OCR Text |
Show 16 UNCLE 'l'O~t'S CABIN j OH, to practice. .1\Iy mother never could endure him, nor I ; but he obtained an entire nsccndcncy over my futhcr ; and this man wns the absolute ilcspot of the estate. "I was a li ttle fellow then, but I had the same Jove ihn.t I h:nrc now fOr nll kinds of human things, - a kind of passion for the study of lmmanity, como in what shape it would. I was found in the cabins and muong the field-hands a great deal, and, of course, was a. great favorite; and all sorts of complaints and grievances were breathed in my car; :1.nd I told them to mother, and we, between us, formed a sort of committee for a redress of grievances. " rc hindered and repressed a great den! of cruelty, and congratulated ourselves on doing a vast deal of gooJ, till, as often happens, my zeal overacted. Stubbs complained to my father that he couldn't manage the l1ands, and must resign his position. Father was a fond, indulgent husband, but a man that never flinched from anything that he thought necessary ; and so he put down his foot, like a rock, between us and tho fiold-hands. He told my mother, in language perfectly respectful and deferential, but quite explicit, that over the house-servants she should be entire mistress, but that with tho field-hands he could allow no interference. He revered and respected her above nll living beings ; but he would have said it all the same to tho virgin Mary herself, if she had come in the way of his system. "I used sometimes to hear my mother reasoning cases with him,- cndca.voring to excite his sympathies. He woulrl Iist~n to the most pathetic appeals with the most discouraging pohteness and equanimity. 'It all resolves itself into this,' he would say; 'must I part with Stubbs, or keep him 1 Stubbs is the soul of punctuality, honesty, and elliciency,a thorough business hand. and as humane as the general run. J,TFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 17 " r0 can't have perfection; and if I keep him, I must sustain hi& administration as a w!tole, even if there arc, now and then, thinas that arc exceptionable. All government includes som~ necessary hardness. General rules will bear hard on particular oo.scs.' This last maxim my father seemed to consillcr a. settler in most alleged ca.':lcS of cruelty. After he had said that, he commonly drew up his foot on tho sofa, like u. man thnt has disposed of a business, nnd betook himself to a nap, or the newspaper, as the case might be. 'c 'J..'he fact is, my father showeU the exact sort of ~alent for a statesman. lie could have divided Poland as easily as an oran(Te or trod on Ireland as quietly and systematically ~s any :~n living. At last my mother gave up, in despair. It never will be known, till tho last account, what noble and sensitive natures like hers have felt, cast, utterly helpless, into what seems to them an abyss of injustice and cruelty, and which seems so to nobody about them. It has been an age of long sorrow of such natures, in such a he1l-begot~n sort of world as ours. 'Yhat remained for her, but to tram her children in her own views and sentiments? VVell, after all you say about training, children will grow up substantially what they are by nature, am.l only that. From. th~ c~adle, Alrred was an aristocra.t; and as he grew up, mstmctive1y, all his sympathies and all his reasonings were in that line, and all mother's exhortations went to the winds. As to me, they sunk deep into me. She never c~ntradicted,, in form, anything that my father said, or seemed directly to differ from him; but she impressed, burnt into my very soul, WI~h ~11 the force of her deep, earnest nn.ture, an idea. of the d1gmty and worth of the meanest human soul. I have looked in her face with solemn awe, when she would point up to the sta rs in the evcnin3, and say to me, ' See there, Auguste ! \' OL. II. 2,:- |