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<h2> CHAPTER VIII </h2>
<h3> Eliza's Escape </h3>
<p>Eliza made her desperate retreat across the river just in the dusk of
twilight. The gray mist of evening, rising slowly from the river,
enveloped her as she disappeared up the bank, and the swollen current and
floundering masses of ice presented a hopeless barrier between her and her
pursuer. Haley therefore slowly and discontentedly returned to the little
tavern, to ponder further what was to be done. The woman opened to him the
door of a little parlor, covered with a rag carpet, where stood a table
with a very shining black oil-cloth, sundry lank, high-backed wood chairs,
with some plaster images in resplendent colors on the mantel-shelf, above
a very dimly-smoking grate; a long hard-wood settle extended its uneasy
length by the chimney, and here Haley sat him down to meditate on the
instability of human hopes and happiness in general.</p>
<p>"What did I want with the little cuss, now," he said to himself, "that I
should have got myself treed like a coon, as I am, this yer way?" and
Haley relieved himself by repeating over a not very select litany of
imprecations on himself, which, though there was the best possible reason
to consider them as true, we shall, as a matter of taste, omit.</p>
<p>He was startled by the loud and dissonant voice of a man who was
apparently dismounting at the door. He hurried to the window.</p>
<p>"By the land! if this yer an't the nearest, now, to what I've heard folks
call Providence," said Haley. "I do b'lieve that ar's Tom Loker."</p>
<p>Haley hastened out. Standing by the bar, in the corner of the room, was a
brawny, muscular man, full six feet in height, and broad in proportion. He
was dressed in a coat of buffalo-skin, made with the hair outward, which
gave him a shaggy and fierce appearance, perfectly in keeping with the
whole air of his physiognomy. In the head and face every organ and
lineament expressive of brutal and unhesitating violence was in a state of
the highest possible development. Indeed, could our readers fancy a
bull-dog come unto man's estate, and walking about in a hat and coat, they
would have no unapt idea of the general style and effect of his physique.
He was accompanied by a travelling companion, in many respects an exact
contrast to himself. He was short and slender, lithe and catlike in his
motions, and had a peering, mousing expression about his keen black eyes,
with which every feature of his face seemed sharpened into sympathy; his
thin, long nose, ran out as if it was eager to bore into the nature of
things in general; his sleek, thin, black hair was stuck eagerly forward,
and all his motions and evolutions expressed a dry, cautious acuteness.
The great man poured out a big tumbler half full of raw spirits, and
gulped it down without a word. The little man stood tiptoe, and putting
his head first to one side and then the other, and snuffing considerately
in the directions of the various bottles, ordered at last a mint julep, in
a thin and quivering voice, and with an air of great circumspection. When
poured out, he took it and looked at it with a sharp, complacent air, like
a man who thinks he has done about the right thing, and hit the nail on
the head, and proceeded to dispose of it in short and well-advised sips.</p>
<p>"Wal, now, who'd a thought this yer luck 'ad come to me? Why, Loker, how
are ye?" said Haley, coming forward, and extending his hand to the big
man.</p>
<p>"The devil!" was the civil reply. "What brought you here, Haley?"</p>
<p>The mousing man, who bore the name of Marks, instantly stopped his
sipping, and, poking his head forward, looked shrewdly on the new
acquaintance, as a cat sometimes looks at a moving dry leaf, or some other
possible object of pursuit.</p>
<p>"I say, Tom, this yer's the luckiest thing in the world. I'm in a devil of
a hobble, and you must help me out."</p>
<p>"Ugh? aw! like enough!" grunted his complacent acquaintance. "A body may
be pretty sure of that, when <i>you're</i> glad to see 'em; something to
be made off of 'em. What's the blow now?"</p>
<p>"You've got a friend here?" said Haley, looking doubtfully at Marks;
"partner, perhaps?"</p>
<p>"Yes, I have. Here, Marks! here's that ar feller that I was in with in
Natchez."</p>
<p>"Shall be pleased with his acquaintance," said Marks, thrusting out a
long, thin hand, like a raven's claw. "Mr. Haley, I believe?"</p>
<p>"The same, sir," said Haley. "And now, gentlemen, seein' as we've met so
