"In Ramah there was a voice heard,--weeping, and lamentation, and greatmourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted."*

* Jer. 31:15.

Mr. Haley and Tom jogged onward in their wagon, each, for a time,absorbed in his own reflections. Now, the reflections of two men sittingside by side are a curious thing,--seated on the same seat, having thesame eyes, ears, hands and organs of all sorts, and having pass beforetheir eyes the same objects,--it is wonderful what a variety we shallfind in these same reflections!

As, for example, Mr. Haley: he thought first of Tom's length, andbreadth, and height, and what he would sell for, if he was kept fat andin good case till he got him into market. He thought of how he shouldmake out his gang; he thought of the respective market value of certainsupposititious men and women and children who were to compose it, andother kindred topics of the business; then he thought of himself, andhow humane he was, that whereas other men chained their "niggers" handand foot both, he only put fetters on the feet, and left Tom the useof his hands, as long as he behaved well; and he sighed to think howungrateful human nature was, so that there was even room to doubtwhether Tom appreciated his mercies. He had been taken in so by"niggers" whom he had favored; but still he was astonished to considerhow good-natured he yet remained!

As to Tom, he was thinking over some words of an unfashionable old book,which kept running through his head, again and again, as follows: "Wehave here no continuing city, but we seek one to come; wherefore Godhimself is not ashamed to be called our God; for he hath prepared forus a city." These words of an ancient volume, got up principally by"ignorant and unlearned men," have, through all time, kept up, somehow,a strange sort of power over the minds of poor, simple fellows, likeTom. They stir up the soul from its depths, and rouse, as with trumpetcall, courage, energy, and enthusiasm, where before was only theblackness of despair.

Mr. Haley pulled out of his pocket sundry newspapers, and beganlooking over their advertisements, with absorbed interest. He was not aremarkably fluent reader, and was in the habit of reading in a sortof recitative half-aloud, by way of calling in his ears to verify thedeductions of his eyes. In this tone he slowly recited the followingparagraph:

"EXECUTOR'S SALE,--NEGROES!--Agreeably to order of court, will be sold,on Tuesday, February 20, before the Court-house door, in the town ofWashington, Kentucky, the following negroes: Hagar, aged 60; John, aged30; Ben, aged 21; Saul, aged 25; Albert, aged 14. Sold for the benefitof the creditors and heirs of the estate of Jesse Blutchford,

"SAMUEL MORRIS, THOMAS FLINT, _Executors_."

"This yer I must look at," said he to Tom, for want of somebody else totalk to.

"Ye see, I'm going to get up a prime gang to take down with ye, Tom;it'll make it sociable and pleasant like,--good company will, ye know.We must drive right to Washington first and foremost, and then I'll clapyou into jail, while I does the business."

Tom received this agreeable intelligence quite meekly; simply wondering,in his own heart, how many of these doomed men had wives and children,and whether they would feel as he did about leaving them. It is to beconfessed, too, that the naive, off-hand information that he was to bethrown into jail by no means produced an agreeable impression on a poorfellow who had always prided himself on a strictly honest and uprightcourse of life. Yes, Tom, we must confess it, was rather proud of hishonesty, poor fellow,--not having very much else to be proud of;--if hehad belonged to some of the higher walks of society, he, perhaps, wouldnever have been reduced to such straits. However, the day wore on,and the evening saw Haley and Tom comfortably accommodated inWashington,--the one in a tavern, and the other in a jail.

About eleven o'clock the next day, a mixed throng was gathered aroundthe court-house steps,--smoking, chewing, spitting, swearing, andconversing, according to their respective tastes and turns,--waitingfor the auction to commence. The men and women to be sold sat in agroup apart, talking in a low tone to each other. The woman who had beenadvertised by the name of Hagar was a regular African in feature andfigure. She might have been sixty, but was older than that by hard workand disease, was partially blind, and somewhat crippled with rheumatism.By her side stood her only remaining son, Albert, a bright-lookinglittle fellow of fourteen years. The boy was the only survivor of alarge family, who had been successively sold away from her to a southernmarket. The mother held on to him with both her shaking hands, and eyedwith intense trepidation every one who walked up to examine him.

