LITMIR.BIZ

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tell you what,” Master Bill used to say, “I was scared that time. Mother came at me so that I thought she was crazy, and I was whipped and tumbled off to bed, without any supper, before I could get over wondering what had come about; and, after that, I heard mother crying outside the door, which made me feel worse than all the rest. I’ll tell you what,” he’d say, “we boys never stoned another kitten!”

      On the present occasion, Mrs. Bird rose quickly, with very red cheeks, which quite improved her general appearance, and walked up to her husband, with quite a resolute air, and said, in a determined tone, “Now, John, I want to know if you think such a law as that is right and Christian?”

      “You won’t shoot me, now, Mary, if I say I do!”

      “I never could have thought it of you, John; you did n’t vote for it?”

      “Even so, my fair politician.”

      “You ought to be ashamed, John! Poor, homeless, houseless creatures! It’s a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I’ll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do! Things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can’t give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!”

      “But, Mary, just listen to me. Your feelings are all quite right, dear, and interesting, and I love you for them; but, then, dear, we must n’t suffer our feelings to run away with our judgment; you must consider it’s not a matter of private feeling, – there are great public interests involved, – there is such a state of public agitation rising, that we must put aside our private feelings.”

      “Now, John, I don’t know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow.”

      “But in cases where your doing so would involve a great public evil – ”

      “Obeying God never brings on public evils. I know it can’t. It’s always safest, all round, to do as He bids us.”

      “Now, listen to me, Mary, and I can state to you a very clear argument, to show – ”

      “O, nonsense, John! you can talk all night, but you would n’t do it. I put it to you, John, – would you now turn away a poor, shivering, hungry creature from your door, because he was a runaway? Would you, now?”

      Now, if the truth must be told, our senator had the misfortune to be a man who had a particularly humane and accessible nature, and turning away anybody that was in trouble never had been his forte; and what was worse for him in this particular pinch of the argument was, that his wife knew it, and, of course, was making an assault on rather an indefensible point. So he had recourse to the usual means of gaining time for such cases made and provided; he said “ahem,” and coughed several times, took out his pocket-handkerchief, and began to wipe his glasses. Mrs. Bird, seeing the defenceless condition of the enemy’s territory, had no more conscience than to push her advantage.

      “I should like to see you doing that, John – I really should! Turning a woman out of doors in a snow-storm, for instance; or, may be you’d take her up and put her in jail, would n’t you? You would make a great hand at that!”

      “Of course, it would be a very painful duty,” began Mr. Bird, in a moderate tone.

      “Duty, John! don’t use that word! You know it is n’t a duty – it can’t be a duty! If folks want to keep their slaves from running away, let ’em treat ’em well, – that’s my doctrine. If I had slaves (as I hope I never shall have), I’d risk their wanting to run away from me, or you either, John. I tell you folks don’t run away when they are happy; and when they do run, poor creatures! they suffer enough with cold and hunger and fear, without everybody’s turning against them; and, law or no law, I never will, so help me God!”

      “Mary! Mary! My dear, let me reason with you.”

      “I hate reasoning, John, – especially reasoning on such subjects. There’s a way you political folks have of coming round and round a plain right thing; and you don’t believe in it yourselves, when it comes to practice. I know you well enough, John. You don’t believe it’s right any more than I do; and you would n’t do it any sooner than I.”

      At this critical juncture, old Cudjoe, the black man-of-all-work, put his head in at the door, and wished ‘Missis would come into the kitchen;’ and our senator, tolerably relieved, looked after his little wife with a whimsical mixture of amusement and vexation, and, seating himself in the arm-chair, began to read the papers.

      After a moment, his wife’s voice was heard at the door, in a quick, earnest tone, – “John! John! I do wish you’d come here, a moment.”

      He laid down his paper, and went into the kitchen, and started, quite amazed at the sight that presented itself: – A young and slender woman, with garments torn and frozen, with one shoe gone, and the stocking torn away from the cut and bleeding foot, was laid back in a deadly swoon upon two chairs. There was the impress of the despised race on her face, yet none could help feeling its mournful and pathetic beauty, while its stony sharpness, its cold, fixed, deathly aspect, struck a solemn chill over him. He drew his breath short, and stood in silence. His wife, and their only colored domestic, old Aunt Dinah, were busily engaged in restorative measures; while old Cudjoe had got the boy on his knee, and was busy pulling off his shoes and stockings, and chafing his little cold feet.

      “Sure, now, if she an’t a sight to behold!” said old Dinah, compassionately; “’pears like ’t was the heat that made her faint. She was tol’able peart when she cum in, and asked if she could n’t warm herself here a spell; and I was just a askin’ her where she cum from, and she fainted right down. Never done much hard work, guess, by the looks of her hands.”

      “Poor creature!” said Mrs. Bird, compassionately, as the woman slowly unclosed her large, dark eyes, and looked vacantly at her. Suddenly an expression of agony crossed her face, and she sprang up, saying, “O, my Harry! Have they got him?”

      The boy, at this, jumped from Cudjoe’s knee, and, running to her side, put up his arms. “O, he’s here! he’s here!” she exclaimed.

      “O, ma’am!” said she, wildly, to Mrs. Bird, “do protect us! don’t let them get him!”

      “Nobody shall hurt you here, poor woman,” said Mrs. Bird, encouragingly. “You are safe; don’t be afraid.”

      “God bless you!” said the woman, covering her face and sobbing; while the little boy, seeing her crying, tried to get into her lap.

      With many gentle and womanly offices, which none knew better how to render than Mrs. Bird, the poor woman was, in time, rendered more calm. A temporary bed was provided for her on the settle, near the fire; and, after a short time, she fell into a heavy slumber, with the child, who seemed no less weary, soundly sleeping on her arm; for the mother resisted, with nervous anxiety, the kindest attempts to take him from her; and, even in sleep, her arm encircled him with an unrelaxing clasp, as if she could not even then be beguiled of her vigilant hold.

      Mr. and Mrs. Bird had gone back to the parlor, where, strange as it may appear, no reference was made, on either side, to the preceding conversation; but Mrs. Bird busied herself with her knitting-work, and Mr. Bird pretended to be reading the paper.

      “I wonder who and what she is!” said Mr. Bird, at last, as he laid it down.

      “When she wakes up and feels a little rested, we will see,” said Mrs. Bird.

      “I say, wife!” said Mr. Bird, after musing in silence over his newspaper.

      “Well, dear!”

      “She could n’t wear one of your gowns, could she, by any letting down, or such matter? She seems to be rather larger than you are.”

      A quite perceptible smile glimmered on Mrs. Bird’s face, as she answered, “We’ll see.”

      Another pause, and Mr. Bird again broke out, “I say, wife!”

      “Well! What

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