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Show 190 UNCJ~E TQ)l1S CABIN: OR, But the woman did not scream. 1'hc shot had pagscd too straight and direct through the heart, for cry or tear. Dizzily she snt down. Her sbck hands fell lifeless by her side. Her eyes looked straight forward, but she saw nothing. All the noise and hum of the boat, the groaning of tho machinery, mingled drcamj}y to her bcwj}dcrcd car ; and the poor, dumb-stricken hc:n"t hatl neither cry nor tear to show fOr its utter misery. She was quite calm. 'l'hc trader, who, considering his advantages, was almost as humane as some of our politicians, seemed to feel called on to administer such consolation as the case admitted of. 11 I know this ycr comes kinder hard, at first, Lucy,)) said he ; " but such a smart, sensible gal as you arc, won't give way to it. You sec it's necessary, and can't be helped!" "0! don' t, 1\fas'r, don't ! " said the woman, with a. voice like one that is smothering. '' You're a smart wench, Lucy,'' he persisted; ''I mean to do well by yc, and get yc a nice place down river ; and you 'I! soon get another husband, -such a likely gal ns you-'' "0 ! 1\Ias' r, if you only won't talk to me now," said the woman, in a voice of such quick and living anguish that the trader felt that there was something at present in the case beyond his style of operation. lie got up, and the woman turned away, and buried her head in her cloak. The trader walked up and down for a time, and occasionally stopped and looked at her. "Takes it hard, rather," he soliloquized, "but quiet, tho'; -let her swen.t a while; she 'II come right, by and by ! " Tom had watched the whole transaction from first to last, and had a perfect understanding of its results. 'l'o him, it looked like something unutterably horrible and cruel, because, LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 191 poor, ignorant black soul! he had not lcarnCU to gcncrnlizc, and to take enlarged views. If he hall only been instructed by certain ministers of Christianity, ltc ruight lm,ve thought better of it, and seen in it an every-day incident of a lawful trade; a trade which is the vHal support of an institution which an American divine* tells us has 1' no eL·i!s but suc!t as are inseparable from any otlwr relations in social and domestic life." But ~rom, as we sec, being a. poor, ignor:mt fellow, whose reading had been confined entirely to the New Testament, could not comfort and solace himself with views like these. Ilis very soul bled within him for what seemed to him the wrongs of the poor suffering thing tlmt Jay like a ~rushed reed on the boxes; the feeling, Jiving, bleeding, yet m~mortal tltiug, wl1ich American state law coo11y classes With the bundles, and bales, and boxes, among which she is lying. Tom drew ncar, and tried to sa.J something; but she only groaned. Honestly, and with tears running down IUs own cheeks, ho spoke of a heart of love in the skies, of a pitying Jesus, and nn eternal home; but the car was deaf with ang uish, and the palsied heart could not feel. . Night came on,- night calm, unmoved, and glorious, shinmg down with her innumerable and solemn angel eyes, twinkling, .bc~utiful, .but silent. l'herc was no speech nor language, no p1tymg vo1ce or helping hand, from that distant sky. One after another, the voices of business or pleasure died away . all on the boat were sleeping, and the ripples at the prow wer~ plamly heard. 'l'om stretched himself out on a box, and there, as he lay, he heard, ever and anon, a smothered sob or cry from the prostrate creature,- " 0 ! what shall I do? 0 • Dr. Joel Parker, of Philadelphia.. |