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Show 132 UNCLE TOM's CABIN : OR, .len pause, while two boys, who, boy like, had followed close on her heels, stood looking, with silent, significant rrlanccs at their mother. And oh! mother that reads this has thc~·c never been in your house n. drn.wcr, or n closet, th~ opening of which has been to you like the opening agn.in of a. little grave 1 Ah ! happy mother that you arc, if it has not been so. Mrs. Bird slowly opened the drawer. 'l'hcrc were little coats of many n. form and pattern, piles of aprons, and rows of small stockings; and even a pair of little shoes, worn and rubbed at the toes, were peeping from the folds of a paper. There was a. toy horse and wagon, n. top, a. ball,- memorials gathered with many a tear and many a heart-break ! She sat down by the drawer, and, leaning her head on her hands over it, wept till the tears fell through her fingers into the drawer; then suddenly raising her head, she began, with nervous haste, selecting the plainest and most substantial articles, nnd gathering them into a bundle. " ~inmma," said one of the boys, gently touching her arm, ''arc you going to give away those things?'' "My dear boys," she said, softly and earnestly, "if our dear, loving little llcnry looks down from heaven, he would be glad to have us do this. I could not find it in my heart to give them away to any common person- to anybcdy that was happy; but I give them to a mother more heart-broken and sorrowful than I am; and I hope God will send his blessings with them ! " There arc in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, nrc the seed from which spring lJCaling flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed. Among such waS the delicate woman ·who sits there by the LIFE AMONG TilE LOWLY . 133 lamp, dropping slow tears, while she prepares the memoria.ls of her own lost one for the outcast wanderer. After a while, ~frs. Bird opened a wardrobe, and, taking from thence a plain, serviceable dress or two, she sa.t down busily to her work-table, and, with needle, scissors, and thimble, at hand, quietly commenced the "letting down" process which her husband had recommended, nnd continued busily at it till the old clock in the corner struck twelve, and she hcanl the low rattling of wheels at the door. "~Inry,)J said her husband, coming in, with his overcoat in his hand, ''you must wake her up now; we must be off.'' Mrs. Bird hastily deposited tho various articles she had collected in a small plain trunk, and locking it, des ired her husband to sec it in the carriage, and then procecdod to call the woman. Soon, arra.yed in a cloak, bonnet, and shawl, that had belonged to her benefactress, she appeared at the door with her child in her arms. Mr. Bird hurried her into the carriage, and :Mrs. Bird pressed on after her to the carriage steps. Eliza leaned out of the carriage, and put out her hand,- a hand as soft and beautiful as was given in retmn. She fixed her large, dark eyes, full of earnest meaning, on Mrs. Bird's face, and seemed going to speak. ller lips moved, -she tried once or twice, but there was no sound, - and pointing upward, with a look never to be forgotten, she fell back in the scat, and covered her face. The door was shut, and the carriage drove on. What a situation, now, for a patriotic senator, that had been all the week before spurring up the legislature of his native state to pass more stringent resolutions against escapiog fugitives, their harborers and abettors ! Our good senator in his nati vc state bad not Lcen cxcecde,l by any of his brethren at Washington, in tho sort of eloJ2 |