"Don't be feard, Aunt Hagar," said the oldest of the men, "I spoke toMas'r Thomas 'bout it, and he thought he might manage to sell you in alot both together."

"Dey needn't call me worn out yet," said she, lifting her shaking hands."I can cook yet, and scrub, and scour,--I'm wuth a buying, if I do comecheap;--tell em dat ar,--you _tell_ em," she added, earnestly.

Haley here forced his way into the group, walked up to the old man,pulled his mouth open and looked in, felt of his teeth, made him standand straighten himself, bend his back, and perform various evolutionsto show his muscles; and then passed on to the next, and put himthrough the same trial. Walking up last to the boy, he felt of his arms,straightened his hands, and looked at his fingers, and made him jump, toshow his agility.

"He an't gwine to be sold widout me!" said the old woman, withpassionate eagerness; "he and I goes in a lot together; I 's rail strongyet, Mas'r and can do heaps o' work,--heaps on it, Mas'r."

"On plantation?" said Haley, with a contemptuous glance. "Likely story!"and, as if satisfied with his examination, he walked out and looked, andstood with his hands in his pocket, his cigar in his mouth, and his hatcocked on one side, ready for action.

"What think of 'em?" said a man who had been following Haley'sexamination, as if to make up his own mind from it.

"Wal," said Haley, spitting, "I shall put in, I think, for the youngerlyones and the boy."

"They want to sell the boy and the old woman together," said the man.

"Find it a tight pull;--why, she's an old rack o' bones,--not worth hersalt."

"You wouldn't then?" said the man.

"Anybody 'd be a fool 't would. She's half blind, crooked withrheumatis, and foolish to boot."

"Some buys up these yer old critturs, and ses there's a sight more wearin 'em than a body 'd think," said the man, reflectively.

"No go, 't all," said Haley; "wouldn't take her for apresent,--fact,--I've _seen_, now."

"Wal, 't is kinder pity, now, not to buy her with her son,--her heartseems so sot on him,--s'pose they fling her in cheap."

"Them that's got money to spend that ar way, it's all well enough.I shall bid off on that ar boy for a plantation-hand;--wouldn't bebothered with her, no way, not if they'd give her to me," said Haley.

"She'll take on desp't," said the man.

"Nat'lly, she will," said the trader, coolly.

The conversation was here interrupted by a busy hum in the audience;and the auctioneer, a short, bustling, important fellow, elbowed hisway into the crowd. The old woman drew in her breath, and caughtinstinctively at her son.

"Keep close to yer mammy, Albert,--close,--dey'll put us up togedder,"she said.

"O, mammy, I'm feard they won't," said the boy.

"Dey must, child; I can't live, no ways, if they don't" said the oldcreature, vehemently.

The stentorian tones of the auctioneer, calling out to clear the way,now announced that the sale was about to commence. A place was cleared,and the bidding began. The different men on the list were soon knockedoff at prices which showed a pretty brisk demand in the market; two ofthem fell to Haley.

"Come, now, young un," said the auctioneer, giving the boy a touch withhis hammer, "be up and show your springs, now."

"Put us two up togedder, togedder,--do please, Mas'r," said the oldwoman, holding fast to her boy.

"Be off," said the man, gruffly, pushing her hands away; "you come last.Now, darkey, spring;" and, with the word, he pushed the boy toward theblock, while a deep, heavy groan rose behind him. The boy paused, andlooked back; but there was no time to stay, and, dashing the tears fromhis large, bright eyes, he was up in a moment.

His fine figure, alert limbs, and bright face, raised an instantcompetition, and half a dozen bids simultaneously met the ear of theauctioneer. Anxious, half-frightened, he looked from side to side, ashe heard the clatter of contending bids,--now here, now there,--till thehammer fell. Haley had got him. He was pushed from the block toward hisnew master, but stopped one moment, and looked back, when his poor oldmother, trembling in every limb, held out her shaking hands toward him.

"Buy me too, Mas'r, for de dear Lord's sake!--buy me,--I shall die ifyou don't!"

"You'll die if I do, that's the kink of it," said Haley,--"no!" And heturned on his heel.

