26 UNCLE TOM’S CABIN; OR,

“ Haley,” said Mr. Shelby, ‘I hope you'll remember that you
promised, on your honour, you wouldn't sell Tom, without know-
ing what sort of hands he’s going into.”

“ Why, you've just done it, sir,” said the trader.

« Circumstances, you well know, obliged me,” said Shelby
_haughtily.

“ Wal, you know they may ’blige me, too,” said the trader
“ Howsomever, I'll do, the very best I can in gettin’ Tom a
good berth; as to my treating on him bad, you needn't be a
grain afeard. If there’s anything that I thank the Lord fer, it is
that I’m never noways cruel.”

After the expositions which the trader had previously given of
‘his humane principles, Mr. Shelby did uot feel particularly re-
assured by these declarations: but as they were the best comfort
the case admitted of, he allowed the trader to depart in silence,
and betook himself to a solitary cigar.

CHAPTER V.
SHOWING TH FEELINGS OF LIVING PROPERTY ON CHANGING
OWNERS.

Mr. and Mrs. Saersy had retired to their apartment for the
night. He was lounging in a large easy chair looking over some
letters that had come in the afternoon mail, and she was standing
before her mirror, brushing out the complicated braids and curls
in which Eliza had arranged her hair; for, noticing her pale
cheeks and haggard eyes, sh2 had excused her attendance that
night, and ordered her to bed. The employment, naturally
enough, suggested her conversation with the girl in the morning ;
and, turning to her husband, she said, carelessly—

“ By the by, Arthur, who was that lowbred fellow that you
lugged in to our dinner-table to-day ?”

‘Haley is his name,” said Shelby, turning himself rather
uneasily in his chair, and continuing with his eyes fixed on a
letter.

‘‘ Haley! Who is he, and what may be his business here,

ra ?”
: a Well, he’s a man that I transacted some business with, last
time I was at Natchez,” said Mr. Shelby.

‘‘ And he presumed on it to make himself quite at home, and
call and dine here, eh?”

“ Why, I invited him; I had some accounts with him,” said
Shelby.

“Is he a negro-trader?” said Mrs. Shelby, noticing a certain
embarrassment in her husband’s manner.