42 UNCLE TOM’S CABIN; OR,

If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going
to be torn from you by a brutal trader, to-morrow morning—if
you had seen the man, and heard that the papers were signed and
delivered, and you had only from twelve o’clock till morning to
make good your escape—how fast could you walk? How many
miles could you make in those few brief hours, with the darling

.at your bosom, the little sleepy head on your shoulder, the small,
soft arms trustingly holding on to your neck?

For the child slept. At first, the novelty and alarm kept him
waking, but his mother so hurriedly repressed every breath or
sound, and so assured him that if he were only still she would
certainly save him, that he clung quietly round her neck, only
asking as he found himself sinking to sleep—

‘‘ Mother, I don’t need to keep awake, do I?”

“No, my darling; sleep if you want to.”

“ But mother, if I do get asleep, you won't let him get me?”

“No! so may God help me!” said his mother, with a paler
cheek, and a brighter light in her large dark eyes.

“ You're sure, an’t you, mother ?”

“Yes, sure!’ said the mother, in a voice that startled herself;
for it seemed to her to come from a spirit within, that was no part
of her; and the boy dropped his little weary head on her shoulder,
and was soon asleep. How the touch of those warm arms, the
gentle breathings that came in her neck, seemed to add fire and
spirit to her movements! It seemed to her as if strength poured
into her in electric streams, from every gentle touch and move-
ment of the sleeping, confiding child. Sublime is the dominion
of the mind over the body, that, for a time, can make flesh and
nerve impregnable, and string the sinews like steel, so that the
weak become so mighty.

The boundaries of the farm, the grove, the wood-lot, passed by
her dizzily as she walked on; and still she went, leaving one fa-
miliar object after another, slacking not, pausing not, till redden-
ing daylight found her many a long mile from all traces of any
familiar objects upon the open highway.

She had often been, with her mistress, to visit some connexions
in the little village of T , not far from the Ohio river, and
knew the road well. To go thither, to escape across the Ohio
river, were the first hurried outlines of her plan of escape ; beyond
that, she could only hope in God.

‘When horses and vehicles began to move along the highway,
with that alert perception peculiar to a state of excitement, and
which seems to be a sort of inspiration, she became aware that her
headlong pace and distracted air might bring on her remark and
suspicion. She therefore put the boy on the ground, and, adjust-
ing her dress and bonnet, she walked on at as rapid a pace as she
thought consistent with the preservation of appearances. In her
littlé bundle she had provided"a stcre of cakes and apples, which

 

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