The bidding for the poor old creature was summary. The man who hadaddressed Haley, and who seemed not destitute of compassion, bought herfor a trifle, and the spectators began to disperse.

The poor victims of the sale, who had been brought up in one placetogether for years, gathered round the despairing old mother, whoseagony was pitiful to see.

"Couldn't dey leave me one? Mas'r allers said I should have one,--hedid," she repeated over and over, in heart-broken tones.

"Trust in the Lord, Aunt Hagar," said the oldest of the men,sorrowfully.

"What good will it do?" said she, sobbing passionately.

"Mother, mother,--don't! don't!" said the boy. "They say you 's got agood master."

"I don't care,--I don't care. O, Albert! oh, my boy! you 's my lastbaby. Lord, how ken I?"

"Come, take her off, can't some of ye?" said Haley, dryly; "don't do nogood for her to go on that ar way."

The old men of the company, partly by persuasion and partly by force,loosed the poor creature's last despairing hold, and, as they led heroff to her new master's wagon, strove to comfort her.

"Now!" said Haley, pushing his three purchases together, and producinga bundle of handcuffs, which he proceeded to put on their wrists; andfastening each handcuff to a long chain, he drove them before him to thejail.

A few days saw Haley, with his possessions, safely deposited on one ofthe Ohio boats. It was the commencement of his gang, to be augmented, asthe boat moved on, by various other merchandise of the same kind, whichhe, or his agent, had stored for him in various points along shore.

The La Belle Riviere, as brave and beautiful a boat as ever walked thewaters of her namesake river, was floating gayly down the stream,under a brilliant sky, the stripes and stars of free America waving andfluttering over head; the guards crowded with well-dressed ladies andgentlemen walking and enjoying the delightful day. All was full of life,buoyant and rejoicing;--all but Haley's gang, who were stored, withother freight, on the lower deck, and who, somehow, did not seem toappreciate their various privileges, as they sat in a knot, talking toeach other in low tones.

"Boys," said Haley, coming up, briskly, "I hope you keep up good heart,and are cheerful. Now, no sulks, ye see; keep stiff upper lip, boys; dowell by me, and I'll do well by you."

The boys addressed responded the invariable "Yes, Mas'r," for agesthe watchword of poor Africa; but it's to be owned they did not lookparticularly cheerful; they had their various little prejudices in favorof wives, mothers, sisters, and children, seen for the last time,--andthough "they that wasted them required of them mirth," it was notinstantly forthcoming.

"I've got a wife," spoke out the article enumerated as "John, agedthirty," and he laid his chained hand on Tom's knee,--"and she don'tknow a word about this, poor girl!"

"Where does she live?" said Tom.

"In a tavern a piece down here," said John; "I wish, now, I _could_ seeher once more in this world," he added.

Poor John! It _was_ rather natural; and the tears that fell, as hespoke, came as naturally as if he had been a white man. Tom drew a longbreath from a sore heart, and tried, in his poor way, to comfort him.

And over head, in the cabin, sat fathers and mothers, husbands andwives; and merry, dancing children moved round among them, like somany little butterflies, and everything was going on quite easy andcomfortable.

"O, mamma," said a boy, who had just come up from below, "there's anegro trader on board, and he's brought four or five slaves down there."

"Poor creatures!" said the mother, in a tone between grief andindignation.

"What's that?" said another lady.

"Some poor slaves below," said the mother.

"And they've got chains on," said the boy.

"What a shame to our country that such sights are to be seen!" saidanother lady.

"O, there's a great deal to be said on both sides of the subject," saida genteel woman, who sat at her state-room door sewing, while her littlegirl and boy were playing round her. "I've been south, and I must say Ithink the negroes are better off than they would be to be free."

"In some respects, some of them are well off, I grant," said the lady towhose remark she had answered. "The most dreadful part of slavery, to mymind, is its outrages on the feelings and affections,--the separating offamilies, for example."

"That _is_ a bad thing, certainly," said the other lady, holding upa baby's dress she had just completed, and looking intently on itstrimmings; "but then, I fancy, it don't occur often."

"O, it does," said the first lady, eagerly; "I've lived many years inKentucky and Virginia both, and I've seen enough to make any one's heartsick. Suppose, ma'am, your two children, there, should be taken fromyou, and sold?"

