OCR Text |
Show 292 UNCLE TOM'S CAUIN: OR, Trusted to an unlimited extent by a careless master, who l1andcd him a bill without looking at it, and pocketed the chango without counting it, 'l'om had every facility and tempta.tion to dishonesty; and nothing but an impregnable simplicity of nature, strengthened by Christian faith, could h::we kept him from it. But, to that nature, the very unbounded trust reposed in him wa.'i bond and seal for the most scrupulous accuracy. With Adolph the case had been different. Thoughtless and self-indulgent, and unrestrained by a master who found it easier to indulge than to regulate, he had fallen into an absolute confusion as to 1newn twnn with regard to himself and his master, which sometimes troubled even St. Clare. His own good sense taught him that such a training of his servants was unjust and dangerous. A sort of chronic remorse went with him everywhere, a1though not strong enough to make any decided change in his course; and this very remorse reacted again into indulgence. lie passed lightly over tho most serious faults, because ho told himself that, if he had done his part, his dependents had not fallen into them. Tom regarded his gay, airy, handsome young master with an odu mixture of fealty, reverence, and father] y solicitude. That he never read the Bible ; never went to church; that he jested and made free with any and every thing that camo in the way of his wit; that he spent his Sunday cYcnings at the opera or theatre; tha.t he went to wino parties, and clubs, and suppers, oftener than was at all cxpcdient,-wcro all things that Tom could sec as pluinly ns anybody, and on which he based a conviction that "~1as'r wasn't a Christian; "-a conviction, 110wever, which he wou1d have been very slow to express to any one else, but on which he founded LIFE AMONG TllE LOWLY. 293 many pmycrs, in his own simple fashion, when he was by himself in his little dormitory. Not that Tom had not his own way of speaking his mind occasionally, with something of the tact often observable iu his class; as, for cxnmplo, tho very day after the Sabbath we have described, St. Clare was invited out to a convivial party of choice spirHs, and was helped home, between one and two o'clock at night, in a con· clition when the physical had decidedly attained the upper hand of the intellectual. Tom and Adolph assisted to get him composed for the night, the latter in high spirHs, cridcntly rcg:mling the mallet· as a good joke, and laughing heartily at tho rusticity of Tom's horror, who really was simple enough to lie awake most of the rest of the night, praying for his young master. " Well, Tom, what are you waiting for1" said St. Clare, tho next day, as he sat in his library, in dressing-gown and slippers. St. Clare had just been intrusting Tom with some money, and various commissions. " Isn't all right there, Tom 1" ho added, as ~rom still stood waiting. "I'm 'fraid not, 1\ias'r," said ~rom, with a grave fitee. St. Clare laid down his paper, and set down his coffee-cup, and looked at Tom. "'Vhy, Tom, what's the case? You look as solemn as a. coffin." " I feel very bad, Mas'r. I allays have thou•ht that Mas'r would be good to everybody." 0 '~ 'Yell, ~rom, haven't I been? Como, now, what do you want 'J There's something you haven't got, I suppose, and this is the preface." "Mas'r allays been good to me. I havo n't nothing to complain of, on that head. But there is one that Mns'r isn't good to." |