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Show 282 UNCLE 'rOM'S CABIN: OR, Something in that dying scene had chcckc<l tho natural fierceness of youthful passion. The presence of the man was simply loathsome to George; and he felt only an impulse to get away from him, with as few words ns possible. Fixing his keen dark eyes on Legree, he simply said, ]JOinting to the dead, "You have got all you ever can of him. What shall I pay you for the body? I will take it away, and bury it decently.'' ''I don't sell dead niggers,'' said J.Jegree, doggedly. '(You nrc welcome to bury him where and when you like." ~~Boys," said George, in an authoritative tone, to two or three negroes, who were looking at the body, "help me lift him up, and carry Lim to my wagon; and get me a. spade.'' One of them ran for a spade; the other two assisted George to carry the body to the wagon. George neither spoke to nor looked at Legree, who did not countermand his orders, but stood, whistling, with an air of forced unconcern. lie sulkily followed them to where tho wagon stood at tho door. George spread his cloak in the wagon, and had tho body carefully disposed of in it,- moving the scat, so us to give it room. Then he turned, fixed his eyes on Legree, and said, with forced composure, " I have not, as yet, said to you what I think of this most atrocious affi1ir;- this is not the time and place. But, sir, this innocent blood shaH have justice. I will proclaim this murder. I will go to the very first magistl'1lte, and expose you." "Do !" said Legree, snapping his fingers, seornfuJJy. "I '<I like to sec you doing it. Where you going to get witnesses? - how you going to prove it?-Come, now ! " George saw, at once, the force of this defiance. Thoro was LIFE AMONG THE J.. OWLY. 283 not a white person on the place; and, in all southern courts, the testimony of colored blood is nothing. He felt, at that moment, as if he could have rent the heavens with his heart's indignant cry for justice; but in vain. "After aJI, what a fuss, for a dead nigger!" said Legree. 'l,he word was as a spark to a powder magazine. Prudence was never a cardinal virtue of the Kentucky hoy. George turned, and, with one indignant blow, knocked Legree flat upon his face; and, as he stood over him, blazing with wrath and defi:mce, he would have formed no bad personification of his great namesake triumphing over the dragon. Some men, howoycr, arc decidedly bettered by hoing l<nockc<l down. If a man lays them fi1irly flat in the dust, they seem immc<liatcly to conceive a respect for him; and Legree was one of this sort. As he rose, therefore, and brushed the dust from his clothes, he eyed the slowly-retreating wagon with some evident consideration; nor did he open his mouth till it was out of sight. Beyond the boundaries of the plantation, George had noticed a dry, sandy knoll, shadc<l by a few trees: there they made the grave. "Shall we take off the cloak, Mus'r?" said the negroes, when the grave was ready. uNo, no,- bury it with him ! It's all I can give you, now, poor Tom, and you shaH have it." 1'hey laid him in; and the men shovelled away, silently. 1'hcy banked it up, and laid green turf over it. "You may go, boys," said George, slipping a quarter into tl10 hand of each. They lingered about, however. "If young Mas'r would please buy us-" said one. "We 'd scrye him so faithful!" said the other. |