happily, I think I'll stand up to a small matter of a treat in this here
parlor. So, now, old coon," said he to the man at the bar, "get us hot
water, and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the <i>real stuff</i> and
we'll have a blow-out."</p>
<p>Behold, then, the candles lighted, the fire stimulated to the burning
point in the grate, and our three worthies seated round a table, well
spread with all the accessories to good fellowship enumerated before.</p>
<p>Haley began a pathetic recital of his peculiar troubles. Loker shut up his
mouth, and listened to him with gruff and surly attention. Marks, who was
anxiously and with much fidgeting compounding a tumbler of punch to his
own peculiar taste, occasionally looked up from his employment, and,
poking his sharp nose and chin almost into Haley's face, gave the most
earnest heed to the whole narrative. The conclusion of it appeared to
amuse him extremely, for he shook his shoulders and sides in silence, and
perked up his thin lips with an air of great internal enjoyment.</p>
<p>"So, then, ye'r fairly sewed up, an't ye?" he said; "he! he! he! It's
neatly done, too."</p>
<p>"This yer young-un business makes lots of trouble in the trade," said
Haley, dolefully.</p>
<p>"If we could get a breed of gals that didn't care, now, for their young
uns," said Marks; "tell ye, I think 't would be 'bout the greatest mod'rn
improvement I knows on,"—and Marks patronized his joke by a quiet
introductory sniggle.</p>
<p>"Jes so," said Haley; "I never couldn't see into it; young uns is heaps of
trouble to 'em; one would think, now, they'd be glad to get clar on 'em;
but they arn't. And the more trouble a young un is, and the more good for
nothing, as a gen'l thing, the tighter they sticks to 'em."</p>
<p>"Wal, Mr. Haley," said Marks, "'est pass the hot water. Yes, sir, you say
'est what I feel and all'us have. Now, I bought a gal once, when I was in
the trade,—a tight, likely wench she was, too, and quite
considerable smart,—and she had a young un that was mis'able sickly;
it had a crooked back, or something or other; and I jest gin 't away to a
man that thought he'd take his chance raising on 't, being it didn't cost
nothin';—never thought, yer know, of the gal's takin' on about it,—but,
Lord, yer oughter seen how she went on. Why, re'lly, she did seem to me to
valley the child more 'cause <i>'t was</i> sickly and cross, and plagued
her; and she warn't making b'lieve, neither,—cried about it, she
did, and lopped round, as if she'd lost every friend she had. It re'lly
was droll to think on 't. Lord, there ain't no end to women's notions."</p>
<p>"Wal, jest so with me," said Haley. "Last summer, down on Red River, I got
a gal traded off on me, with a likely lookin' child enough, and his eyes
looked as bright as yourn; but, come to look, I found him stone blind.
Fact—he was stone blind. Wal, ye see, I thought there warn't no harm
in my jest passing him along, and not sayin' nothin'; and I'd got him
nicely swapped off for a keg o' whiskey; but come to get him away from the
gal, she was jest like a tiger. So 't was before we started, and I hadn't
got my gang chained up; so what should she do but ups on a cotton-bale,
like a cat, ketches a knife from one of the deck hands, and, I tell ye,
she made all fly for a minit, till she saw 't wan't no use; and she jest
turns round, and pitches head first, young un and all, into the river,—went
down plump, and never ris."</p>
<p>"Bah!" said Tom Loker, who had listened to these stories with
ill-repressed disgust,—"shif'less, both on ye! <i>my</i> gals don't
cut up no such shines, I tell ye!"</p>
<p>"Indeed! how do you help it?" said Marks, briskly.</p>
<p>"Help it? why, I buys a gal, and if she's got a young un to be sold, I
jest walks up and puts my fist to her face, and says, 'Look here, now, if
you give me one word out of your head, I'll smash yer face in. I won't
hear one word—not the beginning of a word.' I says to 'em, 'This yer
young un's mine, and not yourn, and you've no kind o' business with it.
I'm going to sell it, first chance; mind, you don't cut up none o' yer
shines about it, or I'll make ye wish ye'd never been born.' I tell ye,
they sees it an't no play, when I gets hold. I makes 'em as whist as
fishes; and if one on 'em begins and gives a yelp, why,—" and Mr.
Loker brought down his fist with a thump that fully explained the hiatus.</p>
<p>"That ar's what ye may call <i>emphasis</i>," said Marks, poking Haley in
the side, and going into another small giggle. "An't Tom peculiar? he! he!