"We can't reason from our feelings to those of this class of persons,"said the other lady, sorting out some worsteds on her lap.

"Indeed, ma'am, you can know nothing of them, if you say so," answeredthe first lady, warmly. "I was born and brought up among them. I knowthey _do_ feel, just as keenly,--even more so, perhaps,--as we do."

The lady said "Indeed!" yawned, and looked out the cabin window,and finally repeated, for a finale, the remark with which she hadbegun,--"After all, I think they are better off than they would be to befree."

"It's undoubtedly the intention of Providence that the African raceshould be servants,--kept in a low condition," said a grave-lookinggentleman in black, a clergyman, seated by the cabin door. "'Cursed beCanaan; a servant of servants shall he be,' the scripture says."*

* Gen. 9:25. This is what Noah says when he wakes out of drunkenness and realizes that his youngest son, Ham, father of Canaan, has seen him naked.

"I say, stranger, is that ar what that text means?" said a tall man,standing by.

"Undoubtedly. It pleased Providence, for some inscrutable reason, todoom the race to bondage, ages ago; and we must not set up our opinionagainst that."

"Well, then, we'll all go ahead and buy up niggers," said the man, "ifthat's the way of Providence,--won't we, Squire?" said he, turning toHaley, who had been standing, with his hands in his pockets, by thestove and intently listening to the conversation.

"Yes," continued the tall man, "we must all be resigned to the decreesof Providence. Niggers must be sold, and trucked round, and keptunder; it's what they's made for. 'Pears like this yer view 's quiterefreshing, an't it, stranger?" said he to Haley.

"I never thought on 't," said Haley, "I couldn't have said as much,myself; I ha'nt no larning. I took up the trade just to make a living;if 'tan't right, I calculated to 'pent on 't in time, ye know."

"And now you'll save yerself the trouble, won't ye?" said the tall man."See what 't is, now, to know scripture. If ye'd only studied yer Bible,like this yer good man, ye might have know'd it before, and saved yea heap o' trouble. Ye could jist have said, 'Cussed be'--what's hisname?--'and 't would all have come right.'" And the stranger, who wasno other than the honest drover whom we introduced to our readers in theKentucky tavern, sat down, and began smoking, with a curious smile onhis long, dry face.

A tall, slender young man, with a face expressive of great feelingand intelligence, here broke in, and repeated the words, "'All thingswhatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so untothem.' I suppose," he added, "_that_ is scripture, as much as 'Cursed beCanaan.'"

"Wal, it seems quite _as_ plain a text, stranger," said John the drover,"to poor fellows like us, now;" and John smoked on like a volcano.

The young man paused, looked as if he was going to say more, whensuddenly the boat stopped, and the company made the usual steamboatrush, to see where they were landing.

"Both them ar chaps parsons?" said John to one of the men, as they weregoing out.

The man nodded.

As the boat stopped, a black woman came running wildly up the plank,darted into the crowd, flew up to where the slave gang sat, andthrew her arms round that unfortunate piece of merchandise beforeenumerate--"John, aged thirty," and with sobs and tears bemoaned him asher husband.

But what needs tell the story, told too oft,--every day told,--ofheart-strings rent and broken,--the weak broken and torn for the profitand convenience of the strong! It needs not to be told;--every day istelling it,--telling it, too, in the ear of One who is not deaf, thoughhe be long silent.

The young man who had spoken for the cause of humanity and God beforestood with folded arms, looking on this scene. He turned, and Haleywas standing at his side. "My friend," he said, speaking with thickutterance, "how can you, how dare you, carry on a trade like this? Lookat those poor creatures! Here I am, rejoicing in my heart that I amgoing home to my wife and child; and the same bell which is a signalto carry me onward towards them will part this poor man and his wifeforever. Depend upon it, God will bring you into judgment for this."

The trader turned away in silence.

"I say, now," said the drover, touching his elbow, "there's differencesin parsons, an't there? 'Cussed be Canaan' don't seem to go down withthis 'un, does it?"

Haley gave an uneasy growl.

"And that ar an't the worst on 't," said John; "mabbee it won't go downwith the Lord, neither, when ye come to settle with Him, one o' thesedays, as all on us must, I reckon."

