible for the untaught heart to keep its faith, unswerving, in the fitcc of dire misrule, and palpa.blc1 unrebukcd injustice 1 In that simple hca,rt waged a fierce conflict: tho crushing sense of 'wrong, the foreshadowing of a ·whole life of future misery, the ·wreck of all past hopes, mournfully tossing in the soul's sight, like dead corpses of wife, and chilJ, and friend, rising from the dark wave, and surging in the face of the half-drowned mariner! Ah, was it easy here to believe and hold fast the great password of Christian fitith, that n God IS, and is tHe REWARDF.It of t!Jcm that Jiligent1y seck Him''? 'Tom rose, disconsolate, and stumbled into the cabin that had been allotted to him. The floor was already strewn with weary sleepers, and the foul air of the place almost repelled him; but the heavy night-dews were chill, and his limbs weary, and, wrapping about him a tattered blanket, which formed his only bed-clothing, he stretched himself in ths straw and fell asleep. J.IFE AMONG THE J.,OWLY. 187 In dreams, n. gentle voice came over his ear; he was sitting on the mossy scat tn the garden by Lake Pontchartrain, and Eva, with her serious eyes bent downward, was reading to him from the llible; and he heard her read, "VVhen thou pa"sest through the waters, I will be with tltco, and the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkcst through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee; for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." Gradually the words seemed to melt and fade, as in a divino music; the chiiU raised her deep eyes, and £xed them lovingly on him, and rays of warmth and comfort seemed to go from them to his heart; and, as if wafted on tho music, she seemed to rise on shining wings, from which flakes and spangles of gold fell oft" like stars, and she was gone. Tom woke. 'Vas it a dream? Let it pass for one. But who shall say that that sweet young spirit, which in lifo so yearned to comfort and console tho distressed, was forbidden of God to assume this ministry after death? It is a beautiful belief, That e,·er round our head Are ho\·ering, on angel wings, 'the spirits of tho dead. |