had her all
stripped up afore I could get 'em off. She car's de marks o' dat ar
spree yet."

"I reckon she will, to her grave," said Legree. "But now, Sambo, you
look sharp. If the nigger's got anything of this sort going, trip him
up."

"Mas'r, let me lone for dat," said Sambo, "I'll tree de coon. Ho, ho,
ho!"

This was spoken as Legree was getting on his horse, to go to the
neighboring town. That night, as he was returning, he thought he would
turn his horse and ride round the quarters, and see if all was safe.

It was a superb moonlight night, and the shadows of the graceful China
trees lay minutely pencilled on the turf below, and there was that
transparent stillness in the air which it seems almost unholy to
disturb. Legree was a little distance from the quarters, when he heard
the voice of some one singing. It was not a usual sound there, and he
paused to listen. A musical tenor voice sang,

"When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,
I'll bid farewell to every fear,
And wipe my weeping eyes

"Should earth against my soul engage,
And hellish darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan's rage,
And face a frowning world.

"Let cares like a wild deluge come,
And storms of sorrow fall,
May I but safely reach my home,
My god, my Heaven, my All."*

* "On My Journey Home," hymn by Isaac Watts, found in many
of the southern country songbooks of the ante bellum period.

"So ho!" said Legree to himself, "he thinks so, does he? How I hate
these cursed Methodist hymns! Here, you nigger," said he, coming
suddenly out upon Tom, and raising his riding-whip, "how dare you be
gettin' up this yer row, when you ought to be in bed? Shut yer old black
gash, and get along in with you!"

"Yes, Mas'r," said Tom, with ready cheerfulness, as he rose to go in.

Legree was provoked beyond measure by Tom's evident happiness; and
riding up to him, belabored him over his head and shoulders.

"There, you dog," he said, "see if you'll feel so comfortable, after
that!"

But the blows fell now only on the outer man, and not, as before, on
the heart. Tom stood perfectly submissive; and yet Legree could not hide
from himself that his power over his bond thrall was somehow gone.
And, as Tom disappeared in his cabin, and he wheeled his horse suddenly
round, there passed through his mind one of those vivid flashes that
often send the lightning of