rms, up
and down, into the veranda, and to him she talked, what she would not
distress her father with, of these mysterious intimations which the soul
feels ere it leaves its clay for ever. He lay, at last, all night in the
veranda ready to rouse at the least call, and at midnight came the
message. Earth was passed and earthly pain; so solemn was the triumphant
brightness of that face it checked even the sobs of sorrow. A glorious
smile, and she said, brokenly, "Oh--love--joy--peace" and passed from
death unto life.

Week after week glided by in the St. Clare mansion and the waves of life
settled back to their usual flow where that little bark had gone down.
St. Clare was in many respects another man; he read his little Eva's
Bible seriously and honestly; he thought soberly of his relations to his
servants, and he commenced the legal steps necessary to Tom's
emancipation as he had promised Eva he would do. But, one evening while
Tom was sitting thinking of his home, feeling the muscles of his brawny
arms with joy as he thought how he would work to buy his wife and boys;
his master was brought home dying. He had interfered in an affray in a
cafe and been stabbed.

He reached out and took Tom's hand; he closed his eyes, but still
retained his hold; for in the gates of eternity the black hand and the
white hold each other with an equal grasp, and softly murmured some
words he had been singing that evening--words of entreaty to Infinite
Pity.

_IV.--Freedom_

Mrs. St. Clare decided at once to sell the place and all the servants,
except her own personal property, and although she was told of her
husband's intention of freeing Tom, he was sold by auction with the
rest. His new master, Mr. Simon Legree, came round to review his
purchases as they sat in chains on the lower deck of a small mean boat,
on their way to his cotton plantation, on the Red River. "I say, all on
ye," he said, "look at me--look me right in the eye--straight, now!"
stamping his foot. "Now," said he, doubling his great heavy fist, "d'ye
see this fist? Heft it," he said, bringing it down on Tom's hand. "Look
at these yer bones! Well, I tell ye this yer fist has got as hard as
iron knocking down niggers. I don't keep none of yer cussed overseers; I
does my own overseeing and I tell ye things _is_ seen to. You won't find
no soft spot in me, nowhere. So, now, mind yourselves; for I don't show
no mercy!" The women drew in their breath; and the whole ga