I say, Tom, I s'pect you make 'em <i>understand</i>, for all niggers'
heads is woolly. They don't never have no doubt o' your meaning, Tom. If
you an't the devil, Tom, you 's his twin brother, I'll say that for ye!"</p>
<p>Tom received the compliment with becoming modesty, and began to look as
affable as was consistent, as John Bunyan says, "with his doggish nature."</p>
<p>Haley, who had been imbibing very freely of the staple of the evening,
began to feel a sensible elevation and enlargement of his moral faculties,—a
phenomenon not unusual with gentlemen of a serious and reflective turn,
under similar circumstances.</p>
<p>"Wal, now, Tom," he said, "ye re'lly is too bad, as I al'ays have told ye;
ye know, Tom, you and I used to talk over these yer matters down in
Natchez, and I used to prove to ye that we made full as much, and was as
well off for this yer world, by treatin' on 'em well, besides keepin' a
better chance for comin' in the kingdom at last, when wust comes to wust,
and thar an't nothing else left to get, ye know."</p>
<p>"Boh!" said Tom, "<i>don't</i> I know?—don't make me too sick with
any yer stuff,—my stomach is a leetle riled now;" and Tom drank half
a glass of raw brandy.</p>
<p>"I say," said Haley, and leaning back in his chair and gesturing
impressively, "I'll say this now, I al'ays meant to drive my trade so as
to make money on 't <i>fust and foremost</i>, as much as any man; but,
then, trade an't everything, and money an't everything, 'cause we 's all
got souls. I don't care, now, who hears me say it,—and I think a
cussed sight on it,—so I may as well come out with it. I b'lieve in
religion, and one of these days, when I've got matters tight and snug, I
calculates to tend to my soul and them ar matters; and so what's the use
of doin' any more wickedness than 's re'lly necessary?—it don't seem
to me it's 't all prudent."</p>
<p>"Tend to yer soul!" repeated Tom, contemptuously; "take a bright lookout
to find a soul in you,—save yourself any care on that score. If the
devil sifts you through a hair sieve, he won't find one."</p>
<p>"Why, Tom, you're cross," said Haley; "why can't ye take it pleasant, now,
when a feller's talking for your good?"</p>
<p>"Stop that ar jaw o' yourn, there," said Tom, gruffly. "I can stand most
any talk o' yourn but your pious talk,—that kills me right up. After
all, what's the odds between me and you? 'Tan't that you care one bit
more, or have a bit more feelin'—it's clean, sheer, dog meanness,
wanting to cheat the devil and save your own skin; don't I see through it?
And your 'gettin' religion,' as you call it, arter all, is too p'isin mean
for any crittur;—run up a bill with the devil all your life, and
then sneak out when pay time comes! Bob!"</p>
<p>"Come, come, gentlemen, I say; this isn't business," said Marks. "There's
different ways, you know, of looking at all subjects. Mr. Haley is a very
nice man, no doubt, and has his own conscience; and, Tom, you have your
ways, and very good ones, too, Tom; but quarrelling, you know, won't
answer no kind of purpose. Let's go to business. Now, Mr. Haley, what is
it?—you want us to undertake to catch this yer gal?"</p>
<p>"The gal's no matter of mine,—she's Shelby's; it's only the boy. I
was a fool for buying the monkey!"</p>
<p>"You're generally a fool!" said Tom, gruffly.</p>
<p>"Come, now, Loker, none of your huffs," said Marks, licking his lips; "you
see, Mr. Haley 's a puttin' us in a way of a good job, I reckon; just hold
still—these yer arrangements is my forte. This yer gal, Mr. Haley,
how is she? what is she?"</p>
<p>"Wal! white and handsome—well brought up. I'd a gin Shelby eight
hundred or a thousand, and then made well on her."</p>
<p>"White and handsome—well brought up!" said Marks, his sharp eyes,
nose and mouth, all alive with enterprise. "Look here, now, Loker, a
beautiful opening. We'll do a business here on our own account;—we
does the catchin'; the boy, of course, goes to Mr. Haley,—we takes
the gal to Orleans to speculate on. An't it beautiful?"</p>
