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Show 100 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: OR, u '\Vhy., that any one, who could be a bright angel, and live with angels, should go aU down, dmn1, down, and nobody help them!- oh, dear ! " 11 'Well, we can't help it; it 's no usc worrying, Eva! don't know what 's to be don;; we ought to be thankful for our own advantages." 11 I hardly can be/' said Eva," I 'm so sorry to think of poor folks tha.t haven't any." 11 That 's odd enough,'' said :Marie;-" I'm sure my religion makes me thankful for my advantages." "Mamm:J.," saiU Eva, "I want to have some of my hair cut off,- a good deal of it." "What for? " said Marie. "~Iamma, I want to give some away to my friends, while I am able to give it to them myself. Won't you ask aunty to come and cut it for me 1" Marie raised her voice, and called Miss Ophelia, from tho other room. The child half rose from her pillow as she came in, and, shaking down her long golden-brown curls, said, rather playfully, n Come, aunty, shear the sheep ! " "What's that~" said St. Clare, who just then entered with some fruit he had been out to get for her. "Papa, I just want nunty to cut off some. of my hair;there 's too much of it, and it makes my head hot. Besides, I want to give some of it away." Miss Ophelia came, with her scissors. "Take care,- don't spoil the looks of it! " said her father; "cut underneath, where it won't show. Eva's curls arc my pride.'' "0, papa! " said Eva., sa.dly. "Yes, and I want them kept handsome against the time I J.lFB AMONG Tlit.: J~OWLY. 101 take you up to your uncle's plantation, to sec Cousin Henrique," said St. Clare, in a gay tone. "I shall never go there, papa; -I am going to a better country. 0, do believe me ! Don't you sec, papa, that I get weaker, every day?" "Why do you insist that I slmll believe such a cruel thing, Eva?" said her father. "Only because it is true, papa: and, if you will believe it now, perhaps you will get to feel about it as I do." St. Cbrc closed his lips, and stood gloomily eying the long, beautiful curls, which, as they were separated from the child's head, were laid, one by one, in her lap. She raised them up, looked earnestly at them, twined them around her thin £ngers, and looked, from time to time, anxiously at her father. "It's just what I 'vc been foreboding!" said 1\farie; 1' it's just what bas been preying on my health, from day to day, bringing me downward to tho grave, though nobody regards it. I have seen this, long. St. Clare, you will see, after a while, that I was 1·igbt." "Which will afford you great consolation, no doubt!" said St. Clare, in a dry, bitter tone. 1\Iarie lay back on a. lounge, and covered her face with her cambric handkerchief. Eva's clear blue eye looked earnestly from one to the otl1 e1'. It was the calm, comprehending gaze of a soul half loosed from its earthly bonds; it was evident she saw, felt, and appreciated, the difference between the two. She beckoned with her hand to her father. He came, and sat down by her. n Papa., my strength fades away every day, and I know I must go. ~rhere are some things I want to say and do,- vor... II. 0-~" |