OCR Text |
Show 232 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: OR, her glossy brown silk dress rustles peacefully, as she glides up and down the chamber. "rrho devil ! " says Tom Loker, giving a great throw to the bed-clothes. "I must request thee, Thomas, not to usc such language," says Aunt Dorcas, as she quietly rearranged the bed. 'qVcll, I won,t, granny, if I can help it," says Tom i "but it is enough to make a fellow swear,- so cursedly hot!" Dorcas removed a comforter from the bed, straightened the clothes again, and tucked them in till Tom looked something like a chrysalis ; remarking, as she dicl so, '' I wish, friend, thee would leave off cursing and swearing, and think upon thy ways." "What the devil," said Tom, "should I think of them for1 Last thing ever I want to think of-hang it all!" And Tom flounced over, untucking and disarranging everything, in a manner frightful to behold. "That fellow and gal are here, I 'spose," said he, sullenly, after a pause. "They are so," said Dorcas. "They'd better be off up to the lake," said Tom; "the quicker the better." "Probably they will do so," said Aunt Dorcas, knitting peacefully. ''And hark yc," said Tom; "we've got correspondents in Sandusky, that watch the boats for us. I don't care if I tell, now. I hope they will get away, just to spite Marks,- the cursed puppy ! - d-n him ! " '' ~rhomas! '' said Dorcas. "I tell you, granny, if you bottle a fellow up too tight, I shall split," said Tom. "But about the gal,- tell 'em to LIFE AMONG TIIE LOWLY. 233 dress her up some way, so's to alter her. Her description's out in Sandusky." "We will attend to that matter," said Dorcas, with characteristic composure. As we at this place take leave of Tom Loker, wo may as well say, that, having lain three weeks at the Quaker dwelling, sick with a rheumatic fever, which set in, in company with his other affiictions, Tom arose from his bed a somewhat sadder and wiser man; and, in place of slave-catching, betook himself to life in one of the new settlements, where his talents developed themselves more happily in trapping bears, wolves, and other inhabitants of the forest, in which he made himself quite a name in tho land. ~:rom always spoke reverently of tho Quakers. "Nice people," he would say; "wanted to convert me, but couldn't como it, exactly. But, tell ye what, stranger, they do fix up a sick fellow £rst rate,- no mistake. Make jist the tallest kind o' broth and knicknacks." As Tom had informed them that their party would be looked for in Sandusky, it was thought prudent to divide them. Jim, with his old mother, was forwarded separately; and a night or two after, George and Eliza, with their child, were driven privately into Sandusky, and !edged beneath a hospitable roof, preparatory to taking their last passage on the lake. Their night was now far spent, and the morning star of liberty rose fiur before them. Liberty ! -electric word ! What is it 1 Is there anything more in it than a name- a rhetorical flourish? Why, men and 1YOmen of America., docs your heart's blood thrill at that word, for which your fathers bled, and your braver mothers were willing that their noblest and best should die 1 Is there anything in it glorious and dear for a nation, that vor~. Jr. 20* |