<p>Tom, whose great heavy mouth had stood ajar during this communication, now
suddenly snapped it together, as a big dog closes on a piece of meat, and
seemed to be digesting the idea at his leisure.</p>
<p>"Ye see," said Marks to Haley, stirring his punch as he did so, "ye see,
we has justices convenient at all p'ints along shore, that does up any
little jobs in our line quite reasonable. Tom, he does the knockin' down
and that ar; and I come in all dressed up—shining boots—everything
first chop, when the swearin' 's to be done. You oughter see, now," said
Marks, in a glow of professional pride, "how I can tone it off. One day,
I'm Mr. Twickem, from New Orleans; 'nother day, I'm just come from my
plantation on Pearl River, where I works seven hundred niggers; then,
again, I come out a distant relation of Henry Clay, or some old cock in
Kentuck. Talents is different, you know. Now, Tom's roarer when there's
any thumping or fighting to be done; but at lying he an't good, Tom an't,—ye
see it don't come natural to him; but, Lord, if thar's a feller in the
country that can swear to anything and everything, and put in all the
circumstances and flourishes with a long face, and carry 't through better
'n I can, why, I'd like to see him, that's all! I b'lieve my heart, I
could get along and snake through, even if justices were more particular
than they is. Sometimes I rather wish they was more particular; 't would
be a heap more relishin' if they was,—more fun, yer know."</p>
<p>Tom Loker, who, as we have made it appear, was a man of slow thoughts and
movements, here interrupted Marks by bringing his heavy fist down on the
table, so as to make all ring again, <i>"It'll do!"</i> he said.</p>
<p>"Lord bless ye, Tom, ye needn't break all the glasses!" said Marks; "save
your fist for time o' need."</p>
<p>"But, gentlemen, an't I to come in for a share of the profits?" said
Haley.</p>
<p>"An't it enough we catch the boy for ye?" said Loker. "What do ye want?"</p>
<p>"Wal," said Haley, "if I gives you the job, it's worth something,—say
ten per cent. on the profits, expenses paid."</p>
<p>"Now," said Loker, with a tremendous oath, and striking the table with his
heavy fist, "don't I know <i>you</i>, Dan Haley? Don't you think to come
it over me! Suppose Marks and I have taken up the catchin' trade, jest to
'commodate gentlemen like you, and get nothin' for ourselves?—Not by
a long chalk! we'll have the gal out and out, and you keep quiet, or, ye
see, we'll have both,—what's to hinder? Han't you show'd us the
game? It's as free to us as you, I hope. If you or Shelby wants to chase
us, look where the partridges was last year; if you find them or us,
you're quite welcome."</p>
<p>"O, wal, certainly, jest let it go at that," said Haley, alarmed; "you
catch the boy for the job;—you allers did trade <i>far</i> with me,
Tom, and was up to yer word."</p>
<p>"Ye know that," said Tom; "I don't pretend none of your snivelling ways,
but I won't lie in my 'counts with the devil himself. What I ses I'll do,
I will do,—you know <i>that</i>, Dan Haley."</p>
<p>"Jes so, jes so,—I said so, Tom," said Haley; "and if you'd only
promise to have the boy for me in a week, at any point you'll name, that's
all I want."</p>
<p>"But it an't all I want, by a long jump," said Tom. "Ye don't think I did
business with you, down in Natchez, for nothing, Haley; I've learned to
hold an eel, when I catch him. You've got to fork over fifty dollars, flat
down, or this child don't start a peg. I know yer."</p>
<p>"Why, when you have a job in hand that may bring a clean profit of
somewhere about a thousand or sixteen hundred, why, Tom, you're
onreasonable," said Haley.</p>
<p>"Yes, and hasn't we business booked for five weeks to come,—all we
can do? And suppose we leaves all, and goes to bush-whacking round arter
yer young uns, and finally doesn't catch the gal,—and gals allers is
the devil <i>to</i> catch,—what's then? would you pay us a cent—would
you? I think I see you a doin' it—ugh! No, no; flap down your fifty.