Haley walked reflectively to the other end of the boat.

"If I make pretty handsomely on one or two next gangs," he thought, "Ireckon I'll stop off this yer; it's really getting dangerous." And hetook out his pocket-book, and began adding over his accounts,--a processwhich many gentlemen besides Mr. Haley have found a specific for anuneasy conscience.

The boat swept proudly away from the shore, and all went on merrily, asbefore. Men talked, and loafed, and read, and smoked. Women sewed, andchildren played, and the boat passed on her way.

One day, when she lay to for a while at a small town in Kentucky, Haleywent up into the place on a little matter of business.

Tom, whose fetters did not prevent his taking a moderate circuit, haddrawn near the side of the boat, and stood listlessly gazing over therailing. After a time, he saw the trader returning, with an alert step,in company with a colored woman, bearing in her arms a young child. Shewas dressed quite respectably, and a colored man followed her, bringingalong a small trunk. The woman came cheerfully onward, talking, as shecame, with the man who bore her trunk, and so passed up the plank intothe boat. The bell rung, the steamer whizzed, the engine groaned andcoughed, and away swept the boat down the river.

The woman walked forward among the boxes and bales of the lower deck,and, sitting down, busied herself with chirruping to her baby.

Haley made a turn or two about the boat, and then, coming up, seatedhimself near her, and began saying something to her in an indifferentundertone.

Tom soon noticed a heavy cloud passing over the woman's brow; and thatshe answered rapidly, and with great vehemence.

"I don't believe it,--I won't believe it!" he heard her say. "You'rejist a foolin' with me."

"If you won't believe it, look here!" said the man, drawing out a paper;"this yer's the bill of sale, and there's your master's name to it; andI paid down good solid cash for it, too, I can tell you,--so, now!"

"I don't believe Mas'r would cheat me so; it can't be true!" said thewoman, with increasing agitation.

"You can ask any of these men here, that can read writing. Here!" hesaid, to a man that was passing by, "jist read this yer, won't you! Thisyer gal won't believe me, when I tell her what 't is."

"Why, it's a bill of sale, signed by John Fosdick," said the man,"making over to you the girl Lucy and her child. It's all straightenough, for aught I see."

The woman's passionate exclamations collected a crowd around her, andthe trader briefly explained to them the cause of the agitation.

"He told me that I was going down to Louisville, to hire out as cook tothe same tavern where my husband works,--that's what Mas'r told me, hisown self; and I can't believe he'd lie to me," said the woman.

"But he has sold you, my poor woman, there's no doubt about it," saida good-natured looking man, who had been examining the papers; "he hasdone it, and no mistake."

"Then it's no account talking," said the woman, suddenly growing quitecalm; and, clasping her child tighter in her arms, she sat down on herbox, turned her back round, and gazed listlessly into the river.

"Going to take it easy, after all!" said the trader. "Gal's got grit, Isee."

The woman looked calm, as the boat went on; and a beautiful soft summerbreeze passed like a compassionate spirit over her head,--the gentlebreeze, that never inquires whether the brow is dusky or fair that itfans. And she saw sunshine sparkling on the water, in golden ripples,and heard gay voices, full of ease and pleasure, talking around hereverywhere; but her heart lay as if a great stone had fallen on it.Her baby raised himself up against her, and stroked her cheeks with hislittle hands; and, springing up and down, crowing and chatting, seemeddetermined to arouse her. She strained him suddenly and tightly inher arms, and slowly one tear after another fell on his wondering,unconscious face; and gradually she seemed, and little by little, togrow calmer, and busied herself with tending and nursing him.

The child, a boy of ten months, was uncommonly large and strong of hisage, and very vigorous in his limbs. Never, for a moment, still, he kepthis mother constantly busy in holding him, and guarding his springingactivity.

"That's a fine chap!" said a man, suddenly stopping opposite to him,with his hands in his pockets. "How old is he?"

"Ten months and a half," said the mother.

The man whistled to the boy, and offered him part of a stick of candy,which he eagerly grabbed at, and very soon had it in a baby's generaldepository, to wit, his mouth.

