| OCR Text |
Show 13G UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: Oll, addresses to the horses, who arc kicking, nnd floundering, and slraining, under repeated cracks of tho wl1ip. Caniago springs up, with another bounce,- down go the hind wheels, -senator, woman, and child, fly over on to the back scat, his elbows encountering her bonnet, and both her feet being jammed into his hat, which flies oft' in the concussion. After a few moments the "slough " is passed, and the horses stop, panting ; - the senator finds his hat, the woman straightens her bonnet and hushes her child, and they brace themselves firmly for what is yet to come. For a while only the continuous bump! bump! intermingled, just by way of variety, with divers side plunges and compound shakes; and they begin to flatter themsclres that they arc not so badly off, after all. At last, with a square plunge, which puts all on to their feet and then down into their seats with incredible quickness, tho carriage stops,and, after much outside commotion, Cudjoe appears at tho door. "Please, sir, it's powerful bad spot, this yer. I don't know how we 's to get clar out. I 'm a. thinkin' we 'II ha.vo to be a gcttin' mils." The senator despairingly steps out, picking gingerly for some firm foothold ; down goes one foot an immeasurable depth,- he tries to pull it up, loses his balance, and tumbles over into the mud, and is fished out, in a very despairing condition, by Cudjoe. But we forbear, out of sympathy to our readers' bones. Western tmvellers, who have beguiled the midnight Jwur in the interesting process of pulling down rail fences, to pry their carriages out of mud holes, wiJI have a respectful and mournful sympathy with our unfortunate hero. We beg them to drop a silent tear, and pass on. LIFE AMONG TIIE LOWLY. 137 It was full late in the night when the carriage emerged, dripping and bespattered, out of the creek, and stood at the door of a large farm-house. It took no inconsidemble perseverance to arouse the inmates; but at last the respectable proprietor appeared, and undid the door. He was a great, tall, bristling Orson of a fellow, full six feet and some inches in his stockings, and arrayed in a red flannel hunting-shirt. A very heavy mat of sandy hair, in a decidedly tousled condition, and a beard of some days' growth, gave the worthy man an appearance, to say the least, not particularly prepossessing. lie stood for a few minutes holding the candle aloft, and blinking on our travellers with a dismal and mystified expression that was truly ludicrous. It cost some clfort of our senator to induce him to comprehend the case fully; and while he is doing his best at that, we shall give him a little introduction to our readers. Honest old John Van Trompe was once quito a considerable land-holder and slave-owner in the State of Kentucky. Having " nothing of the bear about him but the skin," and being gifted by nature with a great, honest, just heart, quite equal to his gigantic frame, he had been for some years witnessing with repressed uneasiness the workings of a system equally bad for oppressor and oppressed. At last, one day, John's great heart had swelled altogether too big to wear his bonds any longer ; so he just took his pocket-book out of his desk, and went over into Ohio, and bought a quarter of a township tlf good, rich land, made out free papers for all his people,men, women, and children, -packed them up in wagons, and sent them off to settle down; and then honest John turned his face up the creek, and sat quietly down on a snug, retired farm, to enjoy his conscience and his reflections. 12~ |
