Lor was, I'd tell him."

"He's here, he's everywhere," said Tom.

"Lor, you an't gwine to make me believe dat ar! I know de Lord an't
here," said the woman; "'tan't no use talking, though. I's jest gwine to
camp down, and sleep while I ken."

The women went off to their cabins, and Tom sat alone, by the
smouldering fire, that flickered up redly in his face.

The silver, fair-browed moon rose in the purple sky, and looked
down, calm and silent, as God looks on the scene of misery and
oppression,--looked calmly on the lone black man, as he sat, with his
arms folded, and his Bible on his knee.

"Is God HERE?" Ah, how is it possible for the untaught heart to keep its
faith, unswerving, in the face of dire misrule, and palpable, unrebuked
injustice? In that simple heart waged a fierce conflict; the crushing
sense of wrong, the foreshadowing, of a whole life of future misery, the
wreck of all past hopes, mournfully tossing in the soul's sight, like
dead corpses of wife, and child, and friend, rising from the dark wave,
and surging in the face of the half-drowned mariner! Ah, was it easy
_here_ to believe and hold fast the great password of Christian faith,
that "God IS, and is the REWARDER of them that diligently seek Him"?

Tom rose, disconsolate, and stumbled into the cabin that had been
allotted to him. The floor was already strewn with weary sleepers, and
the foul air of the place almost repelled him; but the heavy night-dews
were chill, and his limbs weary, and, wrapping about him a tattered
blanket, which formed his only bed-clothing, he stretched himself in the
straw and fell asleep.

In dreams, a gentle voice came over his ear; he was sitting on the mossy
seat in the garden by Lake Pontchartrain, and Eva, with her serious eyes
bent downward, was reading to him from the Bible; and he heard her read.

"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and the
rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire,
thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee; for
I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour."

Gradually the words seemed to melt and fade, as in a divine music; the
child raised her deep eyes, and fixed them lovingly on him, and rays
of warmth and comfort seemed to go from them to his heart; and, as if
wafted on the music, she seemed to rise on shining wings, from which
flakes and spangles of gold fell off like stars, and she was gone.