"Rum fellow!" said the man "Knows what's what!" and he whistled, andwalked on. When he had got to the other side of the boat, he came acrossHaley, who was smoking on top of a pile of boxes.

The stranger produced a match, and lighted a cigar, saying, as he didso,

"Decentish kind o' wench you've got round there, stranger."

"Why, I reckon she _is_ tol'able fair," said Haley, blowing the smokeout of his mouth.

"Taking her down south?" said the man.

Haley nodded, and smoked on.

"Plantation hand?" said the man.

"Wal," said Haley, "I'm fillin' out an order for a plantation, and Ithink I shall put her in. They telled me she was a good cook; and theycan use her for that, or set her at the cotton-picking. She's got theright fingers for that; I looked at 'em. Sell well, either way;" andHaley resumed his cigar.

"They won't want the young 'un on the plantation," said the man.

"I shall sell him, first chance I find," said Haley, lighting anothercigar.

"S'pose you'd be selling him tol'able cheap," said the stranger,mounting the pile of boxes, and sitting down comfortably.

"Don't know 'bout that," said Haley; "he's a pretty smart young 'un,straight, fat, strong; flesh as hard as a brick!"

"Very true, but then there's the bother and expense of raisin'."

"Nonsense!" said Haley; "they is raised as easy as any kind of critterthere is going; they an't a bit more trouble than pups. This yer chapwill be running all around, in a month."

"I've got a good place for raisin', and I thought of takin' in a littlemore stock," said the man. "One cook lost a young 'un last week,--gotdrownded in a washtub, while she was a hangin' out the clothes,--and Ireckon it would be well enough to set her to raisin' this yer."

Haley and the stranger smoked a while in silence, neither seemingwilling to broach the test question of the interview. At last the manresumed:

"You wouldn't think of wantin' more than ten dollars for that ar chap,seeing you _must_ get him off yer hand, any how?"

Haley shook his head, and spit impressively.

"That won't do, no ways," he said, and began his smoking again.

"Well, stranger, what will you take?"

"Well, now," said Haley, "I _could_ raise that ar chap myself, or gethim raised; he's oncommon likely and healthy, and he'd fetch a hundreddollars, six months hence; and, in a year or two, he'd bring twohundred, if I had him in the right spot; I shan't take a cent less norfifty for him now."

"O, stranger! that's rediculous, altogether," said the man.

"Fact!" said Haley, with a decisive nod of his head.

"I'll give thirty for him," said the stranger, "but not a cent more."

"Now, I'll tell ye what I will do," said Haley, spitting again, withrenewed decision. "I'll split the difference, and say forty-five; andthat's the most I will do."

"Well, agreed!" said the man, after an interval.

"Done!" said Haley. "Where do you land?"

"At Louisville," said the man.

"Louisville," said Haley. "Very fair, we get there about dusk. Chap willbe asleep,--all fair,--get him off quietly, and no screaming,--happensbeautiful,--I like to do everything quietly,--I hates all kind ofagitation and fluster." And so, after a transfer of certain bills hadpassed from the man's pocket-book to the trader's, he resumed his cigar.

It was a bright, tranquil evening when the boat stopped at the wharf atLouisville. The woman had been sitting with her baby in her arms, nowwrapped in a heavy sleep. When she heard the name of the place calledout, she hastily laid the child down in a little cradle formed by thehollow among the boxes, first carefully spreading under it her cloak;and then she sprung to the side of the boat, in hopes that, among thevarious hotel-waiters who thronged the wharf, she might see her husband.In this hope, she pressed forward to the front rails, and, stretchingfar over them, strained her eyes intently on the moving heads on theshore, and the crowd pressed in between her and the child.

"Now's your time," said Haley, taking the sleeping child up, and handinghim to the stranger. "Don't wake him up, and set him to crying, now;it would make a devil of a fuss with the gal." The man took the bundlecarefully, and was soon lost in the crowd that went up the wharf.

When the boat, creaking, and groaning, and puffing, had loosed fromthe wharf, and was beginning slowly to strain herself along, the womanreturned to her old seat. The trader was sitting there,--the child wasgone!

"Why, why,--where?" she began, in bewildered surprise.

