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Show 122 UNCLE TOlles CABIN: on, turn away a poor, shivering, hungry creature from your door, because he was a runaway? Would you, now 1" Now, if the truth must be told, our senator had the misfortune to be a man who had a particularly humane and accessible nature, and turning away anybody that was in trouble never bad been his forte ; md what was worse for him in this particular pinch of the argument was, that his wife knew it, and, of course, was making an assault on rather an indefensible point. So he had recourse to the usual means of gaining time for such cases ma.<lc and provided ; he said '' ahem,'' and coughed several times, took out his pocket-handkerchief, and began to wipo his glasses. Mrs. Bird, seeing the defenceless condition of the enemy's territory, bad no more conscience than to push her advantage. " I should like to sec you doing that, John- I really should! Turning a woman out of doors in a snow-storm, for instance; or, may be you 'd take her up and put her in jail, wouldn't you 1 You would make a great hand at that! " "Of course, it would be a very painful duty," began Mr. Bird, in a moderato tone. "Duty, John! don't use that word! You know it isn 't a duty-it can't be a duty! If folks want to keep their slaves from running away, let 'em treat 'om well,-that's my doctrine. If I bad slaves (as I hope I never shall have), I 'd risk their wanting to run away from me, or you either, J oha. I tell you folks don't run away when they are happy ; and when they do run, poor creatures ! they suffer enough with cold and hunger and fear, without everybody's turning against them; and, law or no law, I never will, so help me God! '' " Mary ! Mary ! l\Iy dear, let me reason with you." " I hate reasoning, John, - especially reasoning on such subjects. There's a way you political folks have of coming LIFE AMONG TUE LOWLY. 123 round and round a plain right tlUng; and you don't believe in it yourselves, when it comes to practice. I know you well enough, John. You don't believe it's right any more than I do ; and you wouldn't do it any sooner than I." At this critical juncture, old Cudjoe, the bluck man-of-allwork, put his bend in at the door, and wished " ~1issis would come into the kitchen;" and our senator, tolerably relieved, looked after his little wife with a whimsical mixture of amusement and vexation, and, seating himself in the arm-chair, began to read the papers. After a moment, his wife's voice was heard at the door, in a quick, earnest tone:-" John! John! I do wish you'd come here, a moment." lle laid down his paper, and went into the kitchen, and started, quite amazed at the sight that presented itself:-A young and slender woman, with garments torn and frozen, with one shoe gone, and the stocking torn away from the cut and bleeding foot, was laid back in a deadly swoon upon two chairs. '£here was the impress of the despised race on her fiwe, yet none could help feeling its mournful and pathetic beauty, while its stony sharpness, its cold, fixed, deathly aspect, struck a solemn chill over him. He drew his breath short, and stood in silence. His wife, and their only colored domestic, old Aunt Dinah, were busily engaged in restorative measures ; while old Cudjoe had got the boy on his knee, and was busy pulling off his shoes and stockings, and chafing his little cold feet. "Sure, now, if she an't a sight to behold!" said old Dinah, compassionately; "'pears like 'twas tho heat that made her faint. She was tol'able pearl when she cum in, and asked if she couldn't warm herself here a spell ; and I was just a askin' |
