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Listener-Little Closet,: It Is

nsidnawd nadinwda wnawdpnaw daiwbda wdb awbda wdbna wibdabwdpiabpn fpns fnseipfjns dnispdnfisdnvsndfishef nsse fnse fn sepifnspi enf senf psiebf psnefpishnef nse fns efns enfs enf sipenfp isenf snef pibhs peifns eofnpsiebf pisenf pisnef pibns epifnsepifnsijefip sjefpi jsepi fjspiejfpisejf se fjs efj spejf psjef pjse pfjs pejf ps pj epofjsp oefj spoejfp

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44 views

Listener-Little Closet,: It Is

nsidnawd nadinwda wnawdpnaw daiwbda wdb awbda wdbna wibdabwdpiabpn fpns fnseipfjns dnispdnfisdnvsndfishef nsse fnse fn sepifnspi enf senf psiebf psnefpishnef nse fns efns enfs enf sipenfp isenf snef pibhs peifns eofnpsiebf pisenf pisnef pibns epifnsepifnsijefip sjefpi jsepi fjspiejfpisejf se fjs efj spejf psjef pjse pfjs pejf ps pj epofjsp oefj spoejfp

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30 Uncle Tom's Cabin; or

already signed, and in Haley's hands; and you must be


thankful it is no worse."

There was one listener- to this conversation whom Mr.


and Mrs. Shelby little suspected.
Communicating with their apartment was a large closet,
opening by a door into the outer passage. When Mrs.
Shelby had dismissed Eliza for the night, her feverish and
excited mind had suggested the idea of this closet; and
she had hidden herself there, and, with her ear pressed
close against the crack of the door, had lost not a word
of the conversation.
When the voices died into silence, she rose and crept
stealthily away. Pale and shivering she looked an entirely
altered being from the soft and timid creature she had
been hitherto. She moved cautiously along the entry, and
then turned and glided into her own room, where, on the
bed, lay her slumbering boy.
"Poor boy! poor fellow!" said Eliza; "they have sold
you but your mother will save you yet I"
!

Then she took a piece of paper and a pencil, and wrote,


hastily,
"0, Missis dear Missis don't think me ungrateful,
! !

don't think hard of me, any way, I heard all you and
master said to-night. I am going to try to save my boy
you will not blame me G od bless and reward you for all
!

your kindness !"


Hastily folding and directing this, she made up a little
package of clothing for her boy, which she tied with a
handkerchief firmly round her waist; and even in the ter-
rors of that hour, she did not forget to put in the little

package one or two of his favorite toys.


Life Among the Lowly. 31

"Where are you going, mother?" said he, as she drew


near the bed, with his littlecoat and cap.
"Hush, Harr} ," she said; "musn't speak loud, or they
7

will hear us. A wicked man was coming to take little


Harry away from his mother, and carry him Vay off in
the dark ; hut mother won't let him she's going to put on
her little boy's cap and coat and run off with him, so the
ugly man can't catch him."

"Her slumbering boy."

Saying these words, she dressed the child, and taking


him in her arms, she glided noiselessly out, wrapping a
shawl close round her child, as, perfectly quiet with vague
terror, he clung round her neck. '

Old Bruno, a great Newfoundland, rose, with a low


growl, as she came near. She gently spoke his name, and
the animal instantly prepared to follow her. A few min-
3Uncte Tom's Cabin.
33 Uncle Tom's Cabin; or

utes brought them to the window of Uncle Tom's cottage,


and Eliza, stopping, tapped lightly on the window-pane.
The prayer meeting at Uncle Tom's had been protracted
to a very late houT, and although it was now between
twelve and one o'clock, he and his worthy helpmeet were
not yet asleep.
"Good Lord! what's that?" said Aunt Chloe, starting
up and hastily drawing the curtain. "My sakes alive, if
it ain't 'Lizy! Get on your clothes, old man, quick!
there's old Bruno, too, a pawin' round; what on airth!
I'm gwine to open the door."
The door flew open, and the light of the tallow candle,
which Tom tiad hastily lighted, fell on the haggard face
and dark, wild eyes of the fugitive.
"Lord bless you I'm skeered to look at ye, 'Lizy
! Are
!

ye tuck sick, or what's come over ye?"


"I'm running away^carrying off my child Master sold
him!"
"Sold him?" echoed both.
"Yes, sold him!" said Eliza, firmly; "I heard Master tell
Missis that he had sold my Harry, and you, Uncle Tom,
bo^h, to a trader; and that the man was to take possession
to-day."
Tom had stood, during this speech like a man in a
dream. Slowly and gradually, as its meaning came over
him, he collapsed, rather than seated himself, on his old
chair, and sunk head down upon his knees.
his
"The good Lord have pity on us!" said Aunt Chloe.
"0! it don't seem as if it was true! What has he done,
that Mas'r should sell him ?
"Well, old man!" added Aunt Chloe, "why don't you go

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