"Lucy," said the trader, "your child's gone; you may as well know itfirst as last. You see, I know'd you couldn't take him down south; andI got a chance to sell him to a first-rate family, that'll raise himbetter than you can."

The trader had arrived at that stage of Christian and politicalperfection which has been recommended by some preachers and politiciansof the north, lately, in which he had completely overcome every humaneweakness and prejudice. His heart was exactly where yours, sir, and minecould be brought, with proper effort and cultivation. The wild lookof anguish and utter despair that the woman cast on him might havedisturbed one less practised; but he was used to it. He had seen thatsame look hundreds of times. You can get used to such things, too, myfriend; and it is the great object of recent efforts to make our wholenorthern community used to them, for the glory of the Union. So thetrader only regarded the mortal anguish which he saw working in thosedark features, those clenched hands, and suffocating breathings, asnecessary incidents of the trade, and merely calculated whether she wasgoing to scream, and get up a commotion on the boat; for, like othersupporters of our peculiar institution, he decidedly disliked agitation.

But the woman did not scream. The shot had passed too straight anddirect through the heart, for cry or tear.

Dizzily she sat down. Her slack hands fell lifeless by her side. Hereyes looked straight forward, but she saw nothing. All the noise andhum of the boat, the groaning of the machinery, mingled dreamily to herbewildered ear; and the poor, dumb-stricken heart had neither cry nottear to show for its utter misery. She was quite calm.

The trader, who, considering his advantages, was almost as humane assome of our politicians, seemed to feel called on to administer suchconsolation as the case admitted of.

"I know this yer comes kinder hard, at first, Lucy," said he; "but sucha smart, sensible gal as you are, won't give way to it. You see it's_necessary_, and can't be helped!"

"O! don't, Mas'r, don't!" said the woman, with a voice like one that issmothering.

"You're a smart wench, Lucy," he persisted; "I mean to do well byye, and get ye a nice place down river; and you'll soon get anotherhusband,--such a likely gal as you--"

"O! Mas'r, if you _only_ won't talk to me now," said the woman, in avoice of such quick and living anguish that the trader felt that therewas something at present in the case beyond his style of operation. Hegot up, and the woman turned away, and buried her head in her cloak.

The trader walked up and down for a time, and occasionally stopped andlooked at her.

"Takes it hard, rather," he soliloquized, "but quiet, tho';--let hersweat a while; she'll come right, by and by!"

Tom had watched the whole transaction from first to last, and had aperfect understanding of its results. To him, it looked like somethingunutterably horrible and cruel, because, poor, ignorant black soul! hehad not learned to generalize, and to take enlarged views. If he hadonly been instructed by certain ministers of Christianity, he might havethought better of it, and seen in it an every-day incident of a lawfultrade; a trade which is the vital support of an institution which anAmerican divine* tells us has _"no evils but such as are inseparablefrom any other relations in social and domestic life_." But Tom, aswe see, being a poor, ignorant fellow, whose reading had been confinedentirely to the New Testament, could not comfort and solace himself withviews like these. His very soul bled within him for what seemed to himthe _wrongs_ of the poor suffering thing that lay like a crushed reedon the boxes; the feeling, living, bleeding, yet immortal _thing_,which American state law coolly classes with the bundles, and bales, andboxes, among which she is lying.

* Dr. Joel Parker of Philadelphia. [Mrs. Stowe's note.] Presbyterian clergyman (1799-1873), a friend of the Beecher family. Mrs. Stowe attempted unsuccessfully to have this identifying note removed from the stereotype-plate of the first edition.

Tom drew near, and tried to say something; but she only groaned.Honestly, and with tears running down his own cheeks, he spoke of aheart of love in the skies, of a pitying Jesus, and an eternal home; butthe ear was deaf with anguish, and the palsied heart could not feel.

Night came on,--night calm, unmoved, and glorious, shining down withher innumerable and solemn angel eyes, twinkling, beautiful, but silent.There was no speech nor language, no pitying voice or helping hand, fromthat distant sky. One after another, the voices of business or pleasuredied away; all on the boat were sleeping, and the ripples at the prowwere plainly heard. Tom stretched himself out on a box, and there, as helay, he heard, ever and anon, a smothered sob or cry from the prostratecreature,--"O! what shall I do? O Lord! O good Lord, do help me!" andso, ever and anon, until the murmur died away in silence.