If we get the job, and it pays, I'll hand it back; if we don't, it's for
our trouble,—that's <i>far</i>, an't it, Marks?"</p>
<p>"Certainly, certainly," said Marks, with a conciliatory tone; "it's only a
retaining fee, you see,—he! he! he!—we lawyers, you know. Wal,
we must all keep good-natured,—keep easy, yer know. Tom'll have the
boy for yer, anywhere ye'll name; won't ye, Tom?"</p>
<p>"If I find the young un, I'll bring him on to Cincinnati, and leave him at
Granny Belcher's, on the landing," said Loker.</p>
<p>Marks had got from his pocket a greasy pocket-book, and taking a long
paper from thence, he sat down, and fixing his keen black eyes on it,
began mumbling over its contents: "Barnes—Shelby County—boy
Jim, three hundred dollars for him, dead or alive.</p>
<p>"Edwards—Dick and Lucy—man and wife, six hundred dollars;
wench Polly and two children—six hundred for her or her head.</p>
<p>"I'm jest a runnin' over our business, to see if we can take up this yer
handily. Loker," he said, after a pause, "we must set Adams and Springer
on the track of these yer; they've been booked some time."</p>
<p>"They'll charge too much," said Tom.</p>
<p>"I'll manage that ar; they 's young in the business, and must spect to
work cheap," said Marks, as he continued to read. "Ther's three on 'em
easy cases, 'cause all you've got to do is to shoot 'em, or swear they is
shot; they couldn't, of course, charge much for that. Them other cases,"
he said, folding the paper, "will bear puttin' off a spell. So now let's
come to the particulars. Now, Mr. Haley, you saw this yer gal when she
landed?"</p>
<p>"To be sure,—plain as I see you."</p>
<p>"And a man helpin' on her up the bank?" said Loker.</p>
<p>"To be sure, I did."</p>
<p>"Most likely," said Marks, "she's took in somewhere; but where, 's a
question. Tom, what do you say?"</p>
<p>"We must cross the river tonight, no mistake," said Tom.</p>
<p>"But there's no boat about," said Marks. "The ice is running awfully, Tom;
an't it dangerous?"</p>
<p>"Don'no nothing 'bout that,—only it's got to be done," said Tom,
decidedly.</p>
<p>"Dear me," said Marks, fidgeting, "it'll be—I say," he said, walking
to the window, "it's dark as a wolf's mouth, and, Tom—"</p>
<p>"The long and short is, you're scared, Marks; but I can't help that,—you've
got to go. Suppose you want to lie by a day or two, till the gal 's been
carried on the underground line up to Sandusky or so, before you start."</p>
<p>"O, no; I an't a grain afraid," said Marks, "only—"</p>
<p>"Only what?" said Tom.</p>
<p>"Well, about the boat. Yer see there an't any boat."</p>
<p>"I heard the woman say there was one coming along this evening, and that a
man was going to cross over in it. Neck or nothing, we must go with him,"
said Tom.</p>
<p>"I s'pose you've got good dogs," said Haley.</p>
<p>"First rate," said Marks. "But what's the use? you han't got nothin' o'
hers to smell on."</p>
<p>"Yes, I have," said Haley, triumphantly. "Here's her shawl she left on the
bed in her hurry; she left her bonnet, too."</p>
<p>"That ar's lucky," said Loker; "fork over."</p>
<p>"Though the dogs might damage the gal, if they come on her unawars," said
Haley.</p>
<p>"That ar's a consideration," said Marks. "Our dogs tore a feller half to
pieces, once, down in Mobile, 'fore we could get 'em off."</p>
<p>"Well, ye see, for this sort that's to be sold for their looks, that ar
won't answer, ye see," said Haley.</p>
<p>"I do see," said Marks. "Besides, if she's got took in, 'tan't no go,
neither. Dogs is no 'count in these yer up states where these critters
gets carried; of course, ye can't get on their track. They only does down
in plantations, where niggers, when they runs, has to do their own
running, and don't get no help."</p>
<p>"Well," said Loker, who had just stepped out to the bar to make some
inquiries, "they say the man's come with the boat; so, Marks—"</p>
<p>That worthy cast a rueful look at the comfortable quarters he was leaving,
but slowly rose to obey. After exchanging a few words of further
arrangement, Haley, with visible reluctance, handed over the fifty dollars
to Tom, and the worthy trio separated for the night.</p>
<p>If any of our refined and Christian readers object to the society into
which this scene introduces them, let us beg them to begin and conquer
their prejudices in time. The catching business, we beg to remind them, is
rising to the dignity of a lawful and patriotic profession. If all the
broad land between the Mississippi and the Pacific becomes one great
market for bodies and souls, and human property retains the locomotive
tendencies of this nineteenth century, the trader and catcher may yet be
among our aristocracy.</p>
<p>While this scene was going on at the tavern, Sam and Andy, in a state of
high felicitation, pursued their way home.</p>
<p>Sam was in the highest possible feather, and expressed his exultation by
all sorts of supernatural howls and ejaculations, by divers odd motions
and contortions of his whole system. Sometimes he would sit backward, with
his face to the horse's tail and sides, and then, with a whoop and a
somerset, come right side up in his place again, and, drawing on a grave
face, begin to lecture Andy in high-sounding tones for laughing and
playing the fool. Anon, slapping his sides with his arms, he would burst
forth in peals of laughter, that made the old woods ring as they passed.
