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Show 164 UNCLE TOM'S CA UIN: OR, tc Yes, but my lord will find that he can't be cxtmv~gant with me. Just Jet him be sent to the calaboose a few tunes, aml thoroughly dressed down! I '11 tell you if it don"t bring him to a. sense of his ways! 0, I'll reform him, up hill and down,- you '11 see. I buy him, tha.t 's flat! n ~rom had been standing wistfully examining the multitude of faces thronging around him, for one whom he would wish to caB master. And if you should ever be under the necessity, sir, of selecting, out of two hundred men, one who was to become your absolute owner and di sposer, you wouhl, perhaps, realize, just as ~eom did, how few there were that you would feel at all comforta.blc in being made over to. rl1om sn.w abundance of men,- great, burly, gruff men; little, chirping, dried men; long-favored, lank, hard men; and every variety of stubbed-looking, commonplace men, who pick up their fellow-men as one picks up chips, putting them into the fire or a basket with equal unconcern, according to their convenience; but he saw no St. Clare. A little before the sale commenced, a short, broad, muscular man, in a checked shirt considerably open at the bosom, and pantaloons much the worse for dirt and wear, elbowed his way through the crowd, like one who is going actircly into a. business; and, coming up to the group, began to examine them systematically. From the moment that ~rom saw him approaching, he felt an immediate and revolting horror at him, tlmt increased as he came ncar. lie was eridcntly, though short: of gigantic strength. His round, bullet head, Jarge, light-gray eyes, with their shaggy, sandy eye-brows, and stift; wiry, sun-burned hair, were rather unprepossessing items, it is to be confessed; his large, coarse mouth was Llistcmlcd with tobacco, the juice of ·wbich, from time to time, lJC ejected from liim with greot dcci::don and LIFE AMONG TilE LOWLY. 165 explosive force; his hands were immensely largo, hairy, sunburned, freckled, and very dirty, and garnished with long nails, in a very foul condition. 'fhis man proceeded to a. very free personal examination of the lot. lie seized Tom by the ja.w, and pulled open his mouth to inspect his teel~l; made him strip up his sleeve, to show his muscle; turned lum round, made him jump and spring, to show his paces. "'Vhere was you raised?" he added, briefly, to these investigations. n In Kin tuck, Mas'r," said Tom, looking about, as if for deli vcra.nce. (( 'Vhat have you done?" "Had care of 1tias'r's farm," said Tom. "Likely story!" said tho other, shortly, M he passed on. lie paused a moment before Dolph; then spitting a discharge of tobacco-juice on his well-blacked boots, and giving a contemptuous umph, he walked on. Again he stopped before Susan and Emmeline. IIo put out his heavy, dirty hand, and drew the girl towards him; passed it over her neck and bust, felt her arms, looked at her teeth, and then pushed her back against her mother, whose patient face showed the suffering she had been going through at every motion of the hideous stranger. ~rhe girl was frightened, and began to cry. H Stop that, you minx! " said the salesman; "no whimpering here,- the sale is going to begin." And accordingly the sale begun. Adolph wM knocked off, at a good sum, to the young gentleman who had previously stated his intention of buying him ; and tho other servants of the St. Clare lot went to various bidders. |
