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Show 130 UNCLE TOM'S CADIN: OR, lie quiet till it was over; but that little chap can't be kept still by a troop of horse and foot, I 'II warrant me; he 'II bring it all out, popping his head out of some window or door. A pretty kettle of fish it would be for me, too, to be caught with them both here, just now ! No; they 'II have to be got off to-night." "To-night! How is it possible 1-where to 1" "Well, I know pretty well where to," said the senator, beginning to put on his boots, with a reflective air ; and, stopping when his log was half in, he embraced his knee with beth hands, and seemed to go off in deep meditation. "It 's a confounded awkward, ugly business," said he, at last, beginning to tug at his boot-straps again, "and that's a fact!" After one boot was fairly on, the senator sat with the other in his hand, profoundly studying the figure of the carpet. "It will have to be done, though, for aught I sco,hang it all! " and he drew tho other boot anxiously on, and looked out of the window. Now, little Mrs. Bird was a discreet woman,- a woman who never in her lifo said, " I told you so ! " and, on the present occasion, though pretty well aware of tho shape her husband's meditations were taking, she very prudently forbore to meddle with them, only sat very quietly in her chair, and looked quite ready to hear her liege lord's intentions, when he should think proper to utter them. 11 You see," he said, " there 's my old client, Van Trompe, has como over from Kentucky, and set all his slaves free; and he has bought a place seven miles up tho creek, hero, back in tho woods, whore nobody goes, unless they go on purpose; and it's a place that isn't found in a hurry. Thoro she 'd be safe enough ; but tho plague of the thing is, nobody could drive a carriage there to-night, but me." LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 181 " Why not? Cudjoe is an excellent driver." "Ay, ay, but here it is. The creek has to be crossed twice ; and the second crossing is quite dangerous, unless one knows it as I do. I have crossed it a hundred times on horseback, and know exactly tho turns to take. And so, you see, thoro's no help for it. Cudjoe must put in tho horses, as quietly as may be, about twolvo o'clock, and I 'II tako her over j and then, to give color to the matter, he must carry me on to the next tavern, to take the stage for Columbus, that comes by abeut three or four, and so it will look as if I had had tho carriage only for that. I shall get into business bright and early in tho morning. But I 'm thinking I shall feel rather cheap there, after all that 's boon said and done ; but, hang it, I can't help it! " "Your heart is better than your head, in this case, John,'' said tho wife, laying her little white hand on his. "Could I ever have loved you, had I not known you better than you know yourself?" And the little woman looked so handsome, with the tears sparkling in her eyes, that tho senator thought he must be a decidedly clever follow, to get such a pretty creature into such a. passionate admiration of him· and so what could he do but walk off soberly, to sec ahou; the car: riage. At the door, however, he stopped a moment, and then coming back, he said, with some hesitation, "Mary, I don't know how you'd feel abeut it, but there 's that drawer full of things- of- of- poor little Henry's." So saying, he turned quickly on his heel, and shut tho door after him. His wife oponed tho little bed-room door adjoining her room, and, taking the candle, set it down on tho top of a bureau thoro; then from a small reeess she took a key, and put it thoughtfully in tho lock of a drawer, 'and made a sud- |