With all these evolutions, he contrived to keep the horses up to the top
of their speed, until, between ten and eleven, their heels resounded on
the gravel at the end of the balcony. Mrs. Shelby flew to the railings.</p>
<p>"Is that you, Sam? Where are they?"</p>
<p>"Mas'r Haley 's a-restin' at the tavern; he's drefful fatigued, Missis."</p>
<p>"And Eliza, Sam?"</p>
<p>"Wal, she's clar 'cross Jordan. As a body may say, in the land o' Canaan."</p>
<p>"Why, Sam, what <i>do</i> you mean?" said Mrs. Shelby, breathless, and
almost faint, as the possible meaning of these words came over her.</p>
<p>"Wal, Missis, de Lord he persarves his own. Lizy's done gone over the
river into 'Hio, as 'markably as if de Lord took her over in a charrit of
fire and two hosses."</p>
<p>Sam's vein of piety was always uncommonly fervent in his mistress'
presence; and he made great capital of scriptural figures and images.</p>
<p>"Come up here, Sam," said Mr. Shelby, who had followed on to the verandah,
"and tell your mistress what she wants. Come, come, Emily," said he,
passing his arm round her, "you are cold and all in a shiver; you allow
yourself to feel too much."</p>
<p>"Feel too much! Am not I a woman,—a mother? Are we not both
responsible to God for this poor girl? My God! lay not this sin to our
charge."</p>
<p>"What sin, Emily? You see yourself that we have only done what we were
obliged to."</p>
<p>"There's an awful feeling of guilt about it, though," said Mrs. Shelby. "I
can't reason it away."</p>
<p>"Here, Andy, you nigger, be alive!" called Sam, under the verandah; "take
these yer hosses to der barn; don't ye hear Mas'r a callin'?" and Sam soon
appeared, palm-leaf in hand, at the parlor door.</p>
<p>"Now, Sam, tell us distinctly how the matter was," said Mr. Shelby. "Where
is Eliza, if you know?"</p>
<p>"Wal, Mas'r, I saw her, with my own eyes, a crossin' on the floatin' ice.
She crossed most 'markably; it wasn't no less nor a miracle; and I saw a
man help her up the 'Hio side, and then she was lost in the dusk."</p>
<p>"Sam, I think this rather apocryphal,—this miracle. Crossing on
floating ice isn't so easily done," said Mr. Shelby.</p>
<p>"Easy! couldn't nobody a done it, without de Lord. Why, now," said Sam,
"'t was jist dis yer way. Mas'r Haley, and me, and Andy, we comes up to de
little tavern by the river, and I rides a leetle ahead,—(I's so
zealous to be a cotchin' Lizy, that I couldn't hold in, no way),—and
when I comes by the tavern winder, sure enough there she was, right in
plain sight, and dey diggin' on behind. Wal, I loses off my hat, and sings
out nuff to raise the dead. Course Lizy she hars, and she dodges back,
when Mas'r Haley he goes past the door; and then, I tell ye, she clared
out de side door; she went down de river bank;—Mas'r Haley he seed
her, and yelled out, and him, and me, and Andy, we took arter. Down she
come to the river, and thar was the current running ten feet wide by the
shore, and over t' other side ice a sawin' and a jiggling up and down,
kinder as 't were a great island. We come right behind her, and I thought
my soul he'd got her sure enough,—when she gin sich a screech as I
never hearn, and thar she was, clar over t' other side of the current, on
the ice, and then on she went, a screeching and a jumpin',—the ice
went crack! c'wallop! cracking! chunk! and she a boundin' like a buck!
