NEGRO LIFE IN AMERICA, 291

Tom and Eva were seated on a little mossy seat, in an arbour,
at the foot of the garden. It was Sunday evening, and Eva’s Bible’
lay open on her knee. She read, “And I saw a sea of glass,
mingled with fire.” |

“Tom,” said Eva, suddenly stopping, and pointing to the lake,
“‘ there tis.”

** What, Miss Eva?”

‘‘ Don’t you see—there?” said the child, pointing to the glassy
water, which, as it rose and fell, reflected the golden glow of the
sky. ‘‘There’s a ‘sea of glass, mingled with fire.’ ”’

“True enough, Miss Eva,” said Tom; and Tom sang—

“Oh, had I the wings of the morning,
I'd fly away to Canaan’s shore;
Brights angels should convey me home,
o the New Jerusalem.”
if “Where do you suppose New Jerusalem is, Uncle Tom?” said
va.

“ Oh, up in the clouds, Miss Eva.”

“Then I think I see it,” said Eva. ‘‘ Look in those clouds!
they look like great gates of pearl; and you can see beyond
them—far, far off—it’s all gold. Tom, sing about ‘ spirits
bright.’ ” :

Tom sang the words of a well-known Methodist hymn—

“TI see a band of spirits bright,
That taste the glories there ;
They all are robed in spotless white,
And conquering palms they bear.”

“Uncle Tom, I've seen them,” said Eva.

Tom had no doubt of it at all; it did not surprise him in the
least. If Eva had told him she had been to heaven, he would
have thought it entirely probable. eae

“‘ They come to me sometimes in my sleep, those spirits ;” and
Eva's eyes grew dreamy, and she hummed, in a low voice—

“‘ They all are robed in spotless white,
conquering palms they bear.”

“Uncle Tom,” said Eva, ‘I’m going there.”

‘Where, Miss Eva ?’

The child rose, and pointed her little hand to the sky ; the glow
of evening lit her golden hair and flushed cheek with a kind of
unearthly radiance, and her eyes were bent earnestly on the oie

“I’m going there,” she said, “ to the spirits bright, Tom ;
going, before long.”

The faithful old heart felt a sudden thrust; and. Tom thought
how often he had noticed, within six months, that Eva's little
hands had grown thinner, and her skin more transparent, and her
breath shorter; and how, when she ran or played in the garden,
as she once could for hours, she became soon so tired and languid:
He had heard Miss Ophelia speak often of a cough that all her

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