316 UNCLE TOMS CABIN; OR,

through a shattered fanlight over the door, the air was unwhole-
some and chilly, like that of a vault. “ 7

Legree stopped at the foot of the stairs, and heard a voice
singing. It seemed strange and ghostlike in that dreary old
house, perhaps because of the already tremulous state of his
nerves. Hark! what is it?

A wild, pathetic voice chants a hymn common among the
slaves :

© there'll be mourning, mourning, mourning,
O there'll be mourning, at the judgment-seat of Christ ”

“ Blast the girl!” said Legree. “I'll choke her.—Em! Em!
he called harshly; but only a mocking echo from the walls
answered him. ‘The sweet voice still sang on :—-

“ Parents and children there shall part!
Parents and children there shall part!
hall part to meet no more !”
And clear and loud swelled through the empty halls the refrain—
“ © there'll be mourning, mourning, mourning,
O there'll be mourning, at the judgment-seat of Christ

Legree stopped. He would have been ashamed to tell of it,
but large drops of sweat stood on his forehead, his heart beat
heavy and thick with fear; he even thought he saw something
white rising and glimmering in the room before him, and shud-
dered to think what if the form of his dead mother should sud-
denly appear to him?

«I know one thing,” he said to himself, as he stumbled back
in the sitting-room, and sat down; “ 'll let that fellow alone after
this! What did I want of his cussed paper? I b'lieve I am
bewitched, sure enough! I've been shivering and sweating ever
since! Where did he get that hair? It couldn’t have-been that!
I burnt that up, I know I did! It would be a joke if hair could
rise from the dead !"

Ah, Legree! that golden tress was charmed ; each hair had in
it a spell of terror and remorse for thee, and was used by a
— power to bind thy cruel hands from inflicting uttermost
evil on the helpless!

“I say,” said Legree, stamping and whistling’ to the dogs,
“wake up, some of you, and keep me company!” but the dogs
only opened one eye at him sleepily, and closed it again.

‘‘T']l have Sambo and Quimbo up here to sing, and dance one
of their hell dances, and keep off these horrid notions,” said
Legree ; and, putting on his hat, he went out to the verandah and
blew a horn, with which he commonly summoned his two sable
drivers. |

Legree was often wont, when in a gracious humour, to get these
two worthies in his sitting-room, and, after warming them up with
whiskey, amuse himself by setting them to singing, dancing or
fighting, as the humour took him.