Lord, the spring that ar gal's got in her an't common, I'm o' 'pinion."</p>
<p>Mrs. Shelby sat perfectly silent, pale with excitement, while Sam told his
story.</p>
<p>"God be praised, she isn't dead!" she said; "but where is the poor child
now?"</p>
<p>"De Lord will pervide," said Sam, rolling up his eyes piously. "As I've
been a sayin', dis yer 's a providence and no mistake, as Missis has
allers been a instructin' on us. Thar's allers instruments ris up to do de
Lord's will. Now, if 't hadn't been for me today, she'd a been took a
dozen times. Warn't it I started off de hosses, dis yer mornin' and kept
'em chasin' till nigh dinner time? And didn't I car Mas'r Haley night five
miles out of de road, dis evening, or else he'd a come up with Lizy as
easy as a dog arter a coon. These yer 's all providences."</p>
<p>"They are a kind of providences that you'll have to be pretty sparing of,
Master Sam. I allow no such practices with gentlemen on my place," said
Mr. Shelby, with as much sternness as he could command, under the
circumstances.</p>
<p>Now, there is no more use in making believe be angry with a negro than
with a child; both instinctively see the true state of the case, through
all attempts to affect the contrary; and Sam was in no wise disheartened
by this rebuke, though he assumed an air of doleful gravity, and stood
with the corners of his mouth lowered in most penitential style.</p>
<p>"Mas'r quite right,—quite; it was ugly on me,—there's no
disputin' that ar; and of course Mas'r and Missis wouldn't encourage no
such works. I'm sensible of dat ar; but a poor nigger like me 's 'mazin'
tempted to act ugly sometimes, when fellers will cut up such shines as dat
ar Mas'r Haley; he an't no gen'l'man no way; anybody's been raised as I've
been can't help a seein' dat ar."</p>
<p>"Well, Sam," said Mrs. Shelby, "as you appear to have a proper sense of
your errors, you may go now and tell Aunt Chloe she may get you some of
that cold ham that was left of dinner today. You and Andy must be hungry."</p>
<p>"Missis is a heap too good for us," said Sam, making his bow with
alacrity, and departing.</p>
<p>It will be perceived, as has been before intimated, that Master Sam had a
native talent that might, undoubtedly, have raised him to eminence in
political life,—a talent of making capital out of everything that
turned up, to be invested for his own especial praise and glory; and
having done up his piety and humility, as he trusted, to the satisfaction
of the parlor, he clapped his palm-leaf on his head, with a sort of
rakish, free-and-easy air, and proceeded to the dominions of Aunt Chloe,
with the intention of flourishing largely in the kitchen.</p>
<p>"I'll speechify these yer niggers," said Sam to himself, "now I've got a
chance. Lord, I'll reel it off to make 'em stare!"</p>
<p>It must be observed that one of Sam's especial delights had been to ride
in attendance on his master to all kinds of political gatherings, where,
roosted on some rail fence, or perched aloft in some tree, he would sit
watching the orators, with the greatest apparent gusto, and then,
descending among the various brethren of his own color, assembled on the
same errand, he would edify and delight them with the most ludicrous
burlesques and imitations, all delivered with the most imperturbable
earnestness and solemnity; and though the auditors immediately about him
were generally of his own color, it not infrequently happened that they
were fringed pretty deeply with those of a fairer complexion, who
listened, laughing and winking, to Sam's great self-congratulation. In
fact, Sam considered oratory as his vocation, and never let slip an
opportunity of magnifying his office.</p>
<p>Now, between Sam and Aunt Chloe there had existed, from ancient times, a
sort of chronic feud, or rather a decided coolness; but, as Sam was
meditating something in the provision department, as the necessary and
obvious foundation of his operations, he determined, on the present
occasion, to be eminently conciliatory; for he well knew that although
"Missis' orders" would undoubtedly be followed to the letter, yet he
should gain a considerable deal by enlisting the spirit also. He therefore
appeared before Aunt Chloe with a touchingly subdued, resigned expression,
like one who has suffered immeasurable hardships in behalf of a persecuted
fellow-creature,—enlarged upon the fact that Missis had directed him
to come to Aunt Chloe for whatever might be wanting to make up the balance
in his solids and fluids,—and thus unequivocally acknowledged her
right and supremacy in the cooking department, and all thereto pertaining.</p>
<p>The thing took accordingly. No poor, simple, virtuous body was ever
cajoled by the attentions of an electioneering politician with more ease
than Aunt Chloe was won over by Master Sam's suavities; and if he had been
the prodigal son himself, he could not have been overwhelmed with more
maternal bountifulness; and he soon found himself seated, happy and
glorious, over a large tin pan, containing a sort of <i>olla podrida</i>
of all that had appeared on the table for two or three days past. Savory
morsels of ham, golden blocks of corn-cake, fragments of pie of every
conceivable mathematical figure, chicken wings, gizzards, and drumsticks,
all appeared in picturesque confusion; and Sam, as monarch of all he
surveyed, sat with his palm-leaf cocked rejoicingly to one side, and
patronizing Andy at his right hand.</p>
<p>The kitchen was full of all his compeers, who had hurried and crowded in,
from the various cabins, to hear the termination of the day's exploits.