At midnight, Tom waked, with a sudden start. Something black passedquickly by him to the side of the boat, and he heard a splash in thewater. No one else saw or heard anything. He raised his head,--thewoman's place was vacant! He got up, and sought about him in vain.The poor bleeding heart was still, at last, and the river rippled anddimpled just as brightly as if it had not closed above it.

Patience! patience! ye whose hearts swell indignant at wrongs likethese. Not one throb of anguish, not one tear of the oppressed, isforgotten by the Man of Sorrows, the Lord of Glory. In his patient,generous bosom he bears the anguish of a world. Bear thou, like him,in patience, and labor in love; for sure as he is God, "the year of hisredeemed _shall_ come."

The trader waked up bright and early, and came out to see to his livestock. It was now his turn to look about in perplexity.

"Where alive is that gal?" he said to Tom.

Tom, who had learned the wisdom of keeping counsel, did not feel calledupon to state his observations and suspicions, but said he did not know.

"She surely couldn't have got off in the night at any of the landings,for I was awake, and on the lookout, whenever the boat stopped. I nevertrust these yer things to other folks."

This speech was addressed to Tom quite confidentially, as if it wassomething that would be specially interesting to him. Tom made noanswer.

The trader searched the boat from stem to stern, among boxes, bales andbarrels, around the machinery, by the chimneys, in vain.

"Now, I say, Tom, be fair about this yer," he said, when, after afruitless search, he came where Tom was standing. "You know somethingabout it, now. Don't tell me,--I know you do. I saw the gal stretchedout here about ten o'clock, and ag'in at twelve, and ag'in between oneand two; and then at four she was gone, and you was a sleeping rightthere all the time. Now, you know something,--you can't help it."

"Well, Mas'r," said Tom, "towards morning something brushed by me, and Ikinder half woke; and then I hearn a great splash, and then I clare wokeup, and the gal was gone. That's all I know on 't."

The trader was not shocked nor amazed; because, as we said before, hewas used to a great many things that you are not used to. Even the awfulpresence of Death struck no solemn chill upon him. He had seen Deathmany times,--met him in the way of trade, and got acquainted withhim,--and he only thought of him as a hard customer, that embarrassedhis property operations very unfairly; and so he only swore that thegal was a baggage, and that he was devilish unlucky, and that, if thingswent on in this way, he should not make a cent on the trip. In short, heseemed to consider himself an ill-used man, decidedly; but there was nohelp for it, as the woman had escaped into a state which _never will_give up a fugitive,--not even at the demand of the whole gloriousUnion. The trader, therefore, sat discontentedly down, with his littleaccount-book, and put down the missing body and soul under the head of_losses!_

"He's a shocking creature, isn't he,--this trader? so unfeeling! It'sdreadful, really!"

"O, but nobody thinks anything of these traders! They are universallydespised,--never received into any decent society."

But who, sir, makes the trader? Who is most to blame? The enlightened,cultivated, intelligent man, who supports the system of which the traderis the inevitable result, or the poor trader himself? You make thepublic statement that calls for his trade, that debauches and depraveshim, till he feels no shame in it; and in what are you better than he?

Are you educated and he ignorant, you high and he low, you refined andhe coarse, you talented and he simple?

In the day of a future judgment, these very considerations may make itmore tolerable for him than for you.

In concluding these little incidents of lawful trade, we must beg theworld not to think that American legislators are entirely destitute ofhumanity, as might, perhaps, be unfairly inferred from the great effortsmade in our national body to protect and perpetuate this species oftraffic.

Who does not know how our great men are outdoing themselves, indeclaiming against the _foreign_ slave-trade. There are a perfect hostof Clarksons and Wilberforces* risen up among us on that subject, mostedifying to hear and behold. Trading negroes from Africa, dear reader,is so horrid! It is not to be thought of! But trading them fromKentucky,--that's quite another thing!

* Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) and William Wilberforce (1759- 1833), English philanthropists and anti-slavery agitators who helped to secure passage of the Emancipation Bill by Parliament in 1833.