NEGRO LIFE IN AMERICA. 359

carrying her carpet bag and sundry bundles, she made her appear-
ance at the small tavern, like a lady of consideration.

The first person that struck her, after her arrival, was George
Shelby, who was staying there, awaiting the next boat.

Cassy had remarked the young man from her loop-hole in the

arret, and seen him bear away the body of Tom, and observed,
with secret exultation, his rencontre with Legree. Subsequently,
she had gathered from the conversations she had overheard among
the negroes, as she glided about in her ghostly disguise after
nightfall, who he was, and in what relation he stood to Tom.
She therefore felt an immediate accession of confidence when she
found that he was, like herself, awaiting the next boat.

Cassy’s air and manner, address, and evident command of
money, prevented any rising disposition to suspicion in the hotel.
People never inquire too closely into those who are fair on the
main point, of paying well—a thing which Cassy had foreseen
when she provided herself with money.

In the edge of the evening, a boat was heard coming along,
and George Shelby handed Cassy aboard, with the politeness |

which comes naturally to every Kentuckian, and exerted himself
to provide her with a good state-room.

Cassy kept her room and bed, on pretext of illness, during the
whole time they were on Red River; and was waited on with
obsequious devotion by her attendant.

When they arrived at the Mississippi River, George, having
learned that the course of the strange lady was upward, like his
own, proposed to take a state-room for her on the same boat with
himself—good-naturedly compassionating her feeble health, and
desirous todo what he could to assist her.

Behold, therefore, the whole party safely transferred to the

ood steamer Cincinnati, and sweeping up the river under a
powerful head of steam.

Cassy’s health was much better. She sat upon the guards,
came to the table, and was remarked upon in the boat as a lady
that must have been very handsome.

From the moment that George got the first glance of her face,
he was troubled with one of those fleeting and indefinite like-
nesses which almost everybody can remember, and has been, at
times, perplexed with. He could not keep himself from looking
at her, and watching her perpetually. At table, or sitting at her
state-room door, still she would encounter the young man’s eyes
fixed on her, and politely withdrawn when she showed by her
countenance that she was sensible of the observation. ‘
Cassy became. uneasy. She began to think that he suspected
something ; and finally resolved to throw herself entirely on his |

eee SL erent

nt EOL anes

Sie

generosity, and ‘ntrusted him with her whole history.
George was heartily disposed to sympathise with anyone who

| had escaped from Legree’s plantation—a place that he could not

- Oo ecten nna ET ~-- —— _