Now was Sam's hour of glory. The story of the day was rehearsed, with all
kinds of ornament and varnishing which might be necessary to heighten its
effect; for Sam, like some of our fashionable dilettanti, never allowed a
story to lose any of its gilding by passing through his hands. Roars of
laughter attended the narration, and were taken up and prolonged by all
the smaller fry, who were lying, in any quantity, about on the floor, or
perched in every corner. In the height of the uproar and laughter, Sam,
however, preserved an immovable gravity, only from time to time rolling
his eyes up, and giving his auditors divers inexpressibly droll glances,
without departing from the sententious elevation of his oratory.</p>
<p>"Yer see, fellow-countrymen," said Sam, elevating a turkey's leg, with
energy, "yer see, now what dis yer chile 's up ter, for fendin' yer all,—yes,
all on yer. For him as tries to get one o' our people is as good as tryin'
to get all; yer see the principle 's de same,—dat ar's clar. And any
one o' these yer drivers that comes smelling round arter any our people,
why, he's got <i>me</i> in his way; <i>I'm</i> the feller he's got to set
in with,—I'm the feller for yer all to come to, bredren,—I'll
stand up for yer rights,—I'll fend 'em to the last breath!"</p>
<p>"Why, but Sam, yer telled me, only this mornin', that you'd help this yer
Mas'r to cotch Lizy; seems to me yer talk don't hang together," said Andy.</p>
<p>"I tell you now, Andy," said Sam, with awful superiority, "don't yer be a
talkin' 'bout what yer don't know nothin' on; boys like you, Andy, means
well, but they can't be spected to collusitate the great principles of
action."</p>
<p>Andy looked rebuked, particularly by the hard word collusitate, which most
of the youngerly members of the company seemed to consider as a settler in
the case, while Sam proceeded.</p>
<p>"Dat ar was <i>conscience</i>, Andy; when I thought of gwine arter Lizy, I
railly spected Mas'r was sot dat way. When I found Missis was sot the
contrar, dat ar was conscience <i>more yet</i>,—cause fellers allers
gets more by stickin' to Missis' side,—so yer see I 's persistent
either way, and sticks up to conscience, and holds on to principles. Yes,
<i>principles</i>," said Sam, giving an enthusiastic toss to a chicken's
neck,—"what's principles good for, if we isn't persistent, I wanter
know? Thar, Andy, you may have dat ar bone,—tan't picked quite
clean."</p>
<p>Sam's audience hanging on his words with open mouth, he could not but
proceed.</p>
<p>"Dis yer matter 'bout persistence, feller-niggers," said Sam, with the air
of one entering into an abstruse subject, "dis yer 'sistency 's a thing
what an't seed into very clar, by most anybody. Now, yer see, when a
feller stands up for a thing one day and night, de contrar de next, folks
ses (and nat'rally enough dey ses), why he an't persistent,—hand me
dat ar bit o' corn-cake, Andy. But let's look inter it. I hope the
gen'lmen and der fair sex will scuse my usin' an or'nary sort o' 'parison.
Here! I'm a trying to get top o' der hay. Wal, I puts up my larder dis yer
side; 'tan't no go;—den, cause I don't try dere no more, but puts my
larder right de contrar side, an't I persistent? I'm persistent in wantin'
to get up which ary side my larder is; don't you see, all on yer?"</p>
<p>"It's the only thing ye ever was persistent in, Lord knows!" muttered Aunt
Chloe, who was getting rather restive; the merriment of the evening being
to her somewhat after the Scripture comparison,—like "vinegar upon
nitre."</p>
<p>"Yes, indeed!" said Sam, rising, full of supper and glory, for a closing
effort. "Yes, my feller-citizens and ladies of de other sex in general, I
has principles,—I'm proud to 'oon 'em,—they 's perquisite to
dese yer times, and ter <i>all</i> times. I has principles, and I sticks
to 'em like forty,—jest anything that I thinks is principle, I goes
in to 't;—I wouldn't mind if dey burnt me 'live,—I'd walk
right up to de stake, I would, and say, here I comes to shed my last blood
fur my principles, fur my country, fur de gen'l interests of society."</p>
<p>"Well," said Aunt Chloe, "one o' yer principles will have to be to get to
bed some time tonight, and not be a keepin' everybody up till mornin';
now, every one of you young uns that don't want to be cracked, had better
be scase, mighty sudden."</p>
<p>"Niggers! all on yer," said Sam, waving his palm-leaf with benignity, "I
give yer my blessin'; go to bed now, and be good boys."</p>
<p>And, with this pathetic benediction, the assembly dispersed.</p>
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