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Show 268 UNCJ,E •ro;-.l'S CABIN; OR, "I hope you 'II lay it to heart," said Miss Ophelia. "I suppose you arc much of tho same opinion," said St. Clare. 1' Well, we shall scc,-shan't we, Eva?'' CHAPTER XVII. TilE FREEMAN'S DEFENCE. TrrERE was a gentle bustle at the Quaker l10use, as the afternoon drew to a close. Rachel }hlliday moved quietly to and fro, collecting from her household stores such necdments as could bo arranged in the smallest compass, for tho wanderers who were to go forth that night. The afternoon shadows stretched eastward, and the round red sun steed thoughtfully on the horizon, and his beams shone yellow and calm into the little bed-room where George and his wife wero sitting. lie was sitting with his child on his knee, ;}nd his wife's hand in his. Both looked thoughtful and serious, and traces of tears were on their checks. ''Yes, Eliza,'' said George, ''I know all you say is true. You arc a good child,-a great deal hotter than I am; and I will try to do as you say. I 'll try to act worthy of a frco man. I 'll try to feel like a Christian. Gcd Almighty knows that I've meant to do well, -tried hard to do well, -when everything has been against me ; and now I 'll forget all tho past, and put away every hard and bitter feeling, and read my Bible, and learn to be a geed man." "And when we get to Canada," said Eliza., "I can help you. I can do dress-making very well; and I understand fine LU'E AMONG 'l'HE LOWLY. 260 washing and ironing i and between us we can find something to live on." "Yes, Eliza, so long as we have each other and our boy. 0! Eliza, if these people only knew what a blessing it is for a man to feel that his wife and child belong to him! I 'vc often wondered to sec men that could call their wives and children t!tcir own fretting and worrying about anything cl:'5e. "rhy, I feel rich and strong, though we ha.Ye notlJing but our bare hands. I feel as if I could scarcely ask God for any more. Yes, though I've worked hard every clay, till I am twenty-Hvc years old, and have not a. cent of money: nor a roof to corer me, nor a. spot of land to call n1y own, yet, if they will only let me alone now, I will be satisfied- thankful ; I will work, and send back the money for you and my boy. As to my old master, be has been paid five times over for all he ever spent for me. I don't owe him anything." "But yet we arc not quite out of danger," said Eliza; 11 we arc not yet in Canada." "l1rue," said George, "but it seems as if I smelt the free air, and it makes me strong." At this moment, voices were heard in the outer apartment, in earnest convers::ttion, and very soon a ra.p was heard on the door. Eliza started and opened it. Simeon llallida.y was there, and with him a Quaker brother, whom he introduced as Phineas Fletcher. Phineas was tall and Jathy, red-haired, with an expression of great acuteness and shrewdness in his face. lie had not the placid, quiet, unworldly air of Simeon Halliday; on the contrary, a particularly wide-awake and au. fait uppcarancc, like a man who rather prides himself on knowing what he is about, and keeping a bright look-out ahead; peculiarities which sorted rather oddly with his broad brim and formal phraseology. 23"'' |
