Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe

Чтение книги онлайн.

      The old gentleman uniformly gave a little start whenever his long–sided brother fired in his direction; and this being observed by his companion, he very good–naturedly turned his artillery to another quarter, and proceeded to storm one of the fire–irons with a degree of military talent fully sufficient to take a city.

      "What's that?" said the old gentleman, observing some of the company formed in a group around a large handbill.

      "Nigger advertised!" said one of the company, briefly.

      Mr. Wilson, for that was the old gentleman's name, rose up, and, after carefully adjusting his valise and umbrella, proceeded deliberately to take out his spectacles and fix them on his nose; and, this operation being performed, read as follows:

      Ran away from the subscriber, my mulatto boy, George. Said

      George six feet in height, a very light mulatto, brown curly

      hair; is very intelligent, speaks handsomely, can read and

      write, will probably try to pass for a white man, is deeply

      scarred on his back and shoulders, has been branded in his

      right hand with the letter H.

      I will give four hundred dollars for him alive, and the

      same sum for satisfactory proof that he has been killed.

      The old gentleman read this advertisement from end to end in a low voice, as if he were studying it.

      The long–legged veteran, who had been besieging the fire–iron, as before related, now took down his cumbrous length, and rearing aloft his tall form, walked up to the advertisement and very deliberately spit a full discharge of tobacco–juice on it.

      "There's my mind upon that!" said he, briefly, and sat down again.

      "Why, now, stranger, what's that for?" said mine host.

      "I'd do it all the same to the writer of that ar paper, if he was here," said the long man, coolly resuming his old employment of cutting tobacco. "Any man that owns a boy like that, and can't find any better way o' treating on him, deserves to lose him. Such papers as these is a shame to Kentucky; that's my mind right out, if anybody wants to know!"

      "Well, now, that's a fact," said mine host, as he made an entry in his book.

      "I've got a gang of boys, sir," said the long man, resuming his attack on the fire–irons, "and I jest tells 'em—"Boys," says I,—"run now! dig! put! jest when ye want to! I never shall come to look after you!" That's the way I keep mine. Let 'em know they are free to run any time, and it jest breaks up their wanting to. More 'n all, I've got free papers for 'em all recorded, in case I gets keeled up any o' these times, and they know it; and I tell ye, stranger, there an't a fellow in our parts gets more out of his niggers than I do. Why, my boys have been to Cincinnati, with five hundred dollars' worth of colts, and brought me back the money, all straight, time and agin. It stands to reason they should. Treat 'em like dogs, and you'll have dogs' works and dogs' actions. Treat 'em like men, and you'll have men's works." And the honest drover, in his warmth, endorsed this moral sentiment by firing a perfect feu de joi at the fireplace.

      "I think you're altogether right, friend," said Mr. Wilson; "and this boy described here is a fine fellow—no mistake about that. He worked for me some half–dozen years in my bagging factory, and he was my best hand, sir. He is an ingenious fellow, too: he invented a machine for the cleaning of hemp—a really valuable affair; it's gone into use in several factories. His master holds the patent of it."

      "I'll warrant ye," said the drover, "holds it and makes money out of it, and then turns round and brands the boy in his right hand. If I had a fair chance, I'd mark him, I reckon so that he'd carry it one while."

      "These yer knowin' boys is allers aggravatin' and sarcy," said a coarse–looking fellow, from the other side of the room; "that's why they gets cut up and marked so. If they behaved themselves, they wouldn't."

      "That is to say, the Lord made 'em men, and it's a hard squeeze gettin 'em down into beasts," said the drover, dryly.

      "Bright niggers isn't no kind of 'vantage to their masters," continued the other, well entrenched, in a coarse, unconscious obtuseness, from the contempt of his opponent; "what's the use o' talents and them things, if you can't get the use on 'em yourself? Why, all the use they make on 't is to get round you. I've had one or two of these fellers, and I jest sold 'em down river. I knew I'd got to lose 'em, first or last, if I didn't."

      "Better send orders up to the Lord, to make you a set, and leave out their souls entirely," said the drover.

      Here the conversation was interrupted by the approach of a small one–horse buggy to the inn. It had a genteel appearance, and a well–dressed, gentlemanly man sat on the seat, with a colored servant driving.

      The whole party examined the new comer with the interest with which a set of loafers in a rainy day usually examine every newcomer. He was very tall, with a dark, Spanish complexion, fine, expressive black eyes, and close–curling hair, also of a glossy blackness. His well–formed aquiline nose, straight thin lips, and the admirable contour of his finely–formed limbs, impressed the whole company instantly with the idea of something uncommon. He walked easily in among the company, and with a nod indicated to his waiter where to place his trunk, bowed to the company, and, with his hat in his hand, walked up leisurely to the bar, and gave in his name as Henry Butter, Oaklands, Shelby County. Turning, with an indifferent air, he sauntered up to the advertisement, and read it over.

      "Jim," he said to his man, "seems to me we met a boy something like this, up at Beman's, didn't we?"

      "Yes, Mas'r," said Jim, "only I an't sure about the hand."

      "Well, I didn't look, of course," said the stranger with a careless yawn. Then walking up to the landlord, he desired him to furnish him with a private apartment, as he had some writing to do immediately.

      The landlord was all obsequious, and a relay of about seven negroes, old and young, male and female, little and big, were soon whizzing about, like a covey of partridges, bustling, hurrying, treading on each other's toes, and tumbling over each other, in their zeal to get Mas'r's room ready, while he seated himself easily on a chair in the middle of the room, and entered into conversation with the man who sat next to him.

      The manufacturer, Mr. Wilson, from the time of the entrance of the stranger, had regarded him with an air of disturbed and uneasy curiosity. He seemed to himself to have met and been acquainted with him somewhere, but he could not recollect. Every few moments, when the man spoke, or moved, or smiled, he would start and fix his eyes on him, and then suddenly withdraw them, as the bright, dark eyes met his with such unconcerned coolness. At last, a sudden recollection seemed to flash upon him, for he stared at the stranger with such an air of blank amazement and alarm